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NATURE: The Desert Lions

A young lioness in the Namib Desert on Africa's wild and forbidding Skeleton Coast.
Courtesy of Dr. Flip Stander; ©BBC 2006
A young lioness in the Namib Desert on Africa's wild and forbidding Skeleton Coast.

Airs Sunday, October 23, 2011 at 8 p.m. on KPBS TV

The world's most extraordinary population of lions lives in the Namib Desert on Africa's wild and forbidding Skeleton Coast.

Philip Stander, a Namibian carnivore specialist, first spotted these desert lions in the mid-1980s, watching in disbelief as a lioness killed a fur seal in the waves and dragged it five miles inland to feed her cubs. Before he had a chance to study them further, they disappeared. Stander became obsessed with their fate and their story.

Twenty years later, the lions reappeared, giving him a second chance to unravel their secrets. The lions, and Stander’s efforts to understand their secrets, are featured in "Nature: The Desert Lions."

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Preview: Nature: The Desert Lions
Video Excerpt: Nature: The Desert Lions

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