Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3981 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-06-09
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 150 minutes

DVD Description
As David Attenborough, narrator of this revealing documentary says: "This is the most intimate portrait of tigers ever seen."

From the day their eyes open and they tumble out of the den, Tiger – Spy in the Jungle captures the day-to-day lives of four tiny tiger cubs as they grow up alongside their devoted mother in the very heart of India.

The tiger is not only the world’s favourite wild animal but also one of the rarest.

To enter the world of this tiger family, John Downer and his wizard team, cameraman Michael Richards and techno-boffin Geoff Bell, deploy the ultimate all-terrain camera vehicles – elephants – kitted out with the latest high-definition ‘secret weapons’ of wildlife filmmaking – trunk-cam, tusk-cam and log-cams. The four elephants here in India’s Pench national park have also been taught new filming skills by their mahouts – how to keep a steady trunk and a delicate touch.

As eco-friendly 4X4s, the elephants carry the hefty trunk-cam and smaller tusk-cam wherever the tiger family goes across its 10-square mile territory. The tigers seem oblivious to the elephants and allow them to place trunk-cam right under their whiskers to film. The elephants also use the devices to film the tigers on the move. The human film crew film from another elephant and control the ele-cams remotely.

Tigers may be the A-list celebrities, but there’s a cast of rising B-list stars too. Cheeky langur monkeys are transfixed by their reflections in log-cam, and rare sloth bears, red dogs and a leopard with her cubs all make cameo appearances.

It’s almost unheard of for four cubs to survive through to adulthood, and these four face many dangers along the way – from rogue male tigers and leopards in their territory to being left home alone. Tiger – Spy in the Jungle is there every step of the way.

Synopsis
Bouldercam and a host of new spycams are on their most exciting mission yet. Carried by elephants, they film India's most charismatic big cat deep inside the Indian jungle, uncovering the hidden wildlife that shares the tiger's realm. This revealing programme follows the different stages of a tiger's life from playful cubs, to learning adolescents and ultimately to young hunting adults. It also provides a unique insight into how the relationship with the other jungle animals changes as they mature including sloth bears - a rarely filmed bear with a unique character - famous for carrying its comical babies on its back, and leopards - the tiger's major competitor.

Customer Reviews

Stunning
This DVD (from the BBC series) is truly stunning. It grabs your heart from the first minute and doesn't let go until the end and beyond. It is the story of a female tiger in India and her 4 cubs (2 girls, 2 boys) from when they are 10 days old and we follow them through babyhood, adolesence and watch them as they make their first steps to becoming independent. Most of the filming is done by "trunkcam" which are log shaped cameras that elephants carry on their trunks as they wander through the jungle. The cubs don't seem at all phased by them and indeed are sometimes so intrigued that they get so close that one trunkcam ends up submerged in the pool and being tossed around by an over excited tiger cub!

The DVD is a story, narrated by David Attenborough, rather than bitesize chunks about various animals. It's narrated cleverly so that we feel compelled to keep watching the tigers as they go about their daily business. There are some very funny parts and some sad parts but ultimatley it is a joy to watch them develop into adulthood. I may be bisaed as I am a tiger fanatic but I would wholeheartely recommend this DVD to all.

Another excellent BBC wildlife documentary series
This captivating series follows a family of Indian tigers from when the cubs are 10 days old to when they reach maturity. Using modern filming techniques (and disguised cameras carried by elephants), this film gets amazingly close to the tigers, their prey and their rivals, and captures their hunting and family behaviour in ground-breaking detail. There are fewer than 3500 Indian tigers left alive in the wild, and this is probably the best footage we'll ever see of a young family.

The narration is top-notch as usual from David Attenborough, although the infatuation with 'rock cam' and 'trunk cam' and the like is getting a bit old. However the pictures are well worth the techno-wheez, because we see the four cubs from their earliest days in intimate close-up. It's unusual for a tiger litter to be this big, and the young mother has real trouble keeping all four of them under control (even when they can hardly walk straight!)
The filming and script are unsentimental, if a little bit dramatic to keep things pepped up. In fact the tiger cubs are under constant threat. They live on a wildlife reserve but even so must be protected from poachers. The only protection from other animals is their mother, who must hunt for herself and the cubs, and keep away leopards and jackals, and fend off any strange male adult tigers. She also has to do a formidable amoutn of hunting to keep the cubs from starving, and it's fascinating to watch her stalking, chasing and -- sometimes -- actually catching the deer she regularly preys upon.

OK, so if you've seen many wildlife films then you're used to the life cycle of a tiger and there are no great shocks here. But the level of depth is remarkable; the cubs are utterly unafraid of the cameras and frolic around next to them, swimming in pools to beat the summer heat. The cameras also capture the other animals which share their territory -- monkeys, deer, sloth bears and red dogs and more.
The series follows the family for two years as the cubs grow to maturity, and survive the threats from their surroundings and other animals. Finally the play fights turn to real aggression and the family has to break up, so that the young tigers can find territories of their own. If you aren't moved by their story then your heart has indeed turned to stone. Watch it before they are all gone...
9/10

tigers, leopards, sloth bears and wild boar. what more could you ask for?
this is aces, this miniseries. (or it was when it was on TV anyway) maybe there's a bit too much banging on about 'bouldercams' and 'trunkcams' and for all i know 'apecams' and 'pigcams', and maybe Sir David has been corralled into doing that annoying 'ramping up the tension' thing they do on Big Cat Diary (will Simba's cubs be eaten by jackals? of course they won't! we wouldn't put that on the telly!). But its long enough that it can take a good, leisurely look at the animals and their world - something that isn't always the case with the flagship 'life' series - the photography is as stunning as you'd expect, the pacing is good, and - well, what's wrong with you? tiger cubs! look at their little faces!