50 kilos heavier and a whole head longer than a lion,
the tiger is the world's uncontested super-cat.
And yet, despite the armies of cameramen who have come to film these breathtaking animals,
there is one event that has eluded almost all of them.
The hunting behaviour of lions and cheetahs has been recorded many times,
but documenting a tiger kill has proved almost impossible.
Today, there are twice as many tigers in captivity in America as there are in the jungles of India
Tigers are facing extinction in the wild, and with their catastrophic decline,
the opportunity to document the central event of their predatory lives is becoming harder and harder.
I'm Simon King. I'm a wildlife film-maker,
and I've been invited by Indian cameraman and tiger specialist Alphonse Roy
to try and capture one of nature's most elusive moments.
For the past 20 years, I've been lucky enough to film wildlife all over the world,
but this is the first time I've ever been to India.
For me, the supreme moment in the natural world is predation.
To some, this may seem bloodthirsty.
But never do you see an animal at full stretch,
as you do when a predator and prey are put to the ultimate test of survival.
This is when millions of years of evolution are tested.
The chaos of it all, and out there, I know there are tigers.
I think that's our train!
I've come to India to see if my experiences filming predation in other parts of the world,
and with other species, can transfer to a totally unfamiliar setting and a very different beast.
I've done some packing exercises in my time, but this one takes the biscuit!
I've got a month to try and film a tiger kill.
No-one touches the big lens.
Nine...ten.
I'm heading 500 miles due south from Delhi into the Deccan Plateau of central India.
A peaceful night's sleep(!)
16 hours!
Filming a tiger kill will be a huge challenge,
but, travelling across India, I'm quite frankly amazed there are any tigers left at all.
India is a nation of one billion people.
There are simply fewer and fewer places left where a tiger can live and hunt.
...to visit all the community.
'As the scale of the task ahead sinks in, it's good to know that I'm not doing this alone.'
For the past 17 years, Alphonse Roy has been visiting Bandhavgarh tiger reserve.
He's probably filmed more tiger footage than anyone else alive.
TIGER GROWLS
But despite the many thousands of hours he's spent amongst tigers,
Alphonse has never filmed a tiger catching a meal.
THEY GROWL SOFTLY
THEY ROAR
I'm very obsessed with it,
because I've been trying to shoot a tiger making a kill for so many years,
come close, very close to it, for twice or thrice, but haven't got it on film.
It's like er...trick or treat.
It's an excuse for the kids to just have fun.
DRUMMING, SHOUTING AND SINGING
I have arrived on a very auspicious day.
This is Holi, the Hindu festival of colour, which marks the end of winter and the start of summer.
It's a day when all differences are set aside.
I've been thrown in at the deep end into a very exotic, utterly unfamiliar world.
SOUNDS OF THE FESTIVAL FADE
Bandhavgarh lies at the geographical heart of India,
and has, for centuries, been one of the best places in the world to encounter tigers.
Tigers are undoubtedly India's most charismatic animals,
and getting permission to film in these reserves is, not surprisingly, very strictly controlled.
Woo!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Hah. I've just got back into camp and been handed this illegible fax,
which apparently constitutes our permission. We have... Happy Holi.
Happy Holi, sorry to ignore you.
Happy Holi.
We now have permission to go into the park and to see tigers for the first time,
so it really is a happy Holi.
While Alphonse goes off to scout the jungles and gather information, I prepare cameras and equipment.
We've got so much kit, it's coming out of our ear-holes.
After 17 years, Alphonse has developed his own unique methods,
including his trusty elephant tripod -
quite a contraption to sit on close to one of the world's most powerful hunters.
These meadows are ruled over by a tigress called Chakra.
Alphonse has filmed Chakra's mother, and even her grandmother,
but in all that time, he's never seen a tigress bring four cubs up to maturity.
I'm used to seeing prides of up to 30 lions,
but a family of five tigers is something very special, even to Alphonse.
They may be almost fully grown, but the cubs still rely on their mum to bring home dinner.
We couldn't have arrived at a better time.
This hungry family will depend on Chakra's hunting skills, and so will we.
ELEPHANT RUMBLES
40 percent of the world's tiger habitats have disappeared in the last ten years.
Bandhavgarh is a reminder of how so much of India once was.
At dawn, this is a place of true magic.
ELEPHANT RUMBLES
I'm entering tiger country for the first time in my life.
PEACOCK CRIES
Look! This is the male cub, this is the male cub. There's a cub! Can you see?
Not only am I looking at my first wild tiger,
this is one of Chakra's cubs, the family we'll be following, AND it's on a kill.
What a palaver!
Nothing can prepare you for the thrill of seeing your first wild tiger at close range.
That is magnificent!
You think you know a tiger from watching them on films,
from looking at them in photographs, but I can tell you now,
the first time you see one in the flesh, in the wild,
it contains a majesty and a power that...
is unsurpassed.
These animals, these tigers are not unlike leopards in their hunting strategy,
because this cat has clearly used very thick cover to make the kill.
But what is really, really encouraging is that it's been made on the edge of this meadow area.
What is also very clear, is that trying to record a kill, using this method,
is going to be...impossible.
The amount of movement, the amount of sound, the amount of disturbance that we've already created,
would have sent a herd of deer running a long time ago.
So we're just going to take a little move,
and check out where, perhaps, the mother is, or some of the other cubs.
There's the adult, sleeping like a baby.
The markings are exquisite.
I think for that reason alone, this must rank as the single most beautiful big cat in the world.
Large numbers of tourists may detract from the intimacy of a tiger sighting,
but it's a small price to pay.
Without tourists, it's unlikely any tigers would survive in the wild for long.
Alphonse has asked me to help him document a kill.
I'm pretty sure it's not going to happen with so many witnesses present.
I mean, we are,
the same as anybody trying to get a view of this cat, and yet we're part of a...
of a pressure group, if you like, that are moving in on her,
when really my instinct says, "Pull back, leave her be."
After 17 years of near misses,
I need to work out what Alphonse needs to do differently in order to film a tiger kill.
And to do this, I need to immerse myself in this unfamiliar world.
WARTHOG GRUNTS
HIGH, FRENETIC BIRDSONG
PEACOCKS CRY
I'm a guest here, I'm a guest at the invitation of Alphonse.
I'm humbled in his presence, he's a magnificent film-maker.
He's recorded events with tigers that nobody else has witnessed, let alone filmed.
But I have been invited here to help record that missing link in their lives -
hunting behaviour.
My experiences elsewhere, perhaps, can lend something to this exercise.
It may seem to some people,
that the desire to film or record animals killing other animals is a little morbid.
The truth is, whenever you witness a kill, yes, it can be disturbing.
You know it's a life being taken,
but there is a fundamental beauty,
to that terminal, that final embrace, which is unparalleled.
Tigers hunt alone, with none of the advantages a pride of lions can bring to the chase.
For a solitary cat, the ambush is everything.
The prey species have evolved extraordinary defences -
acute hearing, eyesight, and sense of smell.
Watching one of Chakra's inexperienced cubs hunting,
it's very clear that without surprise on their side, any tiger is facing very long odds.
DEER GIVES ALARM CALL
I do believe that we can record something special,
and, perhaps, that's never been seen before, by adopting entirely new methods,
that have no effect on the cats whatsoever.
WATER SPLASHES
Water holes are always a good place to meet the locals.
Predators know this, too.
PEACOCKS CRY
While Alphonse is off tracking down the tigers,
I've decided to put up a tree platform and wait and see what happens.
We know that Chakra and her family come here quite often.
PEACOCKS CRY
We've got one of our tree platforms in position overlooking this water hole.
You can see they're a frequent visitor because they use this tree as a scratching post,
just like your kitten at home, but...these aren't your average kitten.
This is where they come to stretch, exercise and maybe even clean their claws,
and er...you can see the grooves in this bark made by their claws are phenomenally deep.
It's a little bit sobering to see that some of the scratch marks reach to the same height as my platform,
so I'm gonna have to keep an eye on them.
PEACOCKS CRY
FLURRY OF BIRD CALLS
PEACOCK CRIES
Typically, while Alphonse searches in another corner of the park, the entire family pays me a visit.
Although tigers don't have the climbing skills of leopards...
TIGER GROWLS
..I know from those claw marks that I'm not out of reach.
If this tiger wanted to join me, it could do it in a flash.
The cubs seem unperturbed by anything,
but I know their carefree world is about to be turned upside down.
Over the past 14 months, Chakra has seen to their every need.
But tigers aren't social cats and, very soon, she'll simply abandon them,
leaving them to make their own way in the jungle.
Even though the edges of the pool are fairly open, the jungle soon crowds in.
I realise a kill could be happening just a few feet from me,
and I wouldn't be able to get my camera onto it.
We're going to need as much visibility as possible,
and the open grasslands of the meadows are looking more and more attractive.
This is the killing field we've been looking for.
We've noticed an old forestry watchtower with a great panoramic view of the grasslands.
This is perfect.
Totally inconspicuous, we're not going to disturb anything from up here.
Anything. Completely.
Look at this stag. He's so preoccupied with the girls,
he's just walking through the long stuff.
What we don't want to happen now is a kill.
I've seen them many times on a kill in these grasslands.
Right here I've seen it and I've seen them as well on all the terrains, it's quite equally spread.
And because of this group of tigers - the mother with four cubs - the chances are fairly high for us.
I would say this is camera position number one.
The moment they go off into the forest, we may as well let them go.
Exactly. So we wait for events in this sort of clearing and then work that to the best of our ability.
Above all, we're out of the way of people and we won't disturb anything, I love it.
And I can have a flask...
and a sandwich.
Different cameramen have different approaches to their subject.
The tower gives me a bird's-eye view of Alphonse and a chance to study his methods.
Over the years,
he's perfected a strategy, using a combination of a forestry elephant and a 14-foot tripod.
He's documented some extraordinary behaviour.
It's stuff I'd never see from up here with my sit-and-wait tactics.
Alphonse has moved into the territory of another tigress, Chakra's sister,
who has a much younger litter of cubs.
Inevitably, the tigress must leave the cubs when she goes off to hunt,
and it's now that they face the greatest danger.
While mother's away, the jungle is full of opportunists.
CUB GROWLS FEEBLY
The limestone cliffs of Bandhavgarh are honeycombed with caves,
some of them natural, others that were excavated by holy men and hermits millennia ago.
As the tigress returns to the den, she clearly senses something isn't right.
TENSE, SYNCOPATED MUSIC PLAYS
MUSIC BUILDS TO CLIMAX AND STOPS
BEAR ROARS AND PANTS VIOLENTLY
TIGER GROWLS
A tiger's diet includes bear, but with her priorities to her cubs, she won't risk any injury.
I've never before seen something like this.
It is an extraordinary and rare moment,
but it's becoming clear to me that if it is a tiger kill we're after,
the elephants are not the answer to our quest.
CAMERA WHIRRS
They love the water, which is very unlike African lions.
CAMERA CLICKS
Hi, Simon.
I manage to persuade Alphonse to give up the elephants for a day and come up to the tower with me.
And we are rewarded almost immediately.
CRICKETS CHIRP
DEER GIVES ALARM CALL
It is a very near miss and persuades me that we must concentrate our energies here.
And then, just when I thought we've found the perfect spot, everything stops.
Reports come back that Chakra has taken her family high up onto the plateau.
Until they decide to come down again, there's nothing to do except wait, and explore.
Bandhavgarh has one of the highest concentrations of tigers anywhere in India.
This may, ironically, owe a lot to the region's origins
as the hunting reserve of the Maharajahs of Riva.
Hunting tigers was the ultimate privilege, a right that was jealously guarded by local rulers.
In the past, every self-respecting Maharajah would have shot 109 trophies.
That was considered to be the lucky number.
A week later, and Chakra and her family are still nowhere to be seen.
And with no sign of them, Alphonse decides it's time to adopt some extraordinary local measures.
Alphonse explains how in Hindu mythology,
Brahma is the giver of life, while Shiva is the destroyer.
Between the two lies Vishnu, the preserver.
At the foot of the plateau, a massive granite statue of Vishnu has slept for 1,200 years.
It's here that offerings are traditionally made and when in Rome, as they say...
Hinduism's reverence for life provided the world
with its first green manual for coexistence.
Vishnu says, "All creatures are like jewels in a necklace beaded to me."
The tiger is the central thread that binds this ecosystem.
If the tiger disappears, then everything falls apart.
Tigers are crepuscular - they hunt at dusk and dawn.
Now, new technology is allowing us to peer into this last dark corner of the tiger's life.
This is the thermal imaging camera, Alphonse, and if I pan it across the meadow...
Oh, what are these? This is the deer, these are cheetah,
which you can just see now with the naked eye, but here they are glowing red.
We know this is deer. If you panned around and you suddenly picked up a cat shape,
you'd know that it was on its way,
so particularly from this vantage point, it gives us a real opportunity to spot what's going on.
Classic! It's fun, isn't it?
CAMERA WHIRRS
BIRDS CRY
These thermal images have their own surreal beauty,
but, more importantly, they'll help us at first light find out what's going on in the meadow below.
An unmistakable outline, but this isn't Chakra.
Male tigers patrol huge territories, and this one's just passing through.
Chakra's family are back and what a spot to find them.
TIGER GROWLS
Time is running out. I've only got another week here in Bandhavgarh,
before I have to leave for another filming assignment in Scotland,
a world away from all this.
As I'm wondering how best to persuade Alphonse to stop following Chakra on elephant-back,
events take their own course.
He's just witnessed the Chakradhar female making a kill, really close to the elephant he's using,
but he hasn't managed to film it, and I'm not sure why. Oh...
Poor guy, he must feel...gutted.
At three points, we were there, perfect, we were there. It was going fine.
But at the fourth place, we had this chital give the alarm call,
and in a flash, we were just considering...
Because we're in the moving elephant, the tiger's moving, you know.
DEER GIVE ALARM CALLS
It's just that I'm not lucky. I mean...
He's invested so much of his time, his energy, his passion, in these animals,
and to come so close and have it slip through your fingers is agonising.
I'm really uncomfortable working with the elephants.
I just don't think we're going to see what we want to see with hunting, using it at the moment.
I don't know if you're comfortable with this idea,
but I would much rather we used the elephants to spot the cats in the first place,
and then pull out, don't be near them, don't sit watching them.
Right, right. The stalking - this particular female, the way she's doing it -
she is doing it by the edge of the forest, and chital are usually living on the edge of the forest,
between the forest and the grassland. Perfect. Let's do it.
ELEPHANT TRUMPETS
Ever since the missed kill, I feel Alphonse and I have turned a corner.
The elephants are now only being used for tracking,
and all our energies are focused on the tower and toward one goal.
ELEPHANT RUMBLES
DEER CRIES
I've got very little time left here in India, just a few days left,
and I am sure, that, even if I don't get it, then Alphonse will in the very, very near future,
and particularly, if we can deploy some of the methods we've been honing over the past week or so.
I, personally, would love to witness that event,
but if Alphonse manages to record it and I see it later,
I'll be even more delighted because he's spent so many years following these beautiful cats.
He knows them intimately, he knows them as individuals.
It's my last visit to the tower.
Go ahead.
'Simon, I was heading back to say farewell to you,
'but I just got this message that they've found all the four cubs and the mother together.'
That's amazing.
So all five back in the same space.
Alphonse, as you know, I've got a lot of packing to do, and I'm not gonna be able to stay around.
Er...good luck. It's been a tremendous pleasure,
and, um...look forward to catching up with you soon. Over.
'Thank you, Simon. I'm really feeling bad that I am not able to come and say bye to you,
'and if I ever caught a kill from that tower,
'I will name the tower in your honour, and call it Simon King Tower.'
That's very sweet of you, Alphonse, thank you and, er...it's going to happen and you'll see it from here.
Good luck, speak to you soon, over.
'Bye.'
I hate this moment where I have to pull away from a place,
that I've grown to understand a little and to begin to love.
And especially when you're working with such charismatic creatures as tigers.
I came here with the ambition to see one.
That ambition has blossomed and developed into watching much more intimate elements of their lives,
so I'm gonna leave here with, um...very mixed emotions.
Summer has set in, temperatures are rising to the high 40s,
but Alphonse tells me the hotter it gets, the better his chances.
The tigers don't go up to the plateau any more.
That has turned, under the sun, into a huge, rocky radiator, hot both by day and night.
Under the branches, the jungles are muggy and oppressive.
Only in the open grasslands do welcome breezes bring relief to the herds.
The killing fields are crowded.
As I thought of Alphonse on his tower, I began to realise what a daunting task we'd set ourselves,
and exactly why filming a tiger kill has eluded so many for so long.
Massive human pressure and loss of habitat
has seen tiger populations fall by more than 90%.
Today, hunting has been replaced by poaching to still further reduce their numbers.
The dense undergrowth of the Indian jungle and the tiger's solitary, semi-nocturnal lifestyle,
combines to make the possibility of seeing
one of the remaining 2,000 or so tigers left in the wild actually make a kill, very remote.
But I also knew that Chakra was a formidable hunter.
ALPHONSE SPEAKS TO HIS COLLEAGUES
She's got it, man, she's got it!
I'm feeling top of the world, man!
PHONE RINGS
Hi, Alphonse? 'Simon, we got the kill, we got the kill this morning.' Ha-ha! That is such good news!
Yeah, it's the female. It's the Chakradhar female.
She came there in the morning. She came into the grassland and then we just climbed up the watchtower,
and we looked out and the tigress was standing there in the centre of the grassland. Amazing.
Then she walked away, straight towards the forest.
We thought, that's the end of the game and she was moving away.
And that's when suddenly, she went, caught it,
and held it for probably two or three minutes.
Then she carried the kill, walked out, majestically out, in the grassland, then took it undercover.
I mean, we were shell-shocked.
17 years, Alphonse... Yeah. ..you got it!
Thanks a lot for the call, Simon. Yep, you're a star. Well done.
Blimey!
I know of only one other clear shot of a tiger kill.
Alphonse's determination has been rewarded, documenting this elusive, fleeting moment.
In doing so, he's added an important layer to our appreciation and understanding
of these beautiful, but critically endangered, animals.
Next week, Natural World follows two white predators,
gyr falcons and Arctic wolves,
as they struggle to raise families during the brief Arctic summer.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk