Willem van Heerden

There are two phenomenal beasts that rule one of Africa's true wilderness areas - Buffalos and Lions. The first dominate the plains with bulk, power and aggressiveness. The second rule by fear and tenacity... And when they clash, dust chokes the air, sharp claws collide against impressive horns... and blood soaks the thirsty land.

We think of the lion as the king of beasts - the perfect predators - built to make a swift clean kill - but think again. Now spectacular footage reveals another side to this hunters killing power. We follow a family of lion cubs as they start out in life. Seven out of the eight cubs are male - for them the clock is ticking, within two years they need to learn to hunt before setting out and finding new territories of their own, to avoid treading on the toes of the dominant pride male. The cubs hunting lessons are perhaps not what you might expect; instead of ambushing their prey and quickly despatching with a clean bite to the throat, these lions wrestle their victim to the ground and tuck in before the hapless beast is dead. When the prey is a young elephant, it means a slow and painful death. Are these lions behaving badly or is it simply that this is what lions do?

There are two phenomenal beasts that rule one of Africa's true wilderness areas - Buffalos and Lions. The first dominate the plains with bulk, power and aggressiveness. The second rule by fear and tenacity... And when they clash, dust chokes the air, sharp claws collide against impressive horns... and blood soaks the thirsty land.

We think of the lion as the king of beasts - the perfect predators - built to make a swift clean kill - but think again. Now spectacular footage reveals another side to this hunters killing power. We follow a family of lion cubs as they start out in life. Seven out of the eight cubs are male - for them the clock is ticking, within two years they need to learn to hunt before setting out and finding new territories of their own, to avoid treading on the toes of the dominant pride male. The cubs hunting lessons are perhaps not what you might expect; instead of ambushing their prey and quickly despatching with a clean bite to the throat, these lions wrestle their victim to the ground and tuck in before the hapless beast is dead. When the prey is a young elephant, it means a slow and painful death. Are these lions behaving badly or is it simply that this is what lions do?