(dramatic music)
Downloaded from YTS.MX
Anderson: Growing up in montana,
I thought I knew mountain lions.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
I've tracked these cats through my back yard.
A kill.
And filmed them on their kills.
I know these cats.
I've studied them my entire life.
These tracks are less than 24 hours.
She's definitely hunting.
They're solitary, elusive.
But everything I thought I knew, I was wrong.
On the other side of the world
These cats are re -writing the text book.
Their social dynamics are evolving.
And they're teaming up.
Arenada: This is when you need to stand your ground.
Anderson: In the mountains of patagonia,
Nature's creating.
Look at them!
A pride of pumas.
If someone told me this was happening,
I would never believe them.
Arenada: If this is not a pride of pumas,
Tell me what this is.
We're just trying to understand what's going on here.
(imitating explosion booming)
Anderson: Like mind-blowing
Visual that I can't even comprehend.
This is the mountain lion like never seen before.
(puma growling)
(bright upbeat music)
My name's casey anderson.
I'm heading to torres del paine national park, in chile,
One of the last truly wild places on the planet.
An area that may hold the densest population
Of pumas on earth.
I've been invited by rene arenada, a chilean filmmaker,
To come down here and witness their pumas.
It's basically the same species that lives in montana.
But for all my years of tracking,
I've rarely ever seen one close up.
Here, things are different.
The pumas prowl out in the open,
And hunt by the light of the day.
It defies everything I know about mountain lions.
Arenada: What do you think about this?
It's like a postcard.
Anderson: That's the thing about this place.
The highest concentration of pumas
In the most beautiful place on the planet.
Arenada: A safe paradise for them.
They don't have to struggle against a bear,
Struggle against a wolf.
That changes the picture completely for them, isn't it?
Anderson: It's got to.
Arenada: Well there's things we've been watching
For the last couple of years.
We're trying to learn more about this also,
Because there's a lot of things that,
You know, they're not on the books.
Anderson: In all my life, until I was 30 years old,
Right around there, I'd only seen six mountain lions,
Like just short glimpses, in all of my entire life.
Arenada: You need to turn the radar on.
Anderson: Turning it on now.
(upbeat music)
So what's the next move?
Arenada: Prepare ourselves and go for a walk.
Anderson: We should go out there.
We've got a special permit for just five days
To explore what's known as the puma triangle.
(gentle music)
Two sides of the triangle are fortified
By natural barriers within the park.
The third side is bordered by private farmland
Where pumas are protected from hunting.
This island of safety creates a puma paradise
At the southern tip the world.
Arenada: So this is the puma triangle,
One of the best places in the world
To see these animals up close
And witness their social dynamics.
The park is very well protected
By the mountain and the ice fields.
Anderson: This is one of the most beautiful things
I've ever seen.
Arenada: And now having that farmland
That is not hunting pumas,
It's actually opening a corridor for them
To go out if necessary.
So that's really good for the species.
So it's a perfect storm.
There's many pumas but they're hiding
And we need to find them.
(gentle music)
Anderson: Rene's spent years following the pumas here.
He knows the individual cats by name,
Can recognize them, knows their family lineages.
He's watched mothers raise several generations of cubs.
And knows which males are dominant in the area.
If anyone can show me the secret lives of pumas, it's rene.
But so far, I'm not seeing any signs.
This is an area that rene often sees pumas on the move.
Arenada: This trail, it is open for tourism,
And it's one of our favorite spots.
Inside the national park, outside the national park.
(dramatic music)
These patches of forest,
It's full of puma trails here inside.
Actually here, this is a puma bed
And it's very recently used.
They use these forests to sleep, and to raise their cubs.
Isn't it amazing and scary that I'm pretty sure
There's a puma around us right now watching.
They're always around us
And you are only going to see them if they want you to.
Anderson: I always used to say, "keep your head on a swivel."
I just always do this.
Not a kind of a paranoid thing,
It's literally you're walking by something
Almost guaranteed every time.
Arenada: Yeah.
(guanacos squawking)
Anderson: At home in montana,
The magpies will always tell me
When there's a predator around.
Here, apparently, it's the guanacos.
Arenada: Can you see it, casey?
Anderson: Oh yeah, I see it too.
Arenada: Can you see it?
Anderson: Definitely.
Sitting on the hill, about 200 yards from us,
Is my first chilean puma.
I can't believe he's just out there
In the open watching us like that.
That's the male?
The head looks big.
Arenada: We should try to approach that animal.
Just, there's enough distance, and we have enough space
To approach a little bit more to have a closer look.
Anderson: I forgot something at the truck.
(rene laughing)
Let me just put this in perspective.
I've lived my entire life in montana trying to peer
Into the lives of these animals.
But they are ghosts.
I literally had a puma living in my backyard,
That I named mama mo.
For a year I tracked her every day with the best technology.
And even then I was lucky
Just to catch an occasional glimpse of her and her cubs.
Now, on my first day in chile,
I'm face to face with one.
And he doesn't seem to care about me at all.
So, looking at this cat,
We're trying to figure out who it is.
These guys know these cats like their family.
But this cat is a little unknown.
Do you know why he has no scars?
Arenada: Why? Anderson: And he's beautiful?
'cause he never loses a fight.
So, I think we name him casey.
Arenada: He's too handsome for that.
He's too handsome to be called casey.
Okay, casey, let's see how close you can get to this puma.
Anderson: So the guys have come up with this great idea.
Tap into all your puma experience over the lifetime,
And see how close you can get to this cat.
Arenada: You go first.
You want to try to see, test the tolerance level.
Once you find a spot, you sit down, very relaxed,
You sit down and I'll join you.
Anderson: And I'm thinking to myself, sounds cool, maybe.
(laughs) all right.
Arenada: Good luck, sir.
Anderson: I'm on my own.
(gentle music)
I'm really out of my comfort zone.
There's no way a mountain lion
Would let me approach in montana.
But this cat doesn't seem to have any fear of humans.
Arenada: He's doing something
That he never thought was possible to do.
If you've tried to see pumas anywhere else in the world,
You realize how impossible this is.
This is not the elusive ghost like you see
In the rest of the american continent.
This is an animal that is safe,
That is very confident in his surrounding.
And he's not feeling threatened by us, by humans.
That's why you get these interactions right now.
Someone that can approach the animal, observe him
And follow if necessary
Without disturbing their natural behavior.
Anderson: I've never been in a place
Where animals are looking at me
Like this cat's looking at me.
Just no fear.
This is as close as I've been to a wild puma,
And the cat just doesn't care.
And it just like, it made me like a little kid again.
I couldn't contain my excitement in this moment.
It was just, this is exactly what I came here for,
And here it is right in front of me.
Arenada: He has a massive smile on his face.
This is amazing isn't it?
Having a chance of spending time with an animal like this.
As elusive as these pumas are.
Anderson: It doesn't make any sense to me.
This is more true to its self, in many ways,
The way this confidence
And this relationship is the way it should be.
This is a cat that has not been ruined at some level.
Arenada: By anyone.
Anderson: Right.
Arenada: Humans.
Anderson: This is pure, pure puma.
(gentle music)
As we watch casey, the mystery male walk away,
He's moving with purpose.
He knows where he's going.
And then a second puma appears out of nowhere.
(both laughing)
And this cat rene knows very well.
Arenada: Oh, this is amazing.
This is sister.
So we know this cat for years, since she was a cub
About six or seven years ago.
She's unmistakable.
Anderson: Are they flirting or are they playing?
Arenada: Definitely flirting.
Anderson: Just coming over the top
Of that little ridge right there
And looking up and seeing two pumas on the ridge,
With that in the background.
This is like all my dreams come true.
Back home, this would be the greatest shot
I've ever shot in my life. (laughs)
It's ridiculous.
Arenada: She's cool.
She's a cool cat.
She's like the aunt of this neighborhood
'cause she's never had cubs before.
It's really cool that's she's hanging out
With this new male.
Anderson: They're just doing their thing.
(puma snarling)
As soon as you put the female aspect into this equation.
Arenada: Things can become a little bit unpredictable.
Anderson: He's just got this look on his face.
This cat has no fear.
And all of a sudden, he starts walking over to us.
And they're getting closer and closer and closer.
(dramatic music)
As rene and I watch,
The mystery male keeps coming straight at us,
Guarding his potential mate.
Arenada: This is when you need to stand your ground.
Anderson: We group together,
Essentially forming a pack of our own.
I never expected to get this close to a wild puma,
And in that moment rene and I had the exact same reaction.
Arenada: It felt like you shouldn't
Be looking to the eyes.
Anderson: I agree.
Arenada: You felt the same.
Anderson: Yeah, I totally did.
Just breaking eye contact, dipping our heads.
Letting him walk by.
Arenada: I wouldn't say that this is a threat.
I wouldn't say that this is the animal watching us as,
You know, we will become a prey.
They will see us as something that is not very common,
Like sort of we are on the same level.
Anderson: You're having new experiences too.
Arenada: That was a brilliant day.
Anderson: It is.
(gentle music)
I've learned on day one to expect the unexpected.
This is nothing like tracking mountain lions in montana.
And I've never felt more alive in my entire life.
In the morning we set out to see
If we can find sister and casey, the mystery male once more.
Often a male and female will stay together
For several days while mating.
But the male is a visitor.
This is sister's home range,
And rene knows where her favorite hunting grounds are.
(dramatic music)
Just walking up here and seeing these guanaco here,
Seems like they're in a bad spot.
Arenada: Horrible spot.
Anderson: Heck, a puma could get right in here so easy.
Arenada: There must be pumas somewhere around.
The guanacos, they don't mind about us,
They don't care about us,
And that's why when you hear an alarm call
It's like 100% a puma.
Anderson: Yeah.
Arenada: It's not afraid of..
Anderson: No, we're definitely not on the danger radar.
The pumas don't care at all.
This is the one place in the world
That you could literally be part of the landscape
Without influencing any of this predator/prey relationship.
(radio beeping)
Until the radio goes off and just blows the whole thing.
(both laughing)
Arenada: That's pizza, that's hamburger.
And if pizza gets nailed, hamburger will learn the lesson.
He will see it happening in front of his eyes.
Anderson: Look out dude, there's some pumas around here,
Don't say we didn't warn ya.
(somber music)
The guanacos don't lie.
If they see a cat,
They're gonna call them out with this alarm call.
Arenada: That is what these guanacos do most of the day.
They will feed, raise their heads, look around.
Guanacos are clever animals.
Anderson: So what you try to do is you watch
Where that guanaco's looking,
And you'd watch where the other one's looking,
And you'd try to triangulate and figure out,
Look in that area and try to find this cat moving
Across the landscape.
Could be 10 meters away, or three kilometers away.
Their eyesight is amazing, and for good reason,
They have to watch this landscape
Because at any second a puma could be sneaking up on them.
(dramatic music)
(guanacos squawking)
Arenada: This one, and that one,
They're looking to the same point.
Anderson: Sure enough, with the help of the guanacos
We find sister patrolling the border of the park.
Casey, the mystery male, is nowhere to be seen.
I feel like we're just one of the guanacos right now,
Watching a puma stalk towards you.
Arenada: So this is definitely her territory,
And she's the one that's using the fence to hunt.
She's clever.
She lives right in the border
Between the national park and the farmlands.
There's a fence in there,
And she kind of patrols that fence most of the time.
(dramatic music)
Anderson: She basically just walks back and forth,
Working, patrolling the fence.
(guanaco squawking)
Arenada: He's the lucky guy today, he's safe now.
Anderson: I'm going to name that guanaco rene, in your honor.
Arenada: So you have a puma and I have guanaco?
Your puma's gonna endure for a couple of years, for sure,
But this one might die tonight.
Anderson: I hope not.
Arenada: No.
Anderson: I really hope not.
Arenada: He's a brave guy.
Standing his ground.
Anderson: He just saved his family, he's a hero.
She's still on the move right, we should follow.
Arenada: Totally.
Anderson: Let's go.
Arenada: We've got our puma now, it's still early.
Anderson: We know where she's at.
Thanks guanacos.
Arenada: We've been following this puma for 500 meters,
And we saw her stalking on the top of this hill.
So we came down, and there's a guanaco in position
To be eaten by the puma.
Anderson: Yeah, this is a great situation
Just to wait up the hill.
But the shrubbery there,
It's thick, it's thick as it gets around here.
So she's got the cover,
The guanaco doesn't seem to notice anything.
There's not a lot around that could bust her.
So this is a recipe for potentially witnessing
A puma making a kill.
(dramatic music)
Just a few days ago I thought it was impossible
To be this close to a puma on the prowl.
And now here we are,
Watching one of nature's greatest hunters in action.
It's fun to watch,
'cause it's like a game of red light, green light.
The guanaco head goes down, sister moves in.
Guanaco head comes up, freeze.
Arenada: Patience means waiting when to do your move.
And that's, that's a skill.
Anderson: It is a skill.
The guanaco's head's down, turned away.
Arenada: Oh, that's perfect.
Anderson: This guy's not looking.
This is working out, I don't know.
That guy is looking now.
Arenada: She's 20 meters away now.
She still needs a couple of meters.
Anderson: She's low enough now that.
Arenada: She's moving.
She's getting the right position.
(guanaco squawking)
Anderson: Oops, busted.
Dang it.
Arenada: That was close though.
Anderson: That was close.
Seeing sister get so close, yet still fail reminds me that,
Even for a master predator,
Hunting alone in the wide open is extremely difficult.
It could easily take 20 or more attempts
Just to make a kill.
She moves on, she's gotta do it.
She's gonna have to do it some time.
Watching this play out, in broad daylight,
Just blows my mind.
Arenada: You never expected this.
Anderson: Nah, no.
Arenada: You didn't believe me then.
Anderson: No.
(both laughing)
Sure enough, there's a pot of gold
At the end of the rainbow, and it's this big.
That's how this feels.
(upbeat music)
Arenada: So now we are literally following the puma,
It's like following at her back, observing what she's doing.
Anderson: We're on the hunt, right, part of the pride.
In my wildest dreams I couldn't imagine the possibility
Of walking alongside a puma like this.
This is not affecting her, the guanacos or anything else.
We're literally in the moment with this puma, and that's.
Arenada: It's a very intimate moment.
Having the chance to spend five hours
With an individual is an awesome reward from nature.
(guanacos squawking)
As sister continues to search for her next meal,
She slips out of sight.
(bird chirping)
By the time we find her,
She's stalked into another position to strike.
Wow, (laughs) I can't keep my binoculars off of it.
Arenada: It's just one more neck down to eat some grass,
And that could be the last grass of this guanaco.
Hunting here is not easy at all.
It's open landscape, you have nothing to hide.
So it takes years for you to get these skills
And become a good hunter.
Anderson: The head down, she's making a last move.
Arenada: She's making a move.
Anderson: Making a move, come on, come on, come on.
She's getting close, man.
This is gonna happen, this is gonna happen, isn't it.
Come on.
Arenada: So, this is her style of hunting.
She's trying to get as close as possible.
She's not a runner.
Anderson: The cats back home would have run
At these guys a long time ago.
Arenada: It's gonna happen at any moment.
Now, now.
Anderson: Here it goes, here it goes.
She is in the zone.
Arenada: I'm nervous.
Anderson: Yeah.
Arenada: I really hope she gets this.
Anderson: Oh, come on.
Look how low she is,
She's basically doing a belly crawl.
Uh-oh, up on, the one up top might have busted her.
Arenada: Not yet.
Anderson: Don't see her, don't see her.
Oh man, this shows how hard this can be, you know?
The one closest to her has no idea what's going on, no.
Arenada: She's still close.
(dramatic music)
(guanaco squawking)
Anderson: (groans) that close.
(bright music)
Arenada: Seems like they don't want
To waste the energy on something that is not 100% sure.
Anderson: Yeah.
Arenada: And that's what we've seen.
Anderson: But she's right back to it.
She's like okay, failure, now no time to sit around
And be depressed about it.
It's time to go kill something.
Move on.
Sister's odds of making a kill
Dramatically improve at night.
Her enormous eyes can virtually see in the dark,
A difficult weapon for guanacos to defend against.
Under the cloak of darkness,
Pumas have their greatest success.
(gentle music) (birds chirping)
In the morning we are back out searching for sister,
Hoping that she's made a kill.
Arenada: It's cold today.
Anderson: Suddenly, out of nowhere,
A family of four pumas appears on the move.
Arenada: If we're lucky, they might be moving
From the kill or to the kill, we don't know.
Anderson: Rene recognizes them.
Arenada: I've known these guys since they were born almost.
This is mother.
We call her mother because she is sister's mother.
It's cool to see her again.
Anderson: That's sister's mom?
Arenada: Oh yeah, so you know a family now.
So these guys are the next litter after sister.
They're very close to independence now.
Now they need to find a place to rest
For the rest of the day.
Anderson: Looks like they're gonna lay down right there.
As the family beds down for the day,
Another puma appears above them.
Arenada: There's a fifth puma,
Which we don't really know which puma is, yet.
We need to have a closer look.
Anderson: That's definitely a female.
Arenada: Yeah. Anderson: Adult female.
Arenada: Yeah, you know what, that's sister.
That's definitely sister.
Anderson: So she's watching her mom?
Arenada: She never left home.
She's telling us something about the social behavior
That we don't fully understand.
It's rare, it's really rare.
Anderson: Yeah, I know, you don't see this back home.
Obviously, I've been filming a mother with three kittens,
About the same age, but never, ever saw her
With another cat.
These are supposed to be solitary animals.
Why is sister, an adult puma,
Still hanging around her mother?
Does she still depend on her for occasional meals?
Or does she just like being close to her family?
Arenada: Knowing sister and her mother for years,
It's not hard to understand why these bonds remain strong.
Sister, and these three younger cubs are lucky
To have one of the best moms I've seen in nature.
(gentle music)
I first filmed these cubs when they were three months old.
The kittens have spent every minute of their lives together,
Safe under the tireless protection of their mother.
Day after day this mother teaches the cubs
To stalk, and pounce.
It's how they learn everything they need
To one day survive on their own.
She brings them to her kills to feast.
It's the first step in weaning them off her milk.
And patiently nudges them
Towards more and more independence.
Do they just forget these close bonds when they grow up?
I don't think so.
Perhaps the bonding even continues into adulthood.
Anderson: As we're watching the family,
Something interesting happens.
All the cubs get up with a clear sense of purpose.
They just start going somewhere
And it's really evident they're going somewhere.
Arenada: So we need to follow them.
Obviously something's going on,
They're maybe moving to a kill.
(dramatic music)
Anderson: They're straight-lining to this spot.
Mom knows where they're going, she's not too concerned.
Let them go.
She'll follow up behind.
Arenada: Sister's coming down.
She's following them.
Anderson: She's totally gonna follow them.
This is getting even better.
Do you think the mom will let sister come near the cubs?
Arenada: I don't know.
Anderson: Sister's keeping a safe distance
But clearly she wants to stay close to her mother.
But why?
Does she know where they're going?
Arenada: Maybe she's gonna try to get food.
Maybe she's just gonna try to be around her mom.
Anderson: What we discover next changes everything
We thought we knew about pumas.
Arenada: Right here, there's one, two.
Anderson: There's literally eight pumas
All starting to come together,
(imitates explosion booming)
Like mind-blowing visual that I can't even comprehend.
The mother with those kittens.
The kittens left, they were going somewhere,
And it's like they were going over to their cousin's house.
Arenada: We're just trying to understand
What's going on here.
Anderson: Yeah, there's something definitely
Happening here.
And that's, they know each other.
(bright music)
(birds chirping)
There's nothing in the wild world
That's cooler than this right now.
Four cats walking out in the wide open,
And three cats going down
And meeting with them right in front of us.
And there's another cat on the ridge.
What's gonna happen?
Is there a fight, is there a kill there?
What's gonna happen?
There's no aggression,
There's actually the opposite of that.
It's like you're seeing the same greeting
That you would see between a mother and its kittens,
Except for this is two mothers and their kittens.
Arenada: It could be either sisters
From different generations or mother and daughter.
Anderson: Whether it's direct, mother/sister.
Or if it's just like two groups
That have decided to get along.
And what we're seeing here is the ultimate tolerance.
We have seven pumas laying out in the wide open,
Just like african lions.
If someone told me this was happening,
I would never believe them.
Arenada: And then you have this other female, the sister,
Our sister, and she's waiting for a chance to go in.
Anderson: I used to think a cat's a cat's a cat.
Until today this is not the cat I thought
I would come here to see.
They're doing things that I would never even imagine.
Here's the big question.
Is this what pumas have been doing all along?
Or is this new behavior,
Evolution happening right before our eyes?
Arenada: What if we are able to watch for the first time
A pride like this hunting a guanaco altogether?
Cooperating and doing a strategy.
Anderson: If they decided to start to do that.
If that started to evolve, that behavior--
Arenada: It's a learning process.
Anderson: Definitely.
Arenada: It's just a matter of one trying to kill a guanaco,
And the other one's getting close,
And eventually trying to help.
Anderson: Yeah, there's no reason
Why that couldn't happen here.
Then this group of pumas together
Just starts to move as one.
Look at that.
Look at that!
You should shoot that.
It looks like we're in the african savanna
Watching african lions walk.
But we're here in patagonia, watching pumas walk together.
And it just takes my breath away.
Have you ever read this in a book before?
Arenada: No, never. Anderson: Exactly.
Arenada: None of us.
Anderson: So I think the lesson learned here is,
It's time to rip the books up and start writing them again.
Arenada: As we were watching those,
We just got a puma walking behind us.
Anderson: Yeah, that's the eighth puma.
Arenada: That's sister, she's following her mom.
(dramatic music)
Arenada: I keep expecting like five more to go by.
Look how this one's going around,
It's almost like they're, it's got like a tactic.
If there was a guanaco on the other side,
That would be exactly the hunting strategy
That an african lion would have.
You guys push them around the mountain.
Arenada: I'll be waiting.
Anderson: Wabam!
Arenada: There's something going on, dudes.
We need to follow.
Anderson: Let's go.
We have eight pumas all heading off together
In the same direction.
We have to see where they're going.
The pride's on the move and for half an hour
It's all we can do to keep up.
Arenada: There's definitely communication between them,
They're hanging out together, they're walking together,
They're following each other.
They're vocalizing now.
Anderson: And then we see what's brought them together.
Look at them.
(pumas snarling)
Rene and I have followed these cats to the ultimate feast.
Arenada: It took us a while to follow, and they have a kill.
So the pumas we saw moving together, interacting,
Communicating, they're also feeding together.
(gentle music)
Is your brain exploding now?
Anderson: Yeah, it's exploding.
So they've all came down to share this kill, looks like.
Arenada: That's why they were all moving together.
That's why sister is following them.
So the question is who killed that guy?
(puma hissing)
(pumas growling)
Arenada: A little eruption of a fight here and there.
Sharing when you're a predator,
Might mean eating off the same carcass,
But every once in a while you'll give them one of these.
You've got this intermixed relationship of different pumas
That have decided to come together as one.
Arenada: That's not tolerance anymore, that is sharing.
If this is not a pride of pumas, tell me what this is.
Anderson: It's a pride of pumas.
Arenada: Four pumas down here and three pumas
That they already ate.
And this other cat coming down, which makes eight.
Anderson: Eight pumas, this is crazy.
Arenada: It's a big barbecue.
Anderson: It is a barbecue, puma barbecue.
Anderson: We have this other cat, sister,
Just waiting there for her turn to go and eat,
Like a very well -behaved older sister.
Anderson: There she goes.
There she goes.
Arenada: She's always pushing these social boundaries.
And potentially could be dangerous and she's on her own.
But she's taking that risk.
Will they let sister come in and feed?
That's the question.
(pumas growling) (dramatic music)
Anderson: Looks like everybody,
Everybody's kind of stopped eating and stepped away.
Sister's patience pays off.
The other pumas finally allow her to share the kill.
(gentle music)
Arenada: This is probably the most amazing social dynamic
That we will ever witness.
A group of two different families,
Vocalizing between each other.
Obviously they know each other and they gather together
And they walk to a kill.
That, who knows who killed it, that's the other question
That get our brains exploding, what happened here?
And then having this extra puma which is the sister.
And she's being allowed to be around them
And going and feeding, with their food.
This is really not a solitary cat as the book says.
It's a social animal, that interacts with others.
And they know their neighborhood
And the cats that live around.
And they help each other.
(triumphant music)
Anderson: In this vast patagonia landscape,
I see a vision of the wild I thought had long disappeared.
Just five days ago,
I couldn't even imagine what we've witnessed here.
A place where large predators have the space to roam free,
Where they're protected and have no fear of humans,
And there's enough food that they can cooperate
Instead of compete.
But so many questions still remain.
Will the pumas learn to hunt together?
Could this be a step
In the evolution of their social behavior?
And, when can I come back?