Thursday, 23 October 2008
6.05pm

Africa's big cats don't like water…but what is a cat to do when dinner is on the other side of a swamp?

Swamp Cats is a breathtaking documentary which takes a closer look at these swamp cats who spend half the year living in the swamps of Botswana's Okavango. As the annual flood inundates the delta, the cats are forced to cope with expanses of water that fragment their homes into a series of small islands and their hunting ground into dangerous, watery mires. For lions, there are two choices - sink or swim. Wading through chest high waters, swimming in the deep channels to hunt buffalo and antelope, these lions have successfully adapted to their surroundings. But it is a different story for the lion cubs. They must acclimatise and learn to swim quickly - for the swamps are a perilous place to grow up. For a family of cheetahs, hunting in the swamp is very much a learning process. Only through trial and watery error have they learnt to bring down lechwe antelope and reedbuck in the shallow marshlands. One of their biggest problems is the crocodiles which are always keen to rob the cheetahs of their hard won prey. Versatile and solitary, the leopard is perhaps the wiliest swamp cat. Clever enough to trap land species like the warthog and the bushbuck against the swamp, leopards have also learnt the crossing places of the baboons, where they often lie in wait, ready to pounce. With stunning aerial and underwater footage, this film explores the successful adaptation of three of nature's greatest cats, a feat not repeated anywhere else in Africa.