♪♪ NARRATOR: From a place of death comes an unbelievable but true story of survival.

Africa's Skeleton Coast, scattered with relics of a tainted past.

Here, few can survive.

But many years ago, one man witnessed an extraordinary sight.

DR. STANDER: I saw a lioness on the beach.

I was so fascinated by how they could possibly survive here.

NARRATOR: But the coastal desert lions vanished.

Nearly four decades later, the legacy of one exceptional lioness granted three little sisters a promising future.

DR. STANDER: And then, the most unexpected tragedy shook my world.

Orphaned too young in a merciless desert, their only hope had been their aunt, but she ousted them for good.

DR. STANDER: I thought, "That is gonna be their death sentence."

NARRATOR: Instead, it drove the three sisters to re-write lion history.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ NARRATOR: The Atlantic ocean along Namibia's infamous Skeleton Coast... [ Whales spouting ] ♪♪ ♪♪ A secret world where a treacherous ocean and an inhospitable shoreline collide.

♪♪ It's here where our story begins.

An almost mythical story of lions roaming the beaches.

♪♪ It's hard to imagine, perhaps impossible to believe... until you meet lion researcher Dr. Philip Stander, who gave up a normal way of life and became a desert nomad himself.

He moved here 30 years ago with one purpose -- to find the last surviving desert-adapted lions.

♪♪ Not long after Philip saw the lioness on the beach, the desert lion population seemed to have gone extinct.

But several years later, there was evidence of a small pride still surviving further inland.

That's when Philip moved to the Namib Desert.

DR. STANDER: But the moment I arrived to study the lions it became a completely different reality, of this vast inhospitable, mountainous desert.

I had no idea how I was gonna actually do the work.

How am I gonna find the lions?

How am I gonna possibly follow them over this terrain?

I thought I knew quite a bit about lion behavior, but the desert lions were just breaking all the rules.

♪♪ These lions were like phantoms to me.

Occasionally, I would see lion tracks and that would blow my mind.

How are they living here?

Where did they come from, and where are they going?

♪♪ It wasn't an easy time, but I knew I was not gonna give up.

It's a long time ago now, but it really all started with her.

♪♪ NARRATOR: Philip searched the desert for nearly two years before he finally found his first lion.

And this male led Philip to his pride.

♪♪ Remarkably, amongst the cubs there was only one female.

And that was her.

DR. STANDER: I decided to collar this young little female, and through that, I committed myself to her life and follow her for the rest of her time.

♪♪ NARRATOR: She left her natal pride and started roaming the desert, into areas where lions had not lived for decades.

She raised several generations of cubs successfully and brought the desert lion population back from the brink.

♪♪ She became known as The Queen and showed Philip how lions survived in this arid world.

♪♪ DR. STANDER: The first time I saw her hunting giraffe, I was amazed by the skill and the ferocity with which she attacked the giraffe.

And then I realized that this is knowledge that she is passing on to her offspring.

And that was the beginning of my understanding of the culture among desert lions.

Hunting giraffes remained the speciality of the Queen.

But as she got older and became more frail, it became more risky.

♪♪ But she remained fearless.

♪♪ She was the most important lioness to me.

She was like a family member, almost.

I loved her, in a way.

Even though I'm a scientist -- I have to look at the data and the facts -- it doesn't take away the bond and the connection that one builds, especially with an animal that you know for so long.

♪♪ When she reached the end of her life, I stayed with her.

And to watch her die was hard, but there was also something beautiful about it.

The vast majority of lions die by the hand of man.

Conflict with humans is just the biggest limiting factor.

For her to die naturally was beautiful.

I was so privileged and fortunate that I was able to follow her from a small cub through her entire life, until she died at the age of 17.

She meant the world to me.

♪♪ Reconstructing her skeleton was honoring her legacy.

I really believed that the Queen had taught me everything there was to know about desert lions.

But then, her granddaughters were born.

♪♪ [ Waves crashing ] NARRATOR: The Queen's daughters continued her legacy.

When one of them gave birth to a litter of all female cubs, Philip felt more optimistic than ever.

♪♪ DR. STANDER: These three little cubs had such a promising future growing up in the Skeleton Coast Park with the guidance of their mother and their aunt, who had learnt everything about living in the desert from the Queen.

NARRATOR: Far away from the threat of human settlements, the arid Skeleton Coast Park was a safe place for three little sisters to grow up in.

♪♪ Their mother had the challenging task of raising her cubs in a world where prey and water are scarce.

But the cubs would become well adapted to these hardships.

♪♪ And, together, with their aunt, they formed a small, close-knit pride.

And to thrive as a pride, play was crucial... ♪♪ ...not only for their social bonds, but also for the cubs to learn the skills of becoming capable hunters one day.

♪♪ Flanked by two formidable role models, the future for these three little sisters seemed so promising.

DR. STANDER: But, man, was I unprepared for what was to come.

♪♪ ♪♪ It was several months later when I found the three cubs... all on their own.

And I realized they'd been on their own for quite a while.

♪♪ That really made me very concerned for their mother... ♪♪ ...and I decided to start looking for her.

♪♪ [ Tracker beeping ] And then the most unexpected tragedy shook my world.

♪♪ After searching for days and days, I eventually found their mother.

♪♪ The evidence suggested that she was in a fight with the resident male leopard.

She killed the male leopard.

But the leopard had inflicted such bad injuries that she died a few days later.

For two large carnivores to meet in such a vast, desolate environment is extremely rare.

I'd never seen anything like that.

And it really made their mother's death even more tragic.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ NARRATOR: For the first few weeks, the cubs remained in the same area, staying close together.

Unknowingly, still waiting for their mother to return.

♪♪ DR. STANDER: Innately, they knew they had to wait for their mother.

That's what lionesses teach their cubs from a very small age.

So they would leave them in a place and they would go off hunting, and once they had found food, they would return and then lead them to the carcass.

So they know they have to wait.

♪♪ ♪♪ But these poor cubs were waiting to die.

There was no mother that was gonna come and find them and rescue them.

♪♪ NARRATOR: And as the days passed, Philip realized that their loneliness had robbed the cubs of essential behavior that would make their survival all the less likely.

♪♪ They had completely stopped playing, and that was really alarming to me, because playing is such a fundamental part of them growing up, it is such a key element of them learning hunting skills.

And the fact that they were just lying, waiting for a mother that wasn't going to return, that was really quite sad.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ NARRATOR: When the cubs eventually started to wander through the desert, desperate to find their mother, Philip realized it was important to keep track of them.

DR. STANDER: As with the Queen, at a very young age, I made that difficult decision to fit a radio collar to one of the cubs, so that I wouldn't lose them.

♪♪ And I picked one that looked the strongest and appeared to have the most character, and she became Alpha.

♪♪ And with Alpha came Bravo and Charlie.

♪♪ NARRATOR: Now that he was able to track the orphans with telemetry, Philip could keep a close eye on them, but as the days passed, it became harder and harder not to interfere.

♪♪ But there was hope, if only they could find their aunt.

♪♪ Their aunt was somewhere out there, looking for her sister who had so unexpectedly died.

If she would take her little nieces in and become their guardian, the cubs might stand a chance.

♪♪ ♪♪ Hunger would soon overshadow the longing for their mother.

Growing more desperate by the day, every movement would draw their attention.

Every scent would get a response.

[ Cub grunts ] A distant sound... [ Animal grunting ] ...would beckon.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ DR. STANDER: They finally found their aunt, on a fresh kill, and I was so happy for them.

But I could not believe the aunt's reaction.

♪♪ [ Lion roars ] ♪♪ She attacked the cubs with such ferocity... [ Lions growling ] ...and I feared that she would actually kill them.

I was also so encouraged by their braveness.

And they just didn't give up.

[ Lions growling ] ♪♪ [ Lions roaring ] ♪♪ But it was very clear to me at that time that she was never going to accept and take the three cubs in.

♪♪ ♪♪ I remember feeling a total sense of desperation.

How were they gonna survive?

♪♪ ♪♪ The presence of trees in this part of the desert attracted herbivores of all kinds, even the ones least expected here.

The three sisters had not yet learned the skills to capture prey.

Hunting giraffes had been their pride's speciality, a skill passed on by the Queen, their grandmother.

The cubs were still too small to know how to tackle these large herbivores.

But they were learning how and where to find food in other ways.

[ Bird squawking ] The tell-tale sound of the desert's avian scavengers could lead them to a free meal.

♪♪ At times, the remains of their aunt's old kills.

♪♪ [ Lion growls ] ♪♪ At other times, the outcome of a lethal combat.

♪♪ The alarm howl of a smaller desert carnivore... [ Animal calls ] ...attracted another.

♪♪ With no water in the desert, they desperately needed the moisture of a carcass to stay hydrated.

Enduring the stings that came with it, their every mouthful would help see them through another day But scavenging someone else's food was never without risk.

This kudu antelope kill belonged to their aunt... not known for her generosity.

♪♪ [ Lion growling ] ♪♪ DR. STANDER: Their need to scavenge led them once more to their aunt, but this time, she was a lot more aggressive.

♪♪ She chased them into the most inhospitable part of the desert.

I thought, "Oh, that is gonna be their death sentence."

♪♪ ♪♪ NARRATOR: The dunes, consisting of sand and sand alone -- a desolate world, bereft of prey -- here, there were no scavenging opportunities.

Here, there was no hope for the orphaned cubs.

♪♪ ♪♪ During the first few years of life, desert lion cubs learn from their mother all there is to know about their extensive home range, where to seek shelter, and how to find prey in this arid land.

But without having any of that knowledge, the three little sisters just continued wandering further and further into the dunes.

♪♪ DR. STANDER: And then, the most remarkable thing happened.

♪♪ They discovered an oasis.

An oasis in the middle of the desert, brought them into a whole new world, and a whole new ecosystem.

NARRATOR: Their first taste of water.

The oasis was able to quench their thirst.

Perhaps, it could also satisfy their hunger.

DR. STANDER: As I watched them explore this oasis, I thought to myself, "If only they can learn how to hunt wetland birds."

♪♪ NARRATOR: Over time, the three orphans continued to explore their newfound world.

Compelled to keep track of each of them, Philip also collared Alpha's two sisters, as they were on the brink of re-writing desert lion history.

♪♪ This group of nesting birds made a perfect target, for three aspiring hunters.

[ Cormorants cooing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ These cormorants hunt fish at sea, but roost and breed at the oases in the dunes.

It provided a great hunting ground for the orphaned sisters.

♪♪ But trying to catch prey with wings was no easy feat, especially in daytime.

♪♪ ♪♪ DR. STANDER: They quickly realized that the birds congregated in very particular areas at night, and they would devise their hunting strategy around that.

[ Cormorants cooing ] NARRATOR: The orphans learnt to wait for nightfall, before they would strike again.

♪♪ Philip's own strategy to monitor them in the dark had to be unobtrusive and invisible.

DR. STANDER: Once I had the right night-vision equipment, their world reopened, and I was able to follow and observe them in great detail.

♪♪ NARRATOR: By using a thermal camera, the heat radiating from warm bodies painted an extraordinary scene, normally concealed in the dark of night.

DR. STANDER: And as it got dark, they emerged in stalking mode.

♪♪ Lions that grow up in a normal environment wouldn't look twice at a bird.

NARRATOR: In the desert, the young orphans' drive of starvation revealed an unusual behavior from deep within.

♪♪ Their survival instinct would take them to new heights.

♪♪ The fortune of hunting in a roosting spot, your prey keeps coming back.

♪♪ But to truly take advantage of this bonanza, they needed to step out of their comfort zone.

♪♪ Water evokes fear in most cats, but to hunt wetland birds, the sisters had to take the plunge.

♪♪ DR. STANDER: I remember feeling so optimistic because they had become bird hunters, and that was the beginning of a whole new life for them.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Birds cawing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ NARRATOR: This was the breakthrough that the three sisters had needed.

An unusual, but impressive skill that they acquired all on their own.

DR. STANDER: Over time, they'd become really good bird hunters.

They'd learned how to cooperate, and that increased their hunting success.

But the problem was, they were sharing really small parcels of food, and that created a lot of tension between them.

And one day, Charlie crossed the dunes, moved inland, and she never returned.

♪♪ ♪♪ NARRATOR: Alpha and Bravo stayed behind.

They had made this sea of sand their home.

After several years of hardship the young lionesses finally thrived again.

And it was then that Philip noticed something extraordinary.

♪♪ DR. STANDER: After all this time, they started playing again, and that was just really wonderful to see.

That free life of a young lioness was coming to the fore again, and that really made me feel incredibly hopeful for their future.

♪♪ ♪♪ NARRATOR: As they continued life as bird hunters, their explorations would lead them further and further west, into the coastal region, beyond the dunes.

DR. STANDER: And I was so hoping that they would eventually discover the ocean and the rich food resources along the beaches.

♪♪ NARRATOR: Much of Philip's research work was aimed at the desert lions regaining the culture of hunting marine animals, a culture that had disappeared 40 years before.

In the desert, prey is scarce, but the coastline is enriched with marine life that provides for desert-adapted carnivores.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ If only Alpha and Bravo could reach the shore where food was in abundance.

♪♪ Further inland, Philip noticed that Charlie had been living a very different life than her two sisters.

♪♪ And most unexpectedly, Charlie was not alone.

She had befriended an enemy from the past.

♪♪ DR. STANDER: Lions are social animals, and Charlie having been on her own for a while made the most remarkable friendship -- with her aunt, the nasty old aunt that treated them so poorly a few years before.

NARRATOR: It was the very aunt who had ousted an orphaned Charlie and her sisters, and wanted nothing to do with them.

But now that the older lioness had come across Charlie all by herself, the aunt welcomed the companionship.

♪♪ DR. STANDER: The wonderful thing was that the old aunt was able to teach her the knowledge that she gained from the Queen.

♪♪ ♪♪ NARRATOR: Her aunt showed her how to hunt giraffes.

♪♪ Charlie watched and learned, a masterclass perfected over centuries.

She practiced her stalking skills while leaving the serious work up to her aunt.

♪♪ ♪♪ Charlie gained more confidence, her eagerness invigorated.

♪♪ Until one day, she was ready to take her first leap.

And over time, their teamwork paid off.

♪♪ While Charlie was mentored and cared for by her aunt, her two sisters were getting closer and closer to their most remarkable discovery yet.

[ Tracker beeping ] DR. STANDER: One late afternoon, I was sitting on the beach, hoping that they would arrive.

And I was listening to their radio signal, and as it became dark, the signal became stronger and stronger.

And finally... their figures appeared in the fog.

♪♪ ♪♪ There they were, on the beach.

♪♪ ♪♪ NARRATOR: Alpha and Bravo had reached the ocean.

A whole new world would open up to them.

♪♪ Eager to see how the lionesses would respond to this rugged coastline, Philip carefully tried to follow them.

But the Skeleton Coast is a deceptive and difficult place to work in, particularly at night.

And with the fog thickening, Philip soon lost sight of the lionesses.

♪♪ ♪♪ DR. STANDER: So I would then go back during the day and essentially go and retrace their steps and try and do a reconstruction of their activities by walking on their tracks and determining what they were chasing and what they were eating.

♪♪ It was really quite enlightening because I discovered how much life there actually is in these tidal zones.

♪♪ I remember seeing green sea turtles as I walked, and I wondered, "Would they catch them if they could get hold of them?"

So that was something I was really interested in, looking at the diversity of the food items that they would eat.

That led me to realize that there is a lot to learn, about this discovery.

♪♪ ♪♪ NARRATOR: The following afternoon, the weather conditions had greatly improved.

[ Seals barking ] At sunset, Philip was waiting at the seal colony with the hope that Alpha and Bravo would return to the coast.

DR. STANDER: For many years, as it was building up to the lions rediscovering the coast and the marine food resources, I remember wondering, "How will they handle this?

How will the lions respond when they arrive at a seal colony, with thousands of seals?"

♪♪ NARRATOR: As darkness set in, the lionesses appeared on the thermal camera, but they were heading away from the seal colony.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ When Philip caught up with them, he was just in time to witness the most extraordinary lion behavior he had ever seen.

♪♪ ♪♪ DR. STANDER: They started hunting.

I noticed that a seal had come ashore.

And they were stalking the seal.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ NARRATOR: Alpha and Bravo had made their first seal kill.

♪♪ But this new kind of prey came with new challenges.

DR. STANDER: They initially struggled quite a bit to handle the seal.

With the thick pelt, and the blubber, they didn't understand how it was made up, and they kept on rolling it around.

It was difficult for them to penetrate.

This is a species of which they had no understanding, of their biology, of how they live.

Lions have a really good understanding of the behavior and natural history of their prey animals.

But this is a species of which they know nothing.

♪♪ And there I was, sat on the beach, next to the lions feeding on their fresh seal kill.

I was so elated, after all these years, seeing the lions back on the beach, and I thought, "The world has to see this."

♪♪ NARRATOR: The young lionesses would keep returning most nights, combing the beaches in search of individual seals coming onto shore.

And having mastered the skill of hunting this newfound marine prey, the Skeleton Coast became their new home.

DR. STANDER: This is something I always dreamt of.

The lions not only returning to the coast, but learning about how they live there.

♪♪ And Alpha and Bravo made that dream come true.

♪♪ ♪♪ NARRATOR: But as time went by, Philip became more and more aware that a land predator feeding on a marine predator could have significant consequences.

My concerns began to grow as to what impact this would have on them.

♪♪ They were killing and eating a top predator out of the marine ecosystem.

That's not normal.

That's not usual.

♪♪ The oceans have been polluted and poisoned by humans for the past few hundred years, since the industrial revolution.

♪♪ We know that the ocean is full of plastics and full of heavy metals.

And I became really concerned about what effect this was gonna have on the lions.

♪♪ NARRATOR: But to Philip's relief, the lionesses never targeted the seal colony, and only ever hunted individuals along the beaches.

Combining marine with terrestrial prey, their balanced diet allowed Alpha and Bravo to thrive along the Skeleton Coast.

♪♪ At the same time, further inland, the desert went through a prolonged and extreme drought, with a devastating impact on Charlie and her aunt.

DR. STANDER: It was a really tough time, and the aunt had deteriorated in condition.

She was old, and she eventually died.

And then it hit me, that Charlie had now lost a mother for the second time.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Charlie had learnt everything she needed to know from her aunt.

And it was so pleasing to see that the legacy of the Queen and the culture of giraffe hunting was continuing.

And even though she was on her own, she was doing well.

And then, she found a male.

♪♪ NARRATOR: In the desert, male lions are rare.

Mostly nomadic, they roam vast areas, and when one encounters a female, his purpose is clear.

♪♪ [ Lion growling ] ♪♪ ♪♪ After joining up with Charlie for several days, the male lion headed west, in the direction of her sisters.

♪♪ Several months later, not far from the coast, there was promising news.

♪♪ Of the three orphaned lionesses, it was Alpha who had become a mother.

♪♪ At the age of 7, she finally had her first litter of cubs.

Everything that Alpha and Bravo had learnt over the years, would now be passed on.

♪♪ ♪♪ The two coastal lionesses now had a new generation, with which to share their remarkable way of life.

♪♪ Most desert lion cubs do not survive their first few months.

But two of Alpha's young had beaten the odds.

♪♪ When they had grown strong enough, the lionesses led them into the dunes.

♪♪ Here, the cubs would learn to feel just as much at home as their mother and aunt.

♪♪ This is the heartland of true desert-adapted lions.

♪♪ ♪♪ Here, they would learn that this sea of sand, a seemingly empty world, has hidden oases full of life.

♪♪ ♪♪ From the dunes, Alpha and Bravo led the cubs further and further west, until they could go no further.

♪♪ Nearly 40 years after having seen that lioness on the beach, Philip witnessed the most unlikely of all desert lions, the orphaned sisters, back on the coast.

For all of Philip's hardships and personal sacrifice in giving his life's work to the desert lions, they rewarded him by making his dream a resounding reality.

DR. STANDER: The day that Alpha and Bravo brought these small little cubs to the beach for the first time, that's when I knew that it had come full circle.

It was my dream right from the beginning to understand the lions, to study them, to document their behavior, but ultimately, through conservation efforts, to see them return to the coastal habitat.

And I think there's a great lesson to the world.

We as the human race, as people, we were responsible for the lions leaving the coastal area.

We essentially killed them all.

We have a great impact on our environment but we also have the ability to repair it.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have been part of such a success story.

The lions are back on the beach, and the culture has been restored.

The knowledge has been passed on.

And the world is a better place for that.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ To learn more about what you've seen on this "Nature" program, visit pbs.org.

♪♪