This ground-breaking film tells the story of the Marsh Pride. Documented for the last 30 years by the BBC and other broadcasters around the world, this is the most filmed pride of lions on Earth.
In this epic story the Marsh Pride battle for survival in Kenya's famous Maasai Mara Reserve. A tale of shifting loyalties, bloody take overs and sheer resilience the lions’ story is told by those who filmed them, those who tried to protect them, who live alongside them and some who ultimately wanted them dead.
These lions are a powerful symbol of nature’s fight for survival in a world where lions and humans are increasingly at odds. In this 1x90’ film for BBC Two and iPlayer, their lives will be pieced together into a single documentary charting the rise and fall of the pride.
Buffalo and male lions pose a deadly threat to young cubs, and human settlements increasingly encroach onto pride territory. The fortunes of the Pride depend on the precious space they have left to be able to raise their young. But their predation of growing numbers of cattle and deadly revenge attacks by Maasai pastoralists have shaken the Pride to the core.
Over the past decades well over half of Africa’s lions have been wiped out, leaving only 20,000 in the wild. Habitat loss and huge population growth have increasingly putting them in direct confrontation with humans. The film will chart through news archive and testimony how the lion population has catastrophically declined.
Today the Marsh Pride remains in its historic territory though the landscape around them is now radically changed. The threats to their survival are increasing as they are for lions across the continent. Their future hangs in the balance.