Desperate Lioness Searching For Missing Cubs - Predator Perspective.

The second of the lionesses to give birth is the youngest, the daughter. She's a first-time mom, new to the challenges of motherhood. She's made a den in some thick bushes, but she's chosen badly. It's too near the river, which is a magnet for wildlife, including leopards and hyenas. The pride needs to control rival predators. The males are playing their part, building walls of sound and smell around the pride. The youngest mother, on her way to her den, is nervous. She can smell that a leopard passed by recently. A dried gully provides a hidden roadway, used by the female leopard as cover. There's no shared maternal understanding between these two predators. They'll both kill to protect their cubs. The leopard is focused on hunting impala, but the hunter has become the hunted. The lioness has made it clear who's boss around here. She returns to feed her cubs in the den. Something's wrong. Hyenas. She can smell them. One is still around and has something in the grass. The den is empty. With hyenas around, her three cubs would instinctively keep quiet and stay hidden. She patrols the line of bushes back and forth. After hours of desperate searching, she finally gives up. Most first litters die. It's tough, but what shapes a good mother is bitter experience. She roars for her pride, for her dead cubs. In frustration or loneliness or despair. Roar.