
A Lost Lion Cub Faces Nighttime Alone
Clip: Episode 5 | 3m 11sVideo has Closed Captions
Filmmaker Gordon Buchanan fears the worst for Matho’s lost lion cub.
Matho’s lost lion cub has been alone for 14 hours. As night approaches with no sign of his mother, he starts to wander off into the tall, dense grass. At this age, a young cub has little chance of survival on its own, and filmmaker Gordon Buchanan fears the worst.

A Lost Lion Cub Faces Nighttime Alone
Clip: Episode 5 | 3m 11sVideo has Closed Captions
Matho’s lost lion cub has been alone for 14 hours. As night approaches with no sign of his mother, he starts to wander off into the tall, dense grass. At this age, a young cub has little chance of survival on its own, and filmmaker Gordon Buchanan fears the worst.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship[Gordon] It's right at the bottom of the car.
Just looks so lost and alone there.
[Narrator] The cub has now been alone for 14 hours.
As night approaches, there's still no sign of Matho.
[Gordon] Where's he going?
You don't want to be wandering away from here.
If it goes into the tall grass, we're never going to know what happened to it.
Come on.
Where are you?
[Narrator] The cub has disappeared into thick cover.
Dunno.
I think just the only thing we can do is get the.
get the thermal imaging camera up and see if we can get a heat source and look into the deeper bush.
A lion cub's going to show up a lot hotter than any of the surrounding ground.
[Narrator] Gordon is still looking for Matho's lost cub.
Oh, it's there!
He's right there.
Hey, little guy.
You little blighter, you.
You've given me a heart attack.
It's right at the bottom of the car.
Just looks so lost and alone there.
The only hope that this cub has is if Matho comes back.
But on his own, yeah, he doesn't stand a chance of surviving.
Oh, here we go!
Oh, I do not believe it.
That is a miracle.
It's Matho!
And the other two cubs.
What are the chances of that?!
[Narrator] Matho has retraced her steps back to her lost cub.
[Gordon] That is incredible!
I didn't have any hopes for this cub.
Almost 24 hours alone, and this cub has been reunited with its siblings and its mum.
Ah, that's just the best thing ever.
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