The End of the Road?

S01 E02 • Wednesday, Mar 30, 2011 • Mar 30

The lion's social nature makes it both complicated and fascinating. Lion expert and BBC Big Cat presenter, Jonathan Scott, has lived in Kenya, in East Africa, and watched the most famous lion pride in the world, the Marsh Pride, for more than 30 years. With the help of the latest lion research from Professor Craig Packer and his team at the Serengeti Lion Project, Jonathan takes a fresh look at the lions he knows so well. He reveals why male lions have a mane, why murderous step-fathers are an important part of lion family life and discovers why being social brings unique challenges for the survival of the species as a whole. Living in prides once helped the lion to be the most widespread land mammal on Earth after humans, but now it could be their downfall as they are increasingly restricted to small parts of Africa.