The night.
A shadowy world that hides more than half the animals on our planet.
Until now, cameras only offered a glimpse into their lives.
But with next-generation technology,
we can see the night as clear as day.
With cameras a hundred times more sensitive than the human eye...
we can now capture the beauty of night...
in color.
Alien landscapes.
Strange creatures brought to life by the darkness.
Unseen behaviors.
Now we can follow the lives of animals
in Earth's last true wilderness.
The night.
Another day draws to a close across Kenya's Maasai Mara.
A last refuge for Africa's lions.
The grasslands here are home to three generations of a small family.
Six adolescents.
A pride male.
And one devoted mother.
The lioness.
She has three new cubs.
At ten weeks old,
her youngsters are too small to defend themselves...
but big enough to get into trouble.
The coming weeks will test this mother more than ever.
Only around one in three cubs make it through their first year.
By day, the lioness must rest.
Because as the sun sets...
her work begins.
Lions are largely nocturnal...
living out 80% of their lives after dark.
We've never been able to tell the full story
of a lioness and her family at night.
But for the first time,
low-light cameras can see their moonlit world...
in color.
This astonishing new way of seeing the night
offers a whole new understanding of lion family life.
At the start of the night,
one important member of the family is absent.
The pride male is out on patrol.
His job is to protect his 40-square-kilometer territory
from rival lions.
His roar is a warning call
that travels further at night when the air is cool.
Bellowing at over a hundred decibels...
he can be heard eight kilometers away.
It's clearly exhausting work.
But he gives it everything he's got...
to keep his family safe in the darkness.
Protected by the male,
the lioness's first job of the night is to feed her cubs.
At ten weeks old,
cubs are entirely dependent on milk from their mother
and can each drink up to a liter a night.
Once she's fed them...
she lets them play with their older brothers and sisters in the moonlight.
Lions aren't just more active at night.
They're also more social.
The cubs might be small, but they're already learning to play fight.
But if things get too boisterous...
the lioness steps in.
Playtime...
is over.
As the most experienced female, the lioness must feed the whole pride.
But she can't hunt with her cubs in tow.
To the human eye...
it's almost pitch black.
But our cameras show...
that to hunt for her family,
her only option is to abandon her cubs.
With her little ones unguarded...
the lioness knows she must work fast.
Lions are known for hunting as a pride.
But tonight...
the lioness doesn't rely on teamwork.
With night vision six times more sensitive than ours,
she picks out a herd of wildebeest.
Approaching from downwind,
she must get within 30 meters of her prey.
She makes the kill all on her own.
An adult wildebeest will provide food for her whole family
for up to two nights.
But the lioness can't rest for long.
She must get back to her cubs.
Lions aren't the only animals to hunt these grasslands by moonlight.
An African eagle owl.
With eyes adapted for the darkness...
and fringed wings that reduce noise...
he swoops silently down on rodents and reptiles.
But under a full moon his usual prey will see him coming.
So instead he targets smaller victims hiding in the grass.
To catch them, the eagle owl must get off his perch
and chase them down on foot.
A wolf spider makes a tasty supplement to his normal diet.
But to get the same calories he'd find in a mouse...
he'll have to catch up to 30 spiders.
With more than 60 different species on his nightly menu,
the eagle owl isn't exactly a fussy eater.
Back with the pride...
the family is still feasting.
But the lioness can hear danger.
Hyenas.
These nocturnal scavengers steal around 20% of lion kills.
The pride male has heard the commotion.
A single adult male is powerful enough to drive off an entire mob.
Now he wants his share of the kill.
And not even the lioness...
can stand in his way.
Bullied off her own kill...
and with hyenas at large,
the lioness must now find her three cubs.
A low-pitched grunting call is how lion mothers summon their youngsters.
One of the cubs is safe.
But the other two are missing.
It's not uncommon for cubs to go astray for a few hours at night.
But they usually respond to their mother's contact calls if they're close by.
Her young cub's meows are a sign of distress.
In the darkness, she scans the night for any trace of her cubs.
She will not give up until she finds them.
Three days later...
and despite calling day and night across her territory...
the lioness still hasn't found her missing cubs.
Without milk, cubs will struggle to survive beyond four days.
The odds are now stacked against them.
A fourth night draws in.
Her search continues...
with her little one in tow.
And she's right to persevere.
Her missing cubs are alive.
But they're not alone.
Hyenas are close by.
And they're not the only threat.
If buffalo stumble into the cubs' hiding place,
they will trample them.
The lioness can sense the dangers.
Finally, after four nights...
she hears a call she recognizes.
Moving closer, she picks up a scent.
Safe...
at last.
Her family is reunited.
Lions are the most social of all the big cats.
But because they're largely nocturnal
until now we've only had a glimpse of their complex family lives.
By following this pride night after night...
we can finally see the lengths a lioness will go to...
to keep her family fed, together and alive.
Following a small pride of lions in the darkness
across Kenya's Maasai Mara...
Is that yours?
...the Earth at Night team saw how the whole family
relied on the lioness to survive.
She's a great mom.
It's amazing how well she's worked to protect these cubs.
She's incredibly vigilant.
You watch her when she's with her cubs.
She's always looking around for potential signs of danger, approaching hyenas...
The lioness was a devoted mother.
But with so many mouths to feed,
it was clear she was also overstretched.
So when two of her young cubs went missing during filming...
the team feared the worst.
Buffalo, lions and hyenas are the three biggest threats to lion cubs.
And two of them hit them yesterday afternoon.
I mean, it's heartrending. It really is.
Each life is precious in this last refuge for lions.
Guides and spotters worked around the clock.
And the team's low-light camera technology aided the search.
By the fourth night they were giving up hope.
I can hear hyenas.
There's something happening just near your side.
Okay. Hold it. Hold it.
We were absolutely convinced that they weren't alive.
That they'd been killed.
Hey, hey, look at this! Here the two cubs are there.
Using these cameras, for me, has been a real revelation.
It's allowing us to see stuff that we would never normally see.
Turns us humans into nocturnal animals.
This is just incredible.
We've now found the mother with all three cubs together.
There are only around 20,000 lions left in the world.
The Maasai Mara National Reserve is a last refuge for these majestic animals.
Lions represent the spirit of Africa.
You take that spirit away
and Africa's just lost something truly very special.
At this crucial time...
when we're only beginning to understand the complex nocturnal lives of lions,
it's more important than ever to protect Africa's most magnificent big cat.