Wild journey

THE efforts of British conservationist David Youldon to help stop the decline in numbers of African lions are chronicled in a new six-part documentary series Lion Country.

He’s become involved with a project at the African Lion and Environmental Research Trust in Zimbabwe. The centre runs a controversial programme designed to halt their declining numbers by helping captive-bred lions to develop the skills they need to survive in the wild.

Their human handlers face the daunting task of establishing their position as leader of the pride in order to work with the lions and draw out their natural predatory instincts.

“We believe that the hunting instinct is already there, it just needs the opportunity to develop,” explains Youldon.

The trust plans to introduce the lions into 10,000-acre enclosures and withdraw all human contact, forcing the creatures to hunt for themselves.

In years to come, they hope the lions will breed and pass on the skills they have learned to their cubs, which will be released back into the wilds of Africa.

This first part takes a look at the work being undertaken at the trust’s main base at Antelope Park in Zimbabwe, and meets five-month-old lion cubs Jabari and Jelani.

The pair are in the earliest stages of the release programme, and as their mother was raised in captivity, it falls to Youldon Tonight’sTV By Steve Pratt email: steve.pratt@nne.co.uk to teach them the skills they need to survive in the wild.

“Jabari is very much the bolder of the two,” says the conservationist, who takes the cubs for daily walks in the bush. “He tends to lead, and Jelani is very, very easily frightened at this point and definitely tends to follow.”

He leads the cubs into open scrub land, where they see impala for the first time – an African antelope high on the menu for wild lions.

“The natural instinct is to be interested and, at this age, they are not going to do much more than just watch and learn,” he says. He explains that will soon all change. “Each time they see a herd of impala, they will feel a bit more confident, and probably in a couple of months’ time, they will actually start walking towards them, that’s how hunting instinct is developed.”

It’s a bold plan, but he and his colleagues hope it will pay off, enabling them to put a stop on the lions’ rapid descent towards total extinction in the wild.

He has high hopes for Jabari and Jelani. “It’s very, very early days, but by two-and-a-half years old they should be well seasoned hunters.

“It’s a long journey for them, but just from this morning, showing interest in the impala that we’ve met, they’ve started that journey.”

ADOG, so they tell us, is man’s best friend. Horizon: The Secret Life of the Dog reckons there may be a scientific explanation for this unique relationship as it explores the latest research into human/canine relationships.

New findings suggest the bond between both species is controlled by a hormone also responsible for bonding mothers to their babies.

The programme examines why scientists are investigating the canines more than ever, from the latest fossil evidence to the sequencing of the genome, and how the animals might be able to perceive people’s emotions as well as helping to identify genes for human diseases.

ANCIENT Egypt with its stories of murder, intrigue and mummies continue to fascinate the world.

And there are still new stories and legends to be examined in the cold light of the 21st Century.

The Pharaoh Who Conquered the Sea has archaeologist Cheryl Ward and a team of experts setting out to recreate a legendary Egyptian expedition that saw Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt’s first female pharaoh, sending a fleet of ships to an unknown distant land, as they try to prove that the ancient civilisation had the tools and scientific knowledge to navigate the seas.