【美國】【紀錄片】大貓捕食記 Big Cat's Predation Record

Botswana, late dry season An ambush is about to take place Under the scorching heat of a late summer afternoon At a measly pool scraped into the sand Thirsty animals flock to the only watering hole for miles They are watched by hungry eyes Like all cats The lioness is an ambush predator Stalking silently on fur-lined feet Usually she hunts with her pride But today She's going it alone An ambush requires stealth But there is no cover on these plains Years of practice have taught her to become invisible She moves only when her prey is not looking This time She's failed A lone lioness succeeds only once in every five attempts But she never stops hunting A lioness is a top predator in all of Africa Feared by creatures Big and small For on the day she kills The results Are spectacular In the plains of Serengeti The lioness is queen But she doesn't rule alone Around the world close relatives Pound the mountains Bolt through the grasslands Roam the jungles And haunt the skies There are 38 species of wild cats in the world Hyper-carnivores They must eat meat or they will die That necessity has turned them into killing machines Cats are remarkably similar in body Powerful muscles Flexible spines Razor-sharp teeth And retractable claws Make them possibly the deadliest family on the planet But over 40 million years They have evolved in separate ways To live and hunt in almost any terrain And each cat Has honed its strategy to attack and hunt prey Of a specific size In the Serengeti in Africa Two big cats live side by side But each has their own hunting style Cheetahs Hunt the open plains And rely on their unparalleled speed to catch their prey For the most part Lions could not be bothered by the prey cheetahs hunt Too small Not worth the effort And usually too fast and agile to catch Lions use their strength, size and numbers To go after the big meals Buffalo Zebra Wildebeest And even giraffes When it comes to fewer power Only one cat surpasses the lion in sheer strength The tiger The strongest cat in the world And a master of the ambush Its terrain lies in the hot jungles of India From the forest floor To the treetops From the smallest species To the largest This is Tiger Kingdom Rudyard Kipling's jungle book made flesh and blood It is home to arguably the earth's most beautiful killer And she is supremely adapted to living here She may be among the largest of all cats But her stripes blend with the dappled leaves in the forest Making her roughly 300 pound bulk Almost invisible to prey Even as she eyes a familiar buffet Tigers will return to the same hunting spot time and again And watering holes are a favorite spot Today she's finding it hard to know where to start Venison Pulled pork Fresh wings She is a solitary hunter Combining power with stealth But in a forest full of eyes and ears A tiger only succeeds in one out of ten hunts She's set her sights on the cheetah deer But they're protected by the langur monkeys They may be messy eaters But they have excellent eyesight But their high vantage points They're great lookouts for the near-sighted deer The tigress would be happy with either one Like the lioness Absolute silence is her only chance A tiger can stay motionless for hours Some say even days But before she can pounce It all goes to pieces In a jungle full of trees Tigers rely more on power than speed This time she gives chase Tigers may be slower than lions But they're smarter One powerful bite to the neck Severs the deer's spine Her canine teeth act like fingers Packed with sensitive nerve endings called mechanoreceptors They feel and find the perfect place on the neck for the quickest kill It's over in seconds A tiger's bite is the strongest among all cats But pound for pound it lags behind another felid The jaguar The biggest cat in the Americas With the strongest relative bite force in the cat family The jaguar is also a forest dweller But its domain lies mainly in the Amazon in Brazil Solitary like the tiger It is an elusive cat And in these woods The jaguar navigates two worlds On land it is the undisputed king Not necessarily in the water Eight feet long crocodile-like caimans lurk in the river But the jaguar is a sturdy pit bull of a cat And an excellent swimmer It's comfortable living dangerously It's not a picky eater It'll hunt anything from monkeys to turtles And given the right opportunity He'll even go after caiman Today that opportunity Seems to be heading his way Jaguars don't go for a caiman's neck They puncture its thick hide with bites Holding up a prey this size takes all its enormous strength If it weakens it could drown Its powerful jaws stay clamped Bite force is key to its signature killing technique Unlike other cats A jaguar kills with a crushing bite to the back of the skull And into the brain And it still has the energy left to haul An over 50 pound caiman up the banks While the jaguar may love the water There is a cat better designed for it So much so he's called The fishing cat Meet the athletic underwater swimmer Of the cat family Living in India in a land of plantations and ponds The fishing cat can be found next door to humans But it is rarely seen hunting fish during the day Much larger than its domestic cousin It'll emerge when the towns fall silent And creatures of the night begin their rounds Moonlight shining on water is all it needs to start its hunt tonight Like all cats The fishing cat's eyes amplify the moonlight It can see six times better than humans in the darkness And it has other adaptations even better suited for its hunt Its slightly webbed front paws allow it to swim a good distance underwater Unlike other cats It doesn't fully sheathe its claws They stick out ready to flick or grab fish A dense double lining of fur Hugs its skin and acts like a wetsuit Keeping it warm and dry even on chilly fishing expeditions But tonight It's having little success Cats are strategic killers It's time to switch technique and find a higher vantage point Now that it can get a better look It's momentarily confused by its choices The pond teems with fish It needs one more thing to succeed Focus Its strategy is to target a single fish So it can dive in head first To grab it But it's got to time it precisely Finally, a cat that got its fish The fishing cat is an expert in a world of water But there is a cat that's the specialist in a world of sand The sand cat The only cat hardy enough to make its home in a true desert The sand cat's world Lies amidst the scorching deserts of Iran At first glance, little moves in these dunes But don't be fooled Life has found a way to take different forms out here And in the central plateau Amidst the dust and dryness Lives the sand cat Perfectly suited for taking on the desert's punishment It may be smaller than its domesticated cousin But this cat is built to withstand desert temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit If he had to move, his foot pads, covered in thick hair Provide excellent protection from the burning sands While his sturdy legs can negotiate the sifting surface of his grainy world And this desert-ready cat can survive without drinking a drop of water He gets all the moisture he needs from eating prey But first, it must find them The sand cat begins its hunt once the air is cooler It cannot rely on its eyes to locate the creatures buried in the sands So it'll find prey by digging them up So sensitive are its large ears It can detect snakes and rodents hidden below ground But it may still have to work a full night shift Before it can call it a day The sand cat's sensitive ears may help him survive the desert But there's a cat more famous for its sense of hearing The serval He has among the largest ears in the cat family And he uses them to hunt in dramatic ways The savanna of Africa is prime serval country Large herds congregate in these rich grasslands Drawing the big cats lions leopards even the cheetahs But while its cousins fuss over the big prey The serval, about half their size, stays busy picking off the smaller ones A serval racks up 16 kills in just 24 hours This is Africa's most successful killer cat And it owes it to its ability to locate prey by sound This time his ears have picked up an unfamiliar rustling Its source comes as a shock A mole snake A mole snake usually isn't on the serval's menu Is this snake's bite toxic? The serval just isn't sure The serpent's pose suggests back off But the serval ignores the warning And gets in close Luckily, his long legs fire him out of range just in time He's an oddball of a cat Designed like none other His extra large ears sit atop a giraffe-like neck And the longest legs for a cat its size They're also his secret weapon But the serval pounces like a fox on its prey And uses his powerful feet to land the killer blow But a snake can bite back So, the serval uses a different strategy One that looks no less dangerous Servals hunt snakes by using their extreme agility To rain a series of rapid blows Timing is everything A killer punch to the mole snake's head And he can eat his fill Or not The serval is an adventurous hunter But sometimes even a killer cat knows That retreat is the better form of attack The serval's agility in the grassland Is matched by a far bigger cousin The leopard It is one of the sneakiest And most versatile of predators The leopard's home front comes loaded with creatures But like other predators He has to carve out a niche to survive With lions monopolizing the plains And Nile crocs patrolling the rivers The leopard has made the treetops its domain Nimbler than the other big cats It is an excellent climber And it uses this skill to its advantage in a hunt Leopards don't just chase prey They can follow a monkey up a tree Make a 20-feet sideways leap across And pluck it off the branches Just like that And they can bolt vertically up tree trunks To catch squirrels But when it comes to a juicy fawn This female leopard Will turn her tree hunting strategy upside down This time she'll begin at the top Step one is about positioning So she can watch the action below A leopard uses gravity to hunt prey But for now it's a waiting game Which one will it be She has to time it Just right This technique is quick and efficient It's all over without a sound Only the impala alarm call Betrays that a predator is operating in the forest Leopards can hunt down over 90 different kinds of prey But there is a cat Whose diet is mostly made up of one The Canadian lynx is a one prey kind of guy So the stakes are particularly high When he takes to the hunt His hunting grounds Lie high in the mountains In a volcanic range Buried under snow But while other creatures may slow down For the winter He's a cat that comes dressed for the cold For him This is a warmer area America's Cascade Mountains Are the southern part of the range For the Canadian lynx He crosses the border whenever he likes No visa required Almost twice the size of a house cat He uses his wide furry paws like snowshoes To distribute his weight And keep him on top of the deep white powder Black tufts on his ears Amplify the sound of his prey Today he's searching for his favorite meal But hunting it down still takes time Snowshoe hares also have oversized feet for managing snow And an all-white winter coat It's the rabbit's perfect camouflage for this season But no season lasts forever The lynx is patient As spring arrives to thaw the Northwest Cascade Mountains It brings a burst of green But it's not just the landscape that changes color The snowshoe hare is getting a new outfit for the season Trading in his white coat for brown The full transition can take up to 12 weeks Until it is complete He stands out in the shadows And for him, that's a problem The lynx can spot a hare 250 feet away But he's not into running it down Instead, the lynx will bide his time Positioning himself in the shadows He will wait until the hare is close The lynx is all about a short chase Sometimes it's best to let your food do the work The lynx may be skilled in the snow But it has a look-alike that hunts in far hotter climes The caracal With one of the highest jumps in the animal kingdom You could call it the cat that flies The caracal is about the same size as a lynx But she hardly hunts like one Here in Africa, she is the largest of the small cats And also the fastest A caracal can knock down more birds in one bound Than the average house cat kills in six weeks And today she has hit the jackpot Hundreds of weaver birds are returning to their nest at the end of the day And the caracal is ready to receive them But caracals don't hunt by sight alone They use their ears She has 20 muscles in each ear That rotate them separately backward and forward To collect sounds like satellite dishes Her two-inch-long tassels are thought to filter sound waves into her ears She listens carefully to pinpoint her prey Then she jumps A caracal can leap 11 feet vertically But the nest is frustratingly out of reach Then a lone straggler flying low This could be her moment and she gives it her all But today her timing is off The cat that flies seems to be grounded But there is a cat that's ready for takeoff The cheetah The fastest animal on the planet It's a cat Born to run But not to kill Like other cats Cheetahs are not born predators They train to hunt They'll spend at least a full year learning under mom Before the big day comes when they have to hunt on their own These young cheetahs are about to put their skills to the test Today's target, a wildebeest calf No match for a cheetah's blistering 60-mile-per-hour sprint First, they must stalk within 50 yards of their target The terrain is broken, confusing for the cats And full of escape routes for the herd In the chase, a bull has become injured It's going to be four against one The four young cheetahs have the advantage But they don't know where to begin with such a big prey While they try to coordinate their attack The bull sees an opening and limps out They've lost an easy meal due to the one skill they didn't learn Teamwork Only one cat knows how that's done The lion The only team player in the entire cat family The lion has mastered a skill truly unique in the cat world The lion's trump card is the group hunt A lone lioness kills only once in five attempts Whereas a pride brings down its prey in one of three hunts Amplifying the advantages of its body size and strength A lion uses teamwork to regularly bring down a prey six times its size The cape buffalo A buffalo is the ultimate prey It weighs up to 1,500 pounds and has horns that are three feet wide from tip to tip And it's not afraid to use them Buffalo wound more lions than any other prey species So hunting this beast requires a game plan The pride will follow an age-old strategy Lions attack with the precision of a pro football team With each lion playing the same position time and time again in hunts The lions on the sides will advance up the flanks One or two lions will run interference while the lions in the center will go for the takedown Today's attack begins with the flanks trying to maneuver close They will try to separate a lone buffalo from its herd There is no margin for error The rest of the pride keeps the loner busy Working together to tire him out Before he knows it, he is surrounded The center moves in for the kill But bringing him down requires the extra 100-pound bulk of one of the big males The buffalo will take several minutes to throttle But even the herd knows it's over Teamwork is the key to this big cat's success Allowing it to rule and hunt these plains for millennia The lion isn't the most successful predator of all cats But it is the most famous of all of them Their cat-a-tactics make their hunts the most iconic acts of predation Showcasing just some of the skills and strategies their relatives use around the world In dense jungles and lonely mountaintops often hidden from human eyes