TV Reviews : Brutality Comes Unexpectedly in ‘Queen of the Beasts’

Shocking isn’t a word that can often be applied to nature programs, but without a doubt it fits CBS’s “Queen of the Beasts,” airing at 8 tonight on Channels 2 and 8).

Disturbed by all the killing and chowing-down that goes on on many TV programs about animals in the wild? “Queen” has more than its share. But its portrayal of brutality goes beyond the expected--enough so to dash a lot of romantic notions about its subject, the lions of Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park.

Though first focusing on the females of the prides (as groups of lions are called)--on how they “represent the pride’s most stable element,” on how they’re “devoted mothers,” and on how naturalists observe them--the key sequence turns out to be one centering on males. This portion of the hour contains--for the first time on film, according to narrator Lindsay Wagner--a scene of two male lions taking over a pride by not only running off the older males already there, but also by murdering all of the pride’s cubs.

Wagner’s ever-calm voice assures us--quite accurately--that this is just genes at work. The females (who accept this behavior and immediately start flirting with the new males) won’t mate with the new males as long as there are cubs from a previous mating to care for, preventing the new males from siring cubs with their own genes.

Still, this ritual--probably unmentioned in the other shows about lions you’ve seen--will be a tough thing for many animal lovers to hear about, let alone see so graphically illustrated.

Setting that aside, “Queen of the Beasts” is about par for the course as nature specials go, well produced and photographed.