A mother's COURAGE

How plucky animal matriarchs are beating the odds to keep their families safe

- CAREN CLAR

Any mum would do everything in her power to protect her children from harm. But the animal matriarchs in BBC1’s natural-history epic Dynasties II go to extreme lengths to secure the future of their line.

A follow-up to the award-winning 2018 series Dynasties, the new four-parter will see narrator  Sir David Attenborough trace  the difficulties faced by a quartet of different animals - a puma, an elephant, a cheetah and a hyena - as they try to lead their families and raise their young while dealing with a range of challenges and threats.

"We want to give people an opportunity to really understand an animal's life, not just as a species, but as an individual or group,' says series producer Simon Blakeney, as he joins TV Times for an exclusive video interview.

Filming them over months, we saw things that are awe inspiring and mesmerising and stuff that you don't expect. Survival is a big deal. We have big, charismatic, powerful animals that seem unstoppable, but they have huge challenges just making it from one day to the next, especially when it comes to bringing up families.'

Here, Simon introduces us to the remarkable clans...

CHEETAH

EPISODE THREE

In the grasslands of western Zambia cheetah mother Kali is busy raising three adolescent daughters.

The trio still rely on their mum for food, so she has to undertake hunts involving massive prey such as wildebeest, while protecting her food from rival predators, including hyenas.