"The Namib, the world's oldest desert" "Relentless and unforgiving no one enters this world lightly" "The treacherous seas of the Skeleton Coast barricade the entire length of the desert" "It's no wonder the Namib guards its secrets well" "Lions once lived here but they were like phantoms hardly ever seen, let alone understood" "Then, more than 20 years ago they were wiped out" "Today, one man is pitting himself against the desert driven by the belief that these most extraordinary lions have started coming back" "The Namib desert is a million square miles of wilderness diamonds and garnets are here in abundance much harder to find is a blade of grass" "A few scattered animals do live here but nothing like the great herds that normally support lions" "However, 10 years ago, rumors surfaced that lions might have returned to the Namib" "Such a tantalizing mystery attracted a scientist with a rare combination of skills" "Dr. Flip Stander's great passion is lions" "He studies them, tracks them, and even thinks like them" "That was a print That was a print" "They definitely crouched down and you could see the feet placement are very careful" "You can almost see the toes are sort of pressed in." "It's like they're stretching" "And at this point, just after they get into the opening, they split up" "For months, Flip found nothing but tracks" "This was a frustrating campaign in a place where the heat is intense enough to crack a rock" "Even oryx, the hardy desert specialists and a handful of giraffes that live here have a tough time" "It was to take months of patient tracking before the elusive desert phantoms finally took shape" "He was able to put a radio collar on one lioness, then two but just following them seemed impossible" "The animals were shy and the boulder fields impassible a far cry from the Serengeti where lions can be followed easily day and night" "Flip's best hope was to take to the air" "Even this was fraught in a landscape that dwarfs everything" "Eventually, the first two lions led to more" "Flip had made a momentous discovery" "There was a surviving pride of desert lions and it had found refuge in a remote canyon" "This was the first time that anyone had been able to get a really good look at the world's most unusual lions" "It was clear from the start that their behavior was out of the ordinary" "In the first sort of 3 or 4 years" "I documented the most outrageous growth rate it was in excess of 30% per annum and all really driven by four adult lionesses the only word to describe them would be like breeding machines because that's just what they were" "Not only this, more cubs were surviving to adulthood than elsewhere in Africa" "This once-beleaguered group of lions was staging an extraordinary comeback and it allowed them to fan out into areas they hadn't been seen in for over 20 years" "In the last year," "Flip has followed some of them to the driest, most northerly part of the Namib where he's had his biggest breakthrough" "Two very relaxed young lionesses that don't run away when he gets close" "Now, at last, he has an opportunity to really get to know some lions and find out how they cope with desert life" "Their lives couldn't be more different from young lions in the Serengeti" "They are just 18 months old, an age when most lion cubs rely on a pride to get them food yet these youngsters are all alone" "They are heading for the spectacular Hoaruseb valley one of the dry rivers that cuts across the Namib desert from the mountains in the east to the Skeleton Coast in the west" "The Hoaruseb acts as a highway for animals through hostile land" "It offers respite too" "The valley benefits from rainfall hundreds of miles away" "Flash floods race through and then slowly evaporate leaving drinking water here and there" "There's enough damp ground for grass even in the dry season which draws grazers like these oryx from all over the desert" "And that's why the young lions have been drawn to this valley" "It's the very best place to hunt" "However, oryx are large with lethal horns but they aren't the only potential prey taking advantage of the Hoaruseb's watering holes" "Donkeys are much easier to catch but killing one could spell disaster for the cubs" "The donkeys belong to the Himba and Herero people whose village, Purros, lies a few miles upriver" "They are worried by the lions' return no one wants a large predator on their doorstep" "I had two donkeys, two pregnant donkeys then a lion killed both of them" "Without my donkeys, I can't go and visit my daughter or my grandchildren anymore" "Raising livestock on such marginal land is tough" "The loss of cattle, their only cash in the bank could cause financial ruin" "In the severe droughts of the 1980s desert lions killed hundreds of cows so the people shot every lion they could" "This is how desert lions were thought to have been wiped out the first time around" "Can the people of Purros afford to be tolerant towards this new generation?" "The cubs will be much safer if they learn to catch wild animals like oryx" "In the Serengeti, youngsters spend years watching how older lionesses tackle large prey" "However, it looks as though these cubs will have to teach themselves through trial and error" "They begin the stalk like seasoned hunters, using the scant cover to conceal themselves" "And they have to be incredibly quiet" "Oryx are spooked by the slightest sound" "One of the youngsters looks as though it's made a mistake, it's broken cover" "Actually, very cleverly, it's pushing the oryx towards the other lion" "An oryx is quite capable of seeing off a lion as long as the antelope stands its ground and doesn't run but will the oryx keep its nerve?" "Finally, the youngsters lose heart" "Flip suspects that desert lions hunt in a completely different way from lions on the savannah" "Without the back-up of a large pride, these youngsters have to learn to stalk more skillfully and cooperate more effectively" "They certainly can't rely on their mother for support, because right now, she is 100 miles away" "Flip is really struggling to follow her" "She travels vast distances in a home range that's 100 times bigger than those in the Serengeti" "She arrived here from the canyon refuge 10 years ago as one of the first pioneers" "She's produced two litters of cubs and is currently traveling with her eldest daughter" "Flip has a soft spot for this lioness but she didn't endear herself to the people of Purros" "As a youngster, she killed several cows and the villagers demanded Flip relocate her" "Most had never seen the lion so he decided to take her to the village where there was an uproar" "They had this lion now in front of them" "This lioness is causing them lots of trouble they must kill it" "And I looked at this situation and I just gambled" "I took a huge risk and I stood back and I said Go, kill it 'cause I thought if I interfere now and really, sort of, try and dominate the situation it's going to count against me and the lions in the long run" "And he pulled out his knife and I stood back and I just knew, I went cold" "I didn't know what was going to happen, but I said, "if you want to kill it?" "It's your lion, kill it."" "Some were fascinated by her and didn't agree" "After a fierce argument, the villagers said she could live on one condition" "As long as I monitor it and give them the information, then they're happy with it" "So, with a huge sigh of relief" "I got in the car and I motored out of there" "Flip's gamble paid off, but the lioness is hard to keep tabs on" "This year he's got the chance to put a better tracking device on her" "The darting anesthetic fails to work properly and Flip has to go out on a limb to give her a booster" "Unlike a simple radio device this GPS collar will record and store her position every two hours for the next nine months" "It will reveal what she gets up to during her long absences when she vanishes into the desert" "It's turning out to be an exceptional year in more ways than one" "It's the wettest in the Namib for 30 years" "Grazers and lions are doing well" "Flip reckons there are 80 to 100 lions scattered through the desert where only a handful was left just a decade ago" "There's a more relaxed atmosphere than the drought-ridden 1980s" "The trouble is that it's unlikely to last" "The desert constantly swings between extremes" "Lions that grow up in boom times will find it much harder to survive the next drought" "If extreme drought were to return to the Hoaruseb valley the pied crows would be the least of the youngsters' concerns" "The harder it is to find food the more tempted they might be to kill livestock and that could lead to their deaths" "Flip believes there is an alternative source of food in a drought" "It's fixed and predictable if they can find it" "To do that, the youngsters would have to cross miles of scorching wind-blasted sands to the coast" "However, lions have made this journey before and this was their reward" "The seal colony at Cape Fria" "Extraordinarily, in 1976, a pride of 14 desert lions was observed here feeding on a seal carcass and it was this predation on seals that was a turning point in Flip's life" "My first experience with the desert lions was on the beach seeing a lion feeding on a seal carcass and the impression that that left with me was just incredible" "I mean, and that's lasted for 25 years" "When the lions were wiped out in the 1980s the knowledge of this food source was lost" "Today, Flip's special female and her youngsters are the nearest lions to Cape Fria" "He hopes they'll rediscover it soon" "This is what I'm picturing I'm picturing that little group arriving on this beach in the middle of the night, hunting" "And they take one look at this and they say, "we've got this sorted!"" "The sea is rich in fish so the seals will be here year in, year out" "The colony could cushion the lion family from the boom-bust nature of desert life" "It could be their salvation" "For now, the cubs are too timid to venture very far and the Hoaruseb valley provides everything they need" "Flip has been following them for three months but only rarely does he have the chance to witness a hunt" "They've used the cover of night to outwit an oryx" "For the two youngsters this is no mean achievement" "For Flip, it's a chance to learn how their hunting skills are developing but first, he has to wait until the cubs have had their fill" "With a meal like this, they should be able to take life easy but one of the lions can't stop those crows from getting under her skin" "Two days later, Flip can get to work" "He wants to test his theory that desert lions have to be more cunning and patient than savannah lions" "This must have been an incredibly slow period of the stalk" "Because this substrate, it's all, it's very crackly, and so for her to have been stalking here, she would have had to be really careful because that weight she would have would have cracked" "She probably takes like 5 minutes to put that foot down just slowly, more pressure, more pressure and balancing on the others and then eventually goes" "This stretch of about 50m, probably could have taken an hour, easily" "She clearly didn't have a good hold on this, on the oryx" "Because her angle wasn't all that good but the second lioness had now charged from her position and she came bounding up this embankment and basically hit the gemsbok with such force" "The struggle was enormous because, even with the two lionesses on, the gemsbok was still, it didn't go down" "You can see where these bite marks, where they grabbed it under the throat, if it were the adult lionesses, there wouldn't have been such an enormous struggle because they would, they would pull it down much quicker" "so they had a struggle on their hands and the evidence is there" "The way in which they work together is impressive" "These youngsters are becoming an efficient team" "A month later and the cubs are still living on their own" "In the desert, this seems to be normal" "Many of the lions seem to live in ones or twos but this doesn't mean they're not part of a pride" "Family ties may be as strong here the relationships are just long-distance ones" "This is borne out when one day, after a 6-month absence mom and older sister show up" "The affectionate exchange of greetings is proof that these 4 lionesses are a functioning pride one that's more fluid and open than the tightly knit family groups of the Serengeti" "It's a touching reunion but it creates tension in the valley" "Now, all four lions are close to Purros and livestock" "Flip has found that lions can rise to most of the challenges of desert life the biggest obstacle to their success is people" "But if the Himba and Herero are to accept lions in their neighborhood they have to change their traditional way of life" "To an extent, this is already happening" "Some of them no longer want the struggle of raising cows on marginal land, their children would make a far easier and better living as tourist guides" "The young lions can have a vital role to play if local people see them as money spinners rather than as livestock killers" "Some communities have formed conservancies to profit from the wildlife on their land" "Flip is starting to act as a go-between matching the needs of villagers, lions and tour operators" "Tourists would pay good money to see lions in this amazing setting" "The income could help compensate for any livestock killed" "Ironing out the details is difficult and until any scheme gets off the ground the lions of the Hoaruseb aren't safe" "A mere 5 days after their family reunion the cubs are back on their own" "And this time mom has left them in a new place the Feldspar plain south of the Hoaruseb valley" "It's unfamiliar but at least there's no livestock here to lure them into trouble" "The heavy rain earlier in the year means there's more grass on the plain than normal and more oryx" "that doesn't mean hunting is all that easy out here" "The ground is so open that the best chance for these two naive youngsters may still lie with the coming of night" "The cubs are getting good at this" "This time, the smell of meat has attracted a hyena" "In most other places in Africa this means trouble" "There would soon be a whole clan of spotted hyenas trying to push them off their kill" "There are no such clans in the Namib" "The brown hyenas here are solitary so lions have very little competition and that's why the youngsters can be left to their own devices at such an early age" "The hyena will merely hang around till the cubs decide to leave" "At just over two years old, the cubs are much more confident even their play has a rougher edge" "Desert life is good for lions and the returning lions are also good for the life of the desert" "Flip is going in search of the youngsters' mother she's been wearing the collar for 9 months and the battery's beginning to fail" "He needs to find her fast" "Finally he picks up her signal in a river valley to the south of the Hoaruseb" "The detailed tracking information stored in the high-tech collar will throw light on her movements crucial data to help protect her family and the entire desert lion population" "Darting is a necessary intrusion though Flip never takes it lightly" "And for him, getting this close to lions never loses its magic" "She's beautiful" "The GPS collar, it's the first time I touch it for 9 months it's been on this lioness this whole time, and it is still working" "The LED light is still going, you can see it" "So it's been storing all this incredible information for the last 9 months" "This girl, she's the queen." "She's the queen of them all" "And this is my by far my most favorite and special lioness and she is hardcore, she takes no nonsense and she just, she lives it on the edge" "Okay, well, now we have to look at your teeth to see if you are still in a good nick" "Man, look at that, isn't that beautiful?" "Goodness, look at that" "Sorry mm, man" "Sorry, my dear Sorry, sorry, sorry..." "Shall we have a look at the claws" "Oh, they're sharp, eh?" "Look at that My goodness, it's like a needle" "Oh, especially the forefinger and the middle finger" "Oh, just really, really sharp the most amazing thing is their feet just smell so amazing It's got the nicest smell to it" "mm, sort of musky." "Just really like a sweet, sweet sort of musky smell" "What an awesome feeling to be so close" "Okay." "You be good" "He quickly discovers that his favorite lioness isn't just in good condition she's become really smart" "This is what, oh, this is incredible It means there's movements back and forth, back to Purros" "These are right in Purros through, past Purros and then she spent in the early morning between midnight and the morning and then all the way back again" "It's a great sign" "She's proving she can live right under people's noses without causing them any trouble at all" "I mean, I see this and I want, like, to have a GPS collar on every lion because the information is just phenomenal" "The following morning, there's a rare chance to watch these elusive lions for a little longer but it's a bittersweet moment" "Flip's aware that until all the local people support the return of the lions his favorite lioness will never be safe" "News from the Hoaruseb valley gives him even more concern the youngsters have found their way back" "Unlike their mother, they haven't had time to work out how to steer clear of people and livestock and this time they're exploring upriver towards Purros" "Just 5 miles from the village, they head into big trouble" "Donkeys have been bred to be docile and they have no instinct of how to escape" "No animal has a concept of restraint, predators least of all" "These last 45 minutes could be their undoing and it puts Flip in a really awkward position" "He doesn't want the cubs killed but keeps his promise to inform the village" "These two young lions are very important to your conservancy but if these lions kill any of your livestock, you know you can shoot them if they cause problems" "And it is not for me to say or ask for you not to shoot them, that's your decision" "And all I'm saying to you is before people shoot them if they kill livestock, you've got to think very carefully" "Those two lions were born here, they are used to this area and that's very valuable" "The lions have a lucky break since the donkeys were living wild the community decides to be lenient, this time" "However, a lot of people in Purros are twitching and the lions don't help matters by remaining close to the village" "As night falls, the situation turns into a crisis the cubs head straight towards the village" "This could be disastrous for the cubs dangerous for the people and jeopardize everything Flip worked so hard for" "So much is at stake that Flip even enlists help from a local tourist lodge" "I think you should drive past us now and you go to the village," "Purros and you're going to tell the people that the lions are lying here and we're watching them very carefully and tell them if they come anywhere close to the village, we'll dart them, just so that they know and see that it's not just us favoring the lions at their expense" "The collared lioness is flicking her tail a lot, just look at her now, she's going to... just stalking each other" "The lions are just a quarter of a mile from the village when Flip decides to intervene by broadcasting a lion roar, he hopes the cubs will be distracted" "Okay, just tell us when they leave" "The lions are running downriver Okay, one time, let's go Everything's done" "At first, it's not clear whether his plan is working" "It looks like they're turning around and coming back into the river" "I'm just watching them carefully I can barely see them, so I'll get back to you when I know" "Thankfully, as the cubs turn back down the river and away from the village" "Flip can relax" "Even so, he stays with them until he's sure they're well out of danger watch, watch, watch" "The next day is like a new beginning" "not only have the cubs left Purros behind they've traveled a long way downriver farther than ever before" "They're exploring the dunes and rocky cliffs just 7 miles from the coast" "This desert has so much to offer them elsewhere in Africa, lions are hemmed-in by national park boundaries" "But here, in one of the continent's last great wildernesses there's still plenty of room to expand" "It's been a long journey to get this far but now Flip dares to think big" "One day he hopes lions will be established down the entire length of the Skeleton Coast from Angola to south Africa" "Knowing that lions can survive and live in the northern Namib desert" "I think that's what really drives me but being here and being present to observe lions come to a beautiful area like this would make me smile for the rest of my life" "These animals have been a revelation to Flip" "The desert has shaped their behavior and social structure in extraordinary ways" "They are so lean, fit and smart that, quite simply, these are the most beautiful lions he's ever seen" "If lions and people can learn to live alongside each other the big cats will have found the best and certainly their most unusual sanctuary in the whole of Africa" "Next week's Natural World tells us a surprising conservation success story from Gabon in the heart of Africa" "Over 10% of the country's rainforest is now protected in a series of national parks home to an abundance of wildlife, including elephants, gorillas and seafaring hippos"