Research Assessment #5

Date: October 25, 2018

Subject:
MLA or APA Citation: Joubert, Dereck. “Life Lessons from Big Cats.” Ted, Ted,
www.ted.com/talks/beverly_dereck_joubert_life_lessons_from_big_cats
Analysis:
Beverly Joubert explained that they followed a pride of lions and discovered that
the pride tended to hunt the herds of buffalos in the water. Not only can these tactics be
applied by the big cats be connected to water predators such as Alligators and
Crocodiles, but they also connects lions to tigers. I previously thought tigers were the
only big cats that enjoyed swimming and made majority of their interactions through
water. Beverly’s researched proved my assumptions wrong, which changed my
perspective of the big cat family not liking water.

As Dereck Joubert told the story of observing a pride of lionesses attacking an

elephant, he explained the concept of death beginning in the eyes, which took me awhile
to process. It is a common thing for people to explain that they could see the life taken
out of someone by the look that the “dead” person is giving them. The fact the eyes can
express so much about the elephant, by showing its struggles and how the it finally
gave up, is astonishing. But quickly after those meloncolonyl eyes instantaneously
change to a determined look as the elephant rose from his soon to be grave. The
elephant couldn’t verbally explain to Dereck his change of heart to preserve, but he
explained it through his eyes. This moment makes me realize the importance of body
language, especially the eyes, because working in a veterinary clinic, you wouldn’t
simply ask your patient what was wrong with them. Instead you would have to
understand them through their eyes, which could explain a majority of the problem to
the veterinarian.

Beverly Joubert continued to explain their experience with watching the growing
up process of the leopard cub. Once the cub completed her first hunting mission, she
ended up killing a baboon for her first kill, but with her meal was a now orphaned baby.
Instead of furiously killing the baby for food, the leopard took the baby up into a tree and
protected her from harm. She cleaned and cuddled the baby to keep her warm, just like
a mother leopard would do for her cub. The leopard’s motherly instincts came to the
surface and allowed a sensitive side to be exposed through her gently actions to Beverly
and Dereck. This interaction revealed the complexity of these big cats, which made me
realize how individuals shouldn’t base their beliefs of animal’s normal actions through
stereotypes. Just because an animal comes into the clinic and is highly muscular and
has a huge jaw, does not automatically mean this animal is vicious. A prime example of
a commonly misjudged dog breed are Pitbulls due to the bull like makeup. Now with a
new mindset from watching this video, if I come across a Pitbull in the clinic, I won’t
automatically assume them to be aggressive, but instead I would have an open mind to
the animal just like I would with any other smaller pets.

Beverly Joubert explained how if one male lion was killed, for either being used
as artwork on the wall or for its maine, it would lead the whole pride to be vulnerable to
attacks from lone lions, who want to take over the newly available pride. This action
would start by the lone lion wiping out all the cubs to get rid of any remaining DNA left
from previously alpha lion, so he could start his own new bloodline. This could lead to
the lone lion also wiping out some lionesses who tries to protect their cubs. Since the
lone lion killed off a good portion of the top predators, it completely disrupted several
other animal groups in the ecosystem by allowing them to grow in numbers far too
much. This information enrages me because humans usually want to be the most
dominant figure in the world, so they tend to kill off other top predators just to prove
how powerful they are. This causes so many beautiful big cat species to come near
extinction, which inspires me to start protesting against these actions more
aggressively. By being more active in trying to save these animals lives, I would be
taking a step closer to saving the animals I am most passionate about.

After reading this article, I believe I have gained more confidence in how much
passionate I have for wildlife and how much I respect the wildlife community. This
article made me realize, again, why I wanted to be a Wildlife Veterinarian, which was to
assist in getting these beautiful species away from extinction. I can conclude that I truly
want to pursue something working with wildlife, especially big cats, in the future.
Beverly Joubert: We are truly passionate about the African wilderness and protecting
the African wilderness, and so what we've done is we've focused on iconic cats. And I
know, in the light of human suffering and poverty and even climate change, one would
wonder, why worry about a few cats? Well today we're here to share with you a message
that we have learned from a very important and special character -- this leopard.
00:43
Dereck Joubert: Well, our lives have basically been like a super long episode of "CSI" --
something like 28 years. In essence, what we've done is we've studied the science,
we've looked at the behavior, we've seen over 2,000 kills by these amazing animals. But
one of the things that science really lets us down on is that personality, that individual
personality that these animals have. And here's a prime example. We found this leopard
in a 2,000-year-old baobab tree in Africa, the same tree that we found her mother in and
her grandmother. And she took us on a journey and revealed something very special to
us -- her own daughter, eight days old. And the minute we found this leopard, we
realized that we needed to move in, and so we basically stayed with this leopard for the
next four-and-a-half years -- following her every day, getting to know her, that individual
personality of hers, and really coming to know her. Now I'm destined to spend a lot of
time with some unique, very, very special, individualistic and often seductive female
characters. (Laughter) Beverly's clearly one of them,and this little leopard, Legadema, is
another, and she changed our lives.
02:07
BJ: Well we certainly did spend a lot of time with her -- in fact, more time than even her
mother did. When her mother would go off hunting, we would stay and film. And early
on, a lightning bolt hit a tree 20 paces away from us. It was frightening, and it showered
us with leaves and a pungent smell. And of course, we were stunned for a while, but
when we managed to get our wits about us, we looked at it and said, "My gosh, what's
going to happen with that little cub? She's probably going to forever associate that
deafening crash with us." Well, we needn't have worried. She came charging out of the
thicket straight towards us, sat next to us, shivering, with her back towards Dereck, and
looking out. And actually from that day on, she's been comfortable with us. So we felt Commented [1]: It's crazy to think that a bond
between animals and humans can happen to
that that day was the day that she really earned her name. We called her Legadema, sporadically, yet last for a lifetime.
which means, "light from the sky."
03:04
DJ: Now we've found these individualisms in all sorts of animals, in particular in the
cats. This particular one is called Eetwidomayloh, "he who greets with fire," and you can
just see that about him, you know -- that's his character. But only by getting up close to
these animals and spending time with them can we actually even reach out and dig out
these personal characters that they have.
03:25
BJ: But through our investigation, we have to seek the wildest places in Africa.And right
now this is in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Yes, it is swamp. We live in the swamp
in a tent, but I must tell you, every day is exhilarating. But also, our hearts are in our
throats a huge amount of the time, because we're driving through water, and it's an
unknown territory. But we're really there seeking and searching and filming the iconic
cats.
03:53
DJ: Now one of the big things, of course, everybody knows that cats hate water, and so
this was a real revelation for us. And we could only find this by pushing ourselves, by
going where no sane person should go -- not without some prompting, by the way, from
Beverly -- and just pushing the envelope,going out there, pushing our vehicle, pushing
ourselves. But we've managed to find that these lions are 15 percent bigger than any
others, and they specialize in hunting buffalo in the water. Commented [2]: I didn't realize any other big cats
besides Tigers associated with water what so ever.
04:24
BJ: And then of course, the challenge is knowing when to turn around. We don't always
get that right, and on this particular day, we seriously underestimated the depth. We got
deeper and deeper, until it was at Derek's chest-height. Well then we hit a deep
depression, and we seriously submerged the vehicle. We actually managed to drown
two million dollars' worth of camera gear. We drowned our pride, I must tell you, which
was really serious, and we seized the engine.
04:58
DJ: And of course, one of the rules that we have in the vehicle is that he who drowns the
vehicle gets to swim with the crocodiles. (Laughter) You will notice also that all of these
images here are taken from the top angle by Beverly -- the dry top angle, by the way.
(Laughter) But all the places we get stuck in really have great views. And it wasn't a
moment, and these lions came back towards us, and Beverly was able to get a great
photograph.
05:23
BJ: But we truly do spend day and night trying to capture unique footage. And 20 years
ago, we did a film called "Eternal Enemies" where we managed to capture this unusual
disturbing behavior across two species -- lions and hyenas. And surprisingly, it became
a cult film. And we can only work that outas people were seeing parallels between the
thuggish side of nature and gang warfare.
05:52
DJ: It was amazing, because you can see that this lion is doing exactly what his name,
Eetwidomayloh, represents. He's focused on this hyena, and he is going to get it.
(Animal sounds) But that's, I think, what this is all about, is that these individuals have
these personalities and characters. But for us to get them, not only do we push
ourselves, but we live by certain rules of engagement, which mean we can't interfere.
This sort of behavior has been going on for three, four, five million years, and we can't
step in and say, "That's wrong, and that's right." But that's not always easy for us.
06:32
BJ: So, as Derek says, we have to work through extremes -- extreme temperatures, push
ourselves at night. Sleep deprivation is extreme. We're on the edge through a large part
of the time. But, for 10 years, we tried to capture lions and elephants together -- and
never ever managed until this particular night. And I have to tell you that it was a
disturbing night for me. I had tears rolling down my cheeks. I was shaking with anxiety,
but I knew that [I had] to capture something that had never been seen before, had never
been documented. And I do believe you should stay with us.
07:13
DJ: The amazing thing about these moments -- and this is probably a highlight of our
career -- is that you never know how it's going to end. Many people believe, in fact, that
death begins in the eyes, not in the heart, not in the lungs,and that's when people give up
hope, or when any life form gives up hope.And you can see the start of it here. This
elephant, against overwhelming odds,simply gives up hope. But by the same token, you
can get your hope back again. So just when you think it's all over, something else
happens, some spark gets into you, some sort of will to fight -- that iron will that we all
have, that this elephant has, that conservation has, that big cats have. Everything has
that will to survive, to fight, to push through that mental barrier and to keep going. And
for us, in many ways, this elephant has become a symbol of inspiration for us,a symbol
of that hope as we go forward in our work. Commented [3]: The elephant astonishingly defeated
all the concept of taking the easy way out and survived
08:37 by pushing through the hardships.
(Applause)
08:48
Now back to the leopard. We were spending so much time with this leopard and getting
to understand her individualism, her personal character, that maybe we were taking it a
little bit far. We were perhaps taking her for granted,and maybe she didn't like that that
much. This is about couples working together, and so I do need to say that within the
vehicle we have quite strict territories, Beverly and I. Beverly sits on the one side where
all her camera gear is, and I'm on the other side where my space is. These are precious
to us, these divides.
09:21
BJ: But when this little cub saw that I had vacated my seat and climbed to the back to
get some camera gear, she came in like a curious cat to come and investigate. It was
phenomenal, and we felt grateful that she trusted us to that extent. But at the same
time, we were concerned that if she created this as a habit and jumped into somebody
else's car, it might not turn out the same way -- she might get shot for that. So we knew
we had to react quickly. And the only way we thought we could without scaring her is to
try and simulate a growl like her mother would make -- a hiss and a sound. So Dereck
turned on the heater fan in the car -- very innovative.
10:02
DJ: It was the only way for me to save the marriage, because Beverly felt she was being
replaced, you see. (Laughter) But really and truly, this was how this little leopard was
displaying her individual personality. But nothing prepared us for what happened next in
our relationship with her, when she started hunting.
10:21
BJ: And on this first hunt, we truly were excited. It was like watching a graduation
ceremony. We felt like we were surrogate parents. And of course, we knew now that she
was going to survive. But only when we saw the tiny baby baboon clinging to the
mother's fur did we realize that something very unique was taking place here with
Legadema. And of course, the baby baboon was so innocent, it didn't turn and run. So
what we watched over the next couple of hours was very unique. It was absolutely
amazing when she picked it up to safety, protecting it from the hyena. And over the next
five hours, she took care of it. We realized that we actually don't know everything, and
that nature is so unpredictable, we have to be open at all times. Commented [4]: Many people misjudge animals
based on what their outside features may be, but in
11:16 reality whats on the inside is completely different.
DJ: Okay, so she was a little bit rough. (Laughter) But in fact, what we were seeing here
was interesting. Because she is a cub wanting to play, but she was also a predator
needing to kill, and yet conflicted in some way, because she was also an emerging
mother. She had this maternal instinct, much like a young girl on her way to
womanhood, and so this really took us to this new level of understanding that
personality.
11:55
BJ: And of course, through the night, they lay together. They ended up sleeping for
hours. But I have to tell you -- everybody always asks, "What happened to the baby
baboon?" It did die, and we suspect it was from the freezing winter nights.
12:10
DJ: So at this stage, I guess, we had very, very firm ideas on what conservation meant.
We had to deal with these individual personalities. We had to deal with them with
respect and celebrate them. And so we, with the National Geographic, formed the Big
Cats Initiative to march forward into conservation,taking care of the big cats that we
loved -- and then had an opportunity to look back over the last 50 years to see how well
we had all collectively been doing.So when Beverly and I were born, there were 450,000
lions, and today there are 20,000. Tigers haven't fared any better -- 45,000 down to
maybe 3,000.
12:50
BJ: And then cheetahs have crashed all the way down to 12,000. Leopards have
plummeted from 700,000 down to a mere 50,000. Now in the extraordinary time that we
have worked with Legadema -- which is really over a five-year period -- 10,000 leopards
were legally shot by safari hunters. And that's not the only leopards that were being
killed through that period. There's an immense amount of poaching as well, and so
possibly the same amount.It's simply not sustainable. We admire them, and we fear
them, and yet, as man, we want to steal their power. It used to be the time where only
kings wore a leopard skin, but now throughout rituals and ceremonies, traditional
healers and ministers. And of course, looking at this lion paw that has been skinned, it
eerily reminds me of a human hand, and that's ironic, because their fate is in our hands.
13:53
DJ: There's a burgeoning bone trade. South Africa just released some lion bones onto
the market. Lion bones and tiger bones look exactly the same, and so in a stroke, the
lion bone industry is going to wipe out all the tigers. So we have a real problem here, no
more so than the lions do, the male lions. So the 20,000 lion figure that you just saw is
actually a red herring, because there may be 3,000 or 4,000 male lions, and they all are
actually infected with the same disease. I call it complacency -- our complacency.
Because there's a sport, there's an activity going on that we're all aware of, that we
condone. And that's probably because we haven't seen it like we are today.
14:43
BJ: And you have to know that, when a male lion is killed, it completely disrupts the
whole pride. A new male comes into the area and takes over the pride, and, of course,
first of all kills all the cubs and possibly some of the females that are defending their
cubs. So we've estimated that between 20 [and] 30 lions are killed when one lion is
hanging on a wall somewhere in a far-off place. Commented [5]: I never realized how impactful it was
for a pride to lose one of the dominant figures in it.
15:10
DJ: So what our investigations have shown is that these lions are essential.They're
essential to the habitat. If they disappear, whole ecosystems in Africa disappear.
There's an 80-billion-dollar-a-year ecotourism revenue stream into Africa. So this is not
just a concern about lions; it's a concern about communities in Africa as well. If they
disappear, all of that goes away. But what I'm more concerned about in many ways is
that, as we de-link ourselves from nature, as we de-link ourselves spiritually from these
animals, we lose hope,we lose that spiritual connection, our dignity, that thing within us
that keeps us connected to the planet.
15:56
BJ: So you have to know, looking into the eyes of lions and leopards right now,it is all
about critical awareness. And so what we are doing, in February, we're bringing out a
film called "The Last Lion," and "The Last Lion" is exactly what is happening right now.
That is the situation we're in -- the last lions. That is, if we don't take action and do
something, these plans will be completely devoid of big cats, and then, in turn,
everything else will disappear. And simply, if we can't protect them, we're going to have
a job protecting ourselves as well.
16:31
DJ: And in fact, that original thing that we spoke about and designed our lives by -- that
conservation was all about respect and celebration -- is probably true. That's really what
it needs. We need it. We respect and celebrate each other as a man and a woman, as a
community and as part of this planet, and we need to continue that.
16:53
And Legadema? Well we can report, in fact, that we're grandparents.
16:59
(Laughter)
17:01
BJ/DJ: Thank you very much.
17:03
(Applause)