(upbeat music) - I love big cats because they are explosive and they're really like breathtakingly beautiful.

(upbeat music) Five things you should know about lions, they're bigger than you think, the closer they get to you, they just seem to be magnified.

- The claws of lion are retractable, that means they can choose to pull them in or take them out.

- Lipid skeleton is almost the same as a lion except it has one additional bone, which enables it to climb and suspend its body.

- Cheetah are the fastest land animal.

They can go up to 70 miles an hour, and they also accelerate faster than most supercars, so they can go from naughts to 60 in just three seconds.

- Cheetahs are not actually diurnal or nocturnal strictly speaking, they are what is termed crepuscular, so their activity peaks are a dusk and dawn, (upbeat music) (singer vocalizing) - I love big cats because they show affection to one another and they already do support each other, especially the lions.

- It's like having a house cat around, they are pretty much the same thing just in a bigger body.

(upbeat music) - They are the apex predator.

A little lion you would see being kicked by his mother or his brother.

In furious time, he's the king.

When he walks through the trails in the savanna, every single animal is running away.

- I'm not sure that lions are the king of the jungle.

I think that they think they are just because they're the most vocal and the most dominant in the area.

- I've got two problems with the statement of lions being the king of the jungle.

Number one, you don't find lions in the jungle, so that's important, and the concept of a king, because if anything rules this place, it's elephants.

Lions, no, don't qualify as king of the jungle.

(upbeat music) The big male leopards, they are hardcore.

- I guess in theory, I'd have to say that lions are just because they are the most powerful of big cats, but what I really want to say is cheetah because they're the underdogs of the big cat world and they still manage to thrive and survive.

- If there was a fight, if there was a wrestling match between leopard, lion and cheetah, lion wins.

(upbeat music) - It's true that cats always land on their feet.

- When it comes to leopards, a 100%.

I've seen leopards accidentally fall out of trees while sleeping and somehow still manage to land on their feet.

- I've seen them climb up trees and fall, and it's actually turn mid air and land on their feet.

- That's doesn't apply to lions.

I've seen lions falling out of maybe not a big tree, just the other day, six foot tree and this lion landed on its side, definitely not on its feet.

I think lions just aren't designed to kind of go up.

(upbeat music) - It depends on the cat.

(laughing) Some of the cats, I think, do have nine lives, and then others are just maybe not so much.

Some of these cats, they act as if they've got nine lives and that's part of their success.

- I don't think it's true that cats have nine lives, I think they probably have a lot more than that.

- Do cats have nine lives?

Strangely, the big cats don't, but house cats do.

(upbeat music) - One of the most surprising things that I've seen during our time filming here is Tsebe and another lion stealing a kill directly from the mouth of a crocodile.

- The most surprising thing I've seen while filming is lions climbing up a tree.

- The most surprising thing that I've filmed during this production has been some of the lioness using water as camouflage.

It's the most incredible thing I've ever seen from lions.

(upbeat music) (singer vocalizing) - The future of lions in Africa can be best summarized by saying it's uncertain with every passing year, there are fewer and fewer lions left in the wild.

- I'm very optimistic, people are showing care, conservation is working really hard.

I can only project that the numbers will grow back again.

- Big cats can survive and they can thrive when they are left alone and given the space that they need.

They can be successful, and that's in the face of an ever changing environment.

- The conservation status of lions in Botswana is doing incredibly well.

We've created a safe haven, the Okavango Delta, where we have got multiple prides, 1,000s of lion living the same way they did 100s of years ago.

- And they really, really do thrive and get to live their life to the fullest out here.

I hope the world is able to stay the way it is and we get to keep these animals around for as long as possible.

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