Tiger - Spy in the Jungle [2008] [DVD]

This DVD (from the BBC series) is truly stunning. It grabs your heart from the first minute and doesn't let go until the end and beyond. It is the story of a female tiger in India and her 4 cubs (2 girls, 2 boys) from when they are 10 days old and we follow them through babyhood, adolesence and watch them as they make their first steps to becoming independent. Most of the filming is done by "trunkcam" which are log shaped cameras that elephants carry on their trunks as they wander through the jungle. The cubs don't seem at all phased by them and indeed are sometimes so intrigued that they get so close that one trunkcam ends up submerged in the pool and being tossed around by an over excited tiger cub!

The DVD is a story, narrated by David Attenborough, rather than bitesize chunks about various animals. It's narrated cleverly so that we feel compelled to keep watching the tigers as they go about their daily business. There are some very funny parts and some sad parts but ultimatley it is a joy to watch them develop into adulthood. I may be bisaed as I am a tiger fanatic but I would wholeheartely recommend this DVD to all.

This captivating series follows a family of Indian tigers from when the cubs are 10 days old to when they reach maturity. Using modern filming techniques (and disguised cameras carried by elephants), this film gets amazingly close to the tigers, their prey and their rivals, and captures their hunting and family behaviour in ground-breaking detail. There are fewer than 3500 Indian tigers left alive in the wild, and this is probably the best footage we'll ever see of a young family.

The narration is top-notch as usual from David Attenborough, although the infatuation with 'rock cam' and 'trunk cam' and the like is getting a bit old. However the pictures are well worth the techno-wheez, because we see the four cubs from their earliest days in intimate close-up. It's unusual for a tiger litter to be this big, and the young mother has real trouble keeping all four of them under control (even when they can hardly walk straight!)
The filming and script are unsentimental, if a little bit dramatic to keep things pepped up. In fact the tiger cubs are under constant threat. They live on a wildlife reserve but even so must be protected from poachers. The only protection from other animals is their mother, who must hunt for herself and the cubs, and keep away leopards and jackals, and fend off any strange male adult tigers. She also has to do a formidable amoutn of hunting to keep the cubs from starving, and it's fascinating to watch her stalking, chasing and -- sometimes -- actually catching the deer she regularly preys upon.

OK, so if you've seen many wildlife films then you're used to the life cycle of a tiger and there are no great shocks here. But the level of depth is remarkable; the cubs are utterly unafraid of the cameras and frolic around next to them, swimming in pools to beat the summer heat. The cameras also capture the other animals which share their territory -- monkeys, deer, sloth bears and red dogs and more.
The series follows the family for two years as the cubs grow to maturity, and survive the threats from their surroundings and other animals. Finally the play fights turn to real aggression and the family has to break up, so that the young tigers can find territories of their own. If you aren't moved by their story then your heart has indeed turned to stone. Watch it before they are all gone...
9/10

Covering 2 years in the life of a tigress and her 4 cubs, this 3 part documentary is truly - well- amazing. I'm so pleased that it remains unsentimental- the only tiger with a name is the father, "Charger" (after his unnerving habit of charging the film crew). (I just couldn't watch Meerkat Manor which I found cloyingly anthropomorphic). Yes it does slightly overplay the tension in the 3 episodes (will their mother return after a mysterious absence to catch them dinner?). But injury from territorial scraps with other tigers is a real threat to survival- as evidenced in the documentary. It's quite astounding that these cubs grow so quickly, yet are incapable of learning to catch their own food for such a long period of time- in fact they bounce around interfering with their mother's stealthy attempts, setting off the deer alarm calls.

It's great that technology presumably derived from the robotic equipment developed to explore Mars is being targeted at a better understanding of this planet and its vanishing inhabitants. The film crew use both static, elephant held and remotely controlled self propelling cameras to catch intimate shots of the tigers and other inhabitants of the park. One seeming problem is that most of the resident wildlife likes to check out its reflection in the camera lens- and one of the cubs wasn't adverse to giving a camera a dip in the pool.

When the cubs grow and start scrapping you suddenly see the unleashed raw power of what started as bundles of fluff tumbling uncontrollably down rocks. You wouldn't want to meet one of them unexpectedly. Yet you so admire their strength and beauty. Also available by the same production company are Spy In The... Complete featuring lions, bears and elephants and a two parter Trek: Spy On The Wildebeest [2007] .