TV review: Jaguars – Born Free was full of cuteness, but there was a bitter truth behind all this bonding.
Letting go, I’m told, is hard for parents. Forget the guff about property ladders and rental rates, the rise in twentysomethings failing to fly the nest is as much about the grown-ups trying to keep their kids kids as it is about economic austerity. Though why they want to do it beats me.
But if I was dad to the three cute jaguar cubs featured in Jaguars – Born Free (BBC2), well, that’s a whole different ball game. Having reared a trio of orphaned jaguars from babyhood, it was easy to see why Brazilian biologists Leandro and Anah Silveira found it emotionally wrenching to release their offspring to the wild.
The Silveiras knew when they rescued them that they couldn’t turn away, it was a life-changing commitment. They talked about the cubs as if they were their own children. Maya was the smallest and most playful, and Anah’s favourite, Kyra, was more aggressive – ‘she dominates the other two’ – while Xavanti, the only male, was a gentle giant, ‘a typical male, the teenager that’s starting to go out’, said Leandro with a dad’s pride.
There was a bitter truth behind all this bonding. Jaguars are increasingly endangered in Brazil, slaughtered by cattle ranchers. Leandro showed us the evidence: ‘I can picture each of the skins as a living jaguar.’ And raising them wasn’t all sweetness and light, with one gruesome sequence showing the cubs honing their fledgling hunting skills on some captive mini-ostriches, farmed for their meat.
When the heartbreaking parting came, it was a Hollywood movie-in-waiting, Brangelina a shoo-in for the Silveira role. Add in Christoph Waltz as an evil cattle baron and you could even be talking Oscars.