Lion: The Rise and Fall of the Marsh Pride
PBS Western Reserve (WNEO 45.1 / WEAO 49.1):
Wednesday, Sept. 14, at 9 PM
Thursday, Sept. 15, at 2 AM
The new documentary LION: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE MARSH PRIDE tells the epic story of the famed lion family as they battle for survival in Kenya’s Maasai Mara Reserve. Filmed for over 30 years by the BBC and others and known worldwide, the Marsh Pride is facing its toughest fight yet as conflict between the lions and humans increases. A powerful and often heart-wrenching tale of shifting loyalties, bloody takeovers, complex family dynamics and sheer resilience, the lions’ story is told by those who filmed them, tried to protect them, lived alongside them—and by some who ultimately want them dead.
The Marsh Pride became famous worldwide thanks to a series of wildlife films that chronicled the lives of its members for over 30 years. Featured in LION are Simon King and Jonathan Scott, naturalists and filmmakers who first followed the pride in “Big Cat Diary” in 1996 and made the pride’s lions household names. This film combines archival footage and recently shot film showing how the lions now find themselves increasingly at odds with their human neighbors.
Buffalo and male lions pose a deadly threat to young cubs, and human settlements are encroaching more and more onto pride territory. The fortunes of the lions depend on the precious space they have left to be able to raise their young. But the lions’ more frequent attacks on increasing numbers of local cattle and subsequent revenge attacks by Maasai herders—including the use of a poison that kills other animals as well—threaten the pride as never before.
Over the past decades, over half of Africa’s lions have been wiped out, leaving around 20,000 in the wild. Habitat loss and huge population growth increasingly put them in direct confrontation with humans. Today the Marsh Pride remains in its historic territory, though the landscape around the lions has radically changed. The threats to their survival are increasing, as they are for lions across the continent. The future of these noble animals hangs in the balance.