Nature in the roar

A GROUND-BREAKING new series from the BBC's Natural History unit has captured spectacular footage of Africa's big cats.

- MARK JEFFERIES

The corporation had a huge hit in 2008 when they filmed in Kenya's world-famous Masai Mara game reserve for their Big Cats Live show.

Now they have taken in the sights and sounds of the breathtaking Okavango Delta in Botswana for their new six-part series Big Cats 24/7.

And thanks to a revolution in lowlight technology, it means the series showcases previously unseen behaviour at night using military-grade night cameras as well as cutting-edge drones keeping track of the big cats' movements like never before.

POWERFUL

Following individual lions, cheetahs and leopards for six months, over two extreme seasons, this documentary shows their battle to survive in an increasingly challenging world.

With unprecedented wildfire, floods and extreme drought, the big cats and the camera crew are tested to their limits.

Executive producer Roger Webb said: "You can't help but get emotionally engaged with those characters and their lives. And I think it makes the most powerful and incredible stories - it really does kick some ass.

"It's so powerful in what's going on and I do think it's incredibly engaging. And what I love about it I think it's really, really binge-able."

Executive producer Tom Jarvis added: "I think in the last 10 years there's been a revolution in night-time filming technology.

"So you can see here we've got our hands on the kind of latest militarygrade thermal-imaging cameras, which means we've been able to follow the cats on the ground, in the air, through the day, and in the dark.