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In a lifetime of natural
history filmmaking


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I've seen many odd animals,
but few odder than these


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proboscis monkeys in Borneo.


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I first saw them 50 years ago.


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ARCHIVE: 'Late one evening,
we had a great stroke of luck.'


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'For a troupe of the extraordinary
long nosed proboscis monkey


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'had come down to the river
bank to feed.'


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'When I started filming
such creatures,


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'it was quite easy to show viewers
animals that hitherto had only


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'been seen in the wild by
intrepid explorers.'


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'As the years passed,
one way and another, we got better


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'and better shots and in the
process, I had some memorable
encounters.'


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Boo!


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This is a very
intelligent animal.


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And top of the menu right now
is salmon.


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SNARLING


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I think that was pretty clear!


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I've been lucky enough to live
through what might be


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considered the golden
age of natural history filmmaking.


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Almost every year it seemed we found
some new way of revealing


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new things about the natural world.


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'In the 1950s, much of the wildlife
of the planet was still unfilmed,
even unknown.


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'And in the following 60 years,


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'a succession of technical
innovations enabled us to reveal
more


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'and more of the natural
world in increasing detail.'


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This is the first natural history
film I ever saw - in 1934,
when I was eight.


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And I thought it was wonderful.


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Ladies and gentlemen.


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Let me put you out of your
misery at once.


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You're not going to see me
for long, although I am inviting


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you to come on this trip with me,
you will only see me occasionally.


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The man in the pith helmet is
Cherry Kearton, one of the first


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people to try and capture
the lives of wild animals on film.


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There are five million penguins
on this island, which are called


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the jackass penguins.


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I'm always polite to animals,


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and as I intend to stay with
the penguins for several months,


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I am naturally adopting my most
friendly manner.


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Kearton travelled around the world
filming wild animals that


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had never been filmed before.


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His approach was hardly scientific,


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but nonetheless he was
very entertaining.


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His sister, a typical flapper,


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not content with being one of
the fair sex, wants to join
the air sex


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But resigns herself to just a
flip here, a flap there,


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and a flop in between.


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For all its obvious flaws, his films
captured my childish imagination


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and made me dream of travelling to
far-off places to film wild animals.


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And this is one of the very cameras
Cherry Kearton used.


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It's enclosed in a wooden box.


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It was driven by hand
and used 35mm film.


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This distance across.


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Within a few years, it was
superseded by improved models like
this one,


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which had a metal box
and it worked by clockwork


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and it had a variety of lenses.


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But it still used hefty 35mm film.


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Happily however, there were smaller
versions available.


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A camera like this.


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This used 16mm film which was
only half the size


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and it was powered by clockwork.


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But unfortunately the BBC
thought cameras like
this were unprofessional.


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And there was a huge row as to
whether or not I could be allowed
to take it.


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But in the end I did,
and it was with this I set off


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to ramble around the jungles of the
world looking for unfilmed animals.


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My first natural history series,
Zoo Quest,


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recorded the progress of animal
collecting expeditions


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arranged with the London Zoo
and brought to the screen,


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places and animals that had
never before been seen on
television,


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or in the cinema, come to that.


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One targeted the largest
lizard in the world which


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lived on the small Indonesian
island of Komodo.


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Few people had heard of it
and Indonesia no-one seemed sure
where the island was.


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Eventually, we set off with a
fisherman who said that he did,


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but after a couple of days at sea,
I had my doubts.


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I said to the captain, "You have
been to Komodo before, haven't you?"


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And he said, "Baloom."


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And I didn't know what baloom meant.


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So I had to go and find my
Indonesian dictionary and looked
it up


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and it said, "Not yet."


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So, it was clear
he didn't know the way.


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After a week at sea and having
survived encounters with coral reefs


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and whirlpools, we arrived
at what I thought must be Komodo.


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And I remember wading
ashore across a coral lagoon


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and finding a tiny little village
and saying, "Excuse me,
is this Komodo?"


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HE CHUCKLES


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And they, "Komodo". So it was OK.


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The locals recommended
we should use a dead goat as bait.


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Once in the bush we began to build
a trap using materials


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gathered from nearby,
as I recorded in my journal.


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This was the dragon trap
with a little bait in there.


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When the dragon, if he went
in the front end, trod on there,


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it pulled it down which then pulled
the ring down which released the
rod,


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which then pulled down, because
of the lump of rock on the bottom.


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So, clunk, down it would go.


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And now, all we had to do was
to wait.


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There was a rustle in the bush
and there was the dragon.


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Our first sight of this
magnificent monster.


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To my surprise, we were looking at
the trap and I heard a noise
behind me.


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I turned round
and there was the dragon.


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That was taken at that
particular moment.


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Looking at me straight in the eye
from only about a couple of
yards away.


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We looked at each other and I
thought, at least I might take
your photograph.


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So that was the photograph
I took of him.


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Then, he rather wearily heaved
himself up and strolled round us


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and went down into the dry riverbed
where we'd made the trap.


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And down came the door.


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Hastily we piled boulders on the
door so he couldn't lift it up.


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We'd got him.


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Those early films seem pretty
ordinarily these days,


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but they were nonetheless popular


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because what ever we showed was new
to most of our viewers.


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So, in the 1950s we were taking
cameras like this
all over the world.


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And then, an Austrian biologist
and filmmaker decided to try


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and take it under water.


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His name was Hans Hass,


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and he developed his own special
housing to do that.


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Hans and his wife Lotte


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were the first to bring the wonders
of life under the sea to television.


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And their programs were all
the more sensational


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because few people at that time
had scuba dived.


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Take care, down there are sharks.


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We are right on the reef's edge.


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In the '50s, sharks
had a terrible reputation.


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They were the killers of the sea.


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Anybody in water alongside a shark
was clearly courting certain death.


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Here were Hans and Lotte swimming
alongside them.


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The nation was astounded.


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The sequence certainly had shock
value, but perhaps it was also


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the first step in changing
our perceptions of sharks.


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And like all television, it was
still shown in black and white.


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So, during the Zoo Quest series
I had to describe an animal's
colour in words.


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This one was among the most
brilliantly coloured of all


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chameleons in the world.


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His eyeballs are bright, rust-red
and his body and legs striped


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and blotched with a vivid green.


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00:11:02,880 --> 00:11:05,760
But, television was changing fast.


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In the 1960s, the BBC was given
a second television network


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operating on a higher technical
standard with the specific


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job of introducing colour
television.


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And in 1965, I was
put in charge of it with an office


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here in the
Television Centre in London.


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To demonstrate colour
on television could be both accurate
and not garish,


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I commissioned a series about
the history of art.


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It was called Civilisation.


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I'm standing in the Sistine Chapel


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and above my head is
one of the greatest works of man,


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Michelangelo's ceiling.


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It was presented by Kenneth Clarke
and became a great success.


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So we followed it with other series
on a similar scale about science,


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economics and the history
of America.


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But I knew the most dazzlingly
colourful series would be
one about wildlife.


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After eight years in administration,


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I decided I wanted to go back
to making programs.


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And I put up a suggestion we should
make 13 one-hour programmes


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in colour tracing the whole history
of life on Earth.


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Thanks to the development of
jet air travel,


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we were able to film in 30 countries
around the globe.


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And as I traced the history of life
on the planet, I could appear


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to move from one continent to
another in the space of a single
sequence.


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The South American
rainforests are the richest


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and varied assemblage
of life in the world.


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These limestones in Morocco...


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Macaques live in many parts of
Japan.


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WHINING


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Life On Earth was
shown in 100 different countries


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and seen by perhaps as many as
500 million people.


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Natural history television was now
a global phenomenon,


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revealing our wonderful
world in colour to all.


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During the series,
we made full use of both colour


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and scuba gear to help show the
underwater world as never before.


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I even tried to follow Hans Hass'
lead exploring the underwater world.


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One of the problems with underwater
films was you cannot talk
underwater.


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Most of the time if you have a
breathing apparatus on your back,


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you have something in your mouth.


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But Alistair, one of my producer
colleagues, was very keen we should


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try and introduce the presenter
talking to camera underwater.


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There was a wonderful new invention
called the bubble helmet
and this is it.


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You can put a microphone in one
side of it.


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So, we went down to the swimming
pool in the hotel where we
were staying


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and this was screwed on my head.


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It took a long time to screw
it down tight to make it watertight.


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I put it on like this.


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I waded it into the water
and I hadn't gone more than
a foot underwater,


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When suddenly, water started
bubbling in, very alarming.


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It was rising around you
and I was going to drown.


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How long would it take to
get this off?


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So I came out in a hurry.
There was a fault, I said.


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00:14:32,920 --> 00:14:39,200
"Nonsense," said Alistair, "give
it to me." He put it on
his shoulders.


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And I, with some pleasure screwed
it down quite tight


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and he waded into the pool.


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And he came out even quicker
than me with water


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and he was gesticulating
to get it off.


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00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:55,080
And I finally took it off and
he said, "There's a fault."


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I said, "Yes, there is".


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So I happily left the helmet behind
and reverted to my old mask


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00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:06,720
and scuba gear when it came
to my next underwater assignment -


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to reveal the extraordinary social
behaviour and intelligence
of dolphins.


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They are full of curiosity,


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they play with odd things they find,
such as twigs,


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and swimming among them leaves you
in no doubt


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that they are highly intelligent.


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CONSTANT CLICKS AND SQUEAKS


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00:15:23,800 --> 00:15:28,120
They will even mimic you as you spin
or hang in the water.


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00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:45,320
Until the 1980s, you could only
shoot 10 minutes of film under water


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00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:48,040
before you had to come back
to the surface,


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00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:50,560
open the underwater housing,
take out the camera,


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00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:51,920
put in a new roll of film.


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00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:56,800
But then video cameras
solved that problem.


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00:15:56,800 --> 00:16:00,080
Videotapes ran for 30 minutes.


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00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:01,800
And now, at last, we had the chance


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00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:04,560
of properly recording
animal behaviour underwater.


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00:16:06,440 --> 00:16:10,360
In addition, video cameras
were far more sensitive,


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00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:13,400
so we could record at much lower
light levels,


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00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:16,600
making artificial lights
unnecessary.


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00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:20,160
It was a huge breakthrough
for underwater filming,


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00:16:20,160 --> 00:16:24,720
and crucial to the success
of The Blue Planet series.


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00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:29,240
Now it was possible to record
for the first time marlin hunting.


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00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:43,880
The seas and oceans were full
of animals


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00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:48,760
whose extraordinary behaviour,
up till now, no one had ever seen.


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00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:52,760
And the shots just got better
and better.


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00:17:00,520 --> 00:17:03,600
Cameramen could now stay underwater
long enough


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00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:05,720
to capture every moment
of the action,


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00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:08,280
and be in the right place
at the right time


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for the most dramatic events.


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00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:29,560
So now we can capture previously
unseen animal behaviour


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00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:32,200
throughout the seas of the world.


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00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:49,320
On land it had, until now, been
impossible to film animals


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00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:53,120
behaving naturally at night,
when most mammals are active.


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00:17:54,760 --> 00:17:57,000
All we could do was shine
a spotlight on them


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00:17:57,000 --> 00:17:59,680
and film them as they ran away.


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00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:10,960
And it was the same problem wherever
animals lived in darkness.


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00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:16,920
Caves are fascinating places,
but difficult places to work in.


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00:18:16,920 --> 00:18:22,680
When I first came here to this one
in Gomantong in Borneo back in 1972,


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00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:25,520
we had to bring
a lot of lights with us


235
00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:28,240
in order to film the many
millions of birds and bats


236
00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:30,400
that live in here.


237
00:18:34,120 --> 00:18:36,120
And the droppings of all those
creatures


238
00:18:36,120 --> 00:18:38,920
make the cave wreak of ammonia.


239
00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:51,120
HE INHALES


240
00:18:51,120 --> 00:18:54,240
The smell brings it all back to me.


241
00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:57,840
When I was here 40 years ago,


242
00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:01,400
the director said,
"There's a pile of droppings


243
00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:03,880
at the far end of the cave


244
00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:05,400
that goes right up to the roof."


245
00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:08,120
"Why don't you climb up to the top?"


246
00:19:08,120 --> 00:19:12,160
And when I got to the top
he shouted, "Say something!"


247
00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:13,880
So I tried.


248
00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:25,800
And...what it is is...these bats...
packed tight on the roof here.


249
00:19:25,800 --> 00:19:28,280
They're flying now all around
my head.


250
00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:30,440
This cave,
this particular part of it,


251
00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:32,840
Oohh! ..makes... (COUGHS)


252
00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:36,800
This ammonia is really
quite, quite choking.


253
00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:39,520
..makes a very perfect place
for a home.


254
00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:42,160
HIGH-PITCHED CHATTERING


255
00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:48,640
One of the really astounding things
is that this immense number of bats


256
00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:52,160
flying round here in a panic -


257
00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:54,720
not one is colliding with the other.


258
00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:59,080
Nor, indeed, am I in any danger
whatsoever of being hit by them.


259
00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:03,800
And then the director said, "Cut!",
the camera stopped,


260
00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:05,480
the lights went out,


261
00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:07,920
and a bat flew straight in my face.


262
00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:11,480
So perhaps their much praised
echo location


263
00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:14,760
is not quite as perfect
as people say.


264
00:20:15,720 --> 00:20:22,160
The film cameras we used then needed
normal white light, like these.


265
00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:25,800
But the problem with that is that
they disturb animals


266
00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:29,000
accustomed to living in the dark.


267
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:33,600
But then the security industry
developed a new type of camera


268
00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:39,000
like this one, which uses infrared
light and doesn't need these lights,


269
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:42,720
but nonetheless can see in the dark,
as you can see -


270
00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,960
I turn off one,
I turn off the other...


271
00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:52,160
..and now, even though
it's pitch dark, you can see me.


272
00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:56,080
Most animals, like us,
can't see infrared.


273
00:20:56,080 --> 00:20:58,000
And that meant that
with these cameras,


274
00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:02,200
we could now watch them behave
perfectly normally in the dark.


275
00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:07,720
And that revealed some
extraordinary behaviour.


276
00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:12,200
And also led to one or two pretty
uncomfortable moments.


277
00:21:14,280 --> 00:21:16,120
Lions are mostly active at night,


278
00:21:16,120 --> 00:21:19,680
and seldom roar during the day.


279
00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:28,000
We tried to persuade them to do so
with the help of scientists,


280
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:32,080
by playing back the roar of a
strange lion to a resident pride.


281
00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:36,840
LION ROARS


282
00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:41,760
ROARS MORE LOUDLY


283
00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:45,680
ROARS


284
00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:47,080
Even that didn't work.


285
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:57,440
But 12 years later, I set off in
an open-sided Land Rover with


286
00:21:57,440 --> 00:22:00,800
the latest infrared technology
to try again.


287
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:04,400
As usual, they were sleeping.


288
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:06,800
I would have to wait for darkness.


289
00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:10,280
INSECTS CHIRP


290
00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:12,800
GROWL/ROAR


291
00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:14,080
We drive up.


292
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:18,240
I go on one side,
the camera goes on the other.


293
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:20,400
And the lion starts roaring.


294
00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:23,920
But the problem is,
I can't see where it is.


295
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:26,520
I can't even see
where the camera is.


296
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:28,560
"Cue", says the producer.


297
00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:31,480
So I start trying to say my piece.


298
00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:33,840
Trying not to be too frightened
of this lion


299
00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:37,080
which is somewhere in the blackness,
and, as far as I can make out,


300
00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:40,840
within a couple of yards of me
and no side on the Land Rover.


301
00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:44,080
And I then had to do my piece
to camera looking around,


302
00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:47,000
seeing where on earth
the camera was.


303
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:51,320
And now in the darkness there are
a number of them roaring...


304
00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:53,400
just around here.


305
00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:59,320
There are two, I know, within
three or four yards of where I am,


306
00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:04,680
and a third,
perhaps 20 yards over there.


307
00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:09,160
Though it's difficult to tell
because it's pitch black.


308
00:23:09,160 --> 00:23:12,040
REPEATED SHORT ROARS


309
00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:17,040
Those are not aggressive roars,
they are communication roars,


310
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:20,480
but they are quite enough
to chill the blood


311
00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:22,800
in the blackness of the night.


312
00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:25,240
SHORT ROARS CONTINUE


313
00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:36,960
A few years later, similar technology
made it possible to film


314
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:40,040
one of the most extraordinary
hunting sequences ever recorded,


315
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:46,080
using whole batteries of infrared
lights mounted on vehicles.


316
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,080
ELEPHANT TRUMPETS


317
00:24:00,360 --> 00:24:03,960
A solitary lion stands no chance,


318
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:06,760
but the whole pride is here.


319
00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:11,440
There are 30 of them,


320
00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:14,800
and they are specialist
elephant hunters.


321
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:40,000
THUNDERCLAPS


322
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:43,480
This remarkable behaviour could not
have been filmed in any other way,


323
00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:46,320
and it proved conclusively what many
others had doubted -


324
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:51,480
that a big pride of lions can indeed
bring down and kill


325
00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:54,640
an animal as big as an elephant.


326
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:59,720
Other cameras were developed that
worked simply by concentrating


327
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:04,040
what little light comes
from the stars and moon.


328
00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:07,960
And we used such a starlight camera
to record an encounter I had


329
00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:11,240
with a wonderful New Zealand
nocturnal bird,


330
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:14,080
the kiwi.


331
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:17,400
We heard of a place where kiwis
came out of the bush


332
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:18,800
and walked along the beach


333
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:20,520
looking for sandhoppers.


334
00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:23,960
Now they find their way by smell,


335
00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:26,800
so I thought,
how can I conceal myself?


336
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:33,360
So I lay on the tideline where
all the rotting seaweed was lying.


337
00:25:33,360 --> 00:25:35,120
And I just lay on it.


338
00:25:35,120 --> 00:25:39,840
And this little...enchanting little
creature came slowly along,


339
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:43,000
probing its beak into the sand.


340
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:45,840
Phwff! Blowing out the sand.
Coming closer. Phwff!


341
00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:49,760
'Probing sand with your nostrils
is all very well,


342
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:52,080
'but it does clog them up.


343
00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:54,760
'So you need to blow them
clear every now and then.'


344
00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:05,520
'It's sense of smell is so acute,


345
00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:09,240
'it can pick out the largest
juiciest hoppers deep in the sand


346
00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:11,040
'without even seeing them.'


347
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:17,520
Our starlight camera can see much
better than I can.


348
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:21,840
'I need a torch to see this
extraordinary creature properly.


349
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:24,040
'But he doesn't seem to mind.'


350
00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:26,240
OCEAN CRASHES NEARBY


351
00:26:32,120 --> 00:26:36,600
He comes right up to me
because his eyes are very small.


352
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:38,920
Poor eyesight is putting it mildly.


353
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:41,600
But he can smell, but he didn't.


354
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:45,520
Because the seaweed was even
stronger smelling than me.


355
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,160
There are other ways of filming
in the dark -


356
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,440
by using thermal cameras
like this one.


357
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:03,480
Up above me there are a lot of bats.


358
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:07,240
And the camera shows them
as different colours.


359
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:13,720
The yellow lights here are bats
that have just flown in


360
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,360
and are still
warm from their exertion.


361
00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:20,800
as well as revealing where animals
are,


362
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:25,600
the thermal cameras can also
reveal something of the condition
they are in.


363
00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:29,200
For example, my face now,
because I'm rather hot,


364
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:31,800
is likely to be an orange colour.


365
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:39,520
Where I am cooler it will be red,
and this probably, is verging
on blue.


366
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:46,040
But if I take a bottle of cold
water, that's likely to be black.


367
00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:51,440
Ahhh! Very good, too.


368
00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:57,440
Thermal cameras also proved useful
in the Galapagos,


369
00:27:57,440 --> 00:27:58,840
to demonstrate some


370
00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:03,000
of the remarkable physiological
adaptations of reptiles.


371
00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:06,560
Once they are thoroughly warmed up,


372
00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:10,160
marine iguanas can maintain their
body temperature


373
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:12,480
just about as constantly as I can.


374
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:15,120
And what's more,
at about the same level,


375
00:28:15,120 --> 00:28:21,440
or indeed, slightly higher
- around 37 degrees centigrade.


376
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:26,160
But when they go into the cold sea
to feed on submerged seaweed,


377
00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:29,720
their temperature falls
very rapidly.


378
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:38,040
A recently emerged iguana is black.
It's chilled to the bone.


379
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:45,800
Now they need heat in order to be
able to digest that meal of seaweed,


380
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:49,200
and they get that by spread-eagling
themselves


381
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:50,920
on these black,
hot, sun-baked rocks.


382
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:02,240
So, thermal cameras reveal
just how skilled


383
00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:06,000
reptiles are at harnessing
the power of the sun.


384
00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:14,920
One of the things we discovered
when starting work


385
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:16,200
on the Trials of Life


386
00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:20,160
was a new lens which enabled you to
have an object close to the camera -


387
00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:22,280
a small little creature, perhaps -


388
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:27,760
and yet have all the distance to
the far horizon in complete focus.


389
00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:32,840
So I would be able to walk up from
the distance to something close
to camera,


390
00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:34,960
all the time being in focus.


391
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,080
It's not always easy to
decide in these partnerships,


392
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:40,240
which is exploiting which.


393
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:44,520
The balance of advantage
is often very delicate.


394
00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:48,320
Take for example these ants
in Australia.


395
00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:50,080
They are extremely ferocious,


396
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:51,280
and normally they will


397
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:52,800
rip apart any caterpillar.


398
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:54,880
But see
how they're treating this one.


399
00:29:56,320 --> 00:29:58,880
When we first saw that
shot in the viewing theatre...


400
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:03,760
We all went down to the canteen for
a cup of tea and talked about it,


401
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:07,760
and I heard someone next to me,
who'd just joined the team


402
00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:14,800
talking to her friend, and she said,
"Fantastic stuff they've got
in Australia. Amazing!


403
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:17,200
"But I would never want to
go there myself,


404
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:20,800
"because they have caterpillars
there that are two feet long!"


405
00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:26,320
So, sometimes with all our optical
tricks, we can get too clever.


406
00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:30,240
BIRDSONG


407
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:35,360
Never the less, insects filmed
in close-up are truly fascinating.


408
00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:39,000
These are tree ants in Borneo,


409
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:42,800
and they have a wonderful
way of making their nests.


410
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:46,560
I first tried to film
how they did so,


411
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:50,320
when I was here in Borneo
back in the '50s.


412
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:54,880
'Then we noticed this group


413
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:57,640
'with their jaws locked tight
in the lower leaf,


414
00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:00,440
'and their hind legs attached
to the upper leaf.


415
00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:06,520
'The colony is constructing
a new nest.


416
00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:08,320
'And these patient workers


417
00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:11,920
'are holding two leaves
of the future nest in position,


418
00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:13,400
'so that other members


419
00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:15,000
'can fasten them together


420
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:17,520
'to form the outer wall
of their new home.'


421
00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:24,480
To get those shots,
we had to tear apart the nest to get


422
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:27,080
the ants to work out in the open.


423
00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:29,760
These days we can do
better than that.


424
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:34,080
This is an optical probe that
I can make mover forwards or


425
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:38,120
backwards
and even...from side to side.


426
00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:43,280
And so with that,
you can go into the nest


427
00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:46,320
and get shots of the ants behaving
totally naturally.


428
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:56,400
That is a stranger in the nest.


429
00:31:56,400 --> 00:31:59,960
That is a little bug which
they are attacking.


430
00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:06,320
It was technical developments
like these that allowed us


431
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:11,000
eventually to enter
the world of the insect.


432
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,960
A motorised jib arm enables
filmmakers to suspend a camera above


433
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:18,880
a column of aggressive driver ants
and watch the organised way


434
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:22,560
they hunt through the forest.


435
00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:25,640
Workers carry the colony's larvae.


436
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:29,720
Ferocious soldiers link legs to form
a defensive roof and walls,


437
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:32,800
enclosing the column.


438
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:37,720
Were the camera or cameraman
to accidentally touch


439
00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:40,520
just one of these soldiers,
they would all immediately attack.


440
00:32:40,520 --> 00:32:42,440
But they're blind,


441
00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:46,520
and they can't see the camera
hanging just centimetres above them.


442
00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:02,280
So we can track along with them
as the army takes its prey


443
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:04,960
back to the bivouac where
the queen is waiting.


444
00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:14,040
Wildlife film-making can take
a lot of patience.


445
00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:16,720
Cameramen may have to spend hours
and hours,


446
00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:20,040
if not days and weeks,
to film one particular action.


447
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:25,000
But that can be helped using modern
security technology.


448
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:29,920
And we used such technology to get
a shot of something


449
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:33,280
that as far as I know, had never
been filmed before in the wild.


450
00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:41,080
Rattlesnakes hunting.


451
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:48,240
Scientists working in New York State
had implanted radio transmitters in


452
00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:51,560
a group of rattlesnakes so that each
could be found by using an aerial.


453
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:54,640
There he is.


454
00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:57,640
The camera crew placed remotely
controlled cameras


455
00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:01,880
and infrared lights next
to a snake lying in ambush.


456
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:07,280
The cameras were attached to motion
detectors that would turn them on


457
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:10,760
if anything moved in their
field of vision.


458
00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:13,840
The following night
I checked the replay.


459
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:20,120
There's a mouse.


460
00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:31,560
It's pitch dark and the mouse
clearly has no idea the snake
is there.


461
00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:34,320
Bu the snake is well
aware of the mouse.


462
00:34:38,240 --> 00:34:42,720
He's worked out that that is the
path along which the mice run.


463
00:34:47,720 --> 00:34:49,480
Oh, my goodness!


464
00:34:55,720 --> 00:34:58,200
That's a dead mouse, all right.


465
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:04,480
So it was that technology designed
to keep burglars out of our homes,


466
00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:10,520
enabled us to record the
rattlesnake's hunting strategy
in the wild.


467
00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:19,760
Another revelatory film technique
involves playing with time -


468
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:21,800
slowing down the action.


469
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:24,000
Cameramen have long down that,


470
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:28,040
simply by increasing the number
of images taken per second.


471
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:31,240
Kestrels are known as wind-hoverers,


472
00:35:31,240 --> 00:35:36,040
because of their apparent ability
to hang motionless in the air.


473
00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:40,480
And slow motion photography
enables us to see details


474
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:44,280
of their flying technique that we
can't see with the naked eye.


475
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:49,640
By filming this trained bird,
with this special camera,


476
00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:52,160
we can slow down the motion
and see exactly how they do it.


477
00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:57,880
It's flying at the same speed
as the oncoming wind, and the air


478
00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:02,240
flowing over its wings provides just
enough lift top keep it airborne.


479
00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:08,400
By flying as slowly as this,
they risk stalling,


480
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:12,600
because the windflow over the wing
doesn't provide enough lift.


481
00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:17,320
Slowing down the action by ten
times, we can see how the


482
00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:21,800
kestrel extends the finger-like
projection on the leading edge
of its wing


483
00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:27,560
and spreads its tail-feathers
to generate more lift.


484
00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:30,320
Commercial airliners do
the same thing


485
00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:34,920
when they adjust their wing flaps
to slow them down for landing.


486
00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:42,440
If a kestrel is to see its prey
successfully while hovering,


487
00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:44,720
it has to keep its head
perfectly still,


488
00:36:44,720 --> 00:36:49,000
not easy when the wind is constantly
trying to blow you off position.


489
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:50,480
But in slow motion,


490
00:36:50,480 --> 00:36:55,920
you can see how the kestrel responds
immediately to changes in the wind.


491
00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:58,240
Constantly adjusting
the set of its wings


492
00:36:58,240 --> 00:37:02,600
and allowing it's neck
to stretch and contract.


493
00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:06,560
So that while its body
is constantly moving,


494
00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:12,320
its eyes stay fixed
and can spot the slightest movement
on the ground below.


495
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:19,000
One of my favourite
slow-motion moments


496
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:25,120
was when I was able to fool a
lovesick hoverfly with a peashooter.


497
00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:31,960
It might seem
that he's absolutely motionless,


498
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:38,440
but, in fact, he's having to make
continual changes to adjust
for slight currents in the air.


499
00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:40,560
It's an amazing piece of acrobatics,


500
00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:47,480
far better than anything that
we could do in a helicopter.


501
00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:52,040
And it's all done in order
to impress the female


502
00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:58,120
to show her that he is superb
at holding his territory.


503
00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:03,840
With his superb eyesight,
he's ready to spot anything


504
00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:08,240
that might whiz by him at high
speed that could be a female.


505
00:38:08,240 --> 00:38:13,400
And I might just be able to fool
him with a peashooter.


506
00:38:20,240 --> 00:38:25,440
By watching his response
slowed down by about 50 times,


507
00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:31,120
it's clear that the male is indeed
so hyped up that he will pursue
any fast-moving object


508
00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:35,080
that comes near him in the hope
that it might be a female.


509
00:38:35,080 --> 00:38:39,480
Those poor males
must have been exhausted by the time
I'd finished with them.


510
00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:47,600
By combining the best macro-lenses
with digital slow-motion cameras,


511
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:54,880
we were able to reveal
the extreme athletic prowess
of some even tinier creatures.


512
00:38:57,800 --> 00:39:05,840
These springtails, as they're name
suggests, have a rather novel way of
jumping.


513
00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:14,160
They have a tiny two-pronged lever
beneath their abdomen.


514
00:39:14,160 --> 00:39:19,800
One small flick from it can
catapult them six inches, some 15
centimetres, into the air.


515
00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:29,920
It's the equivalent of a human being
jumping over the Eiffel Tower.


516
00:39:35,720 --> 00:39:37,440
So with slow-motion cameras,


517
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:44,920
we can watch actions and distinguish
details that are impossible to see
with the naked eye.


518
00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:19,080
At the other end of the scale,
we can manipulate time to speed up
excessive slow action.


519
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:22,000
This is a time-lapse studio


520
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:25,800
where you can control lights
and cameras very precisely.


521
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:29,640
A film camera
shoots 25 frames per second,


522
00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:33,960
but if you modify one so that it
only shoots one frame per second


523
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:36,440
and then show the film
at normal speed,


524
00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:39,400
well, then, you increase the speed
of action by 25m times.


525
00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:46,040
And as the sophistication
of time-lapse photography
has increased,


526
00:40:46,040 --> 00:40:52,480
so we've been able to show that
plants can be as competitive
and aggressive as many an animal.


527
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:06,400
And it was the mastery of time-lapse
that allowed us to make a series
called The Private Life of Plants.


528
00:41:16,880 --> 00:41:19,200
Condense three months
into 20 seconds,


529
00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:24,800
and the desolation of winter quickly
warms into the riot of spring.


530
00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:34,320
Speed a week into a minute,
and you can sense the urgency


531
00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:38,160
with which the ground-living plants
race to unfurl their flowers.


532
00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:55,200
Of all the woodland plants,
the humble bramble
is one of the most aggressive.


533
00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:59,280
It waves its shoots agitatedly
from side to side


534
00:41:59,280 --> 00:42:02,240
as if feeling
for the best way forward.


535
00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:12,320
The invading stem's
backward-pointing spines


536
00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:17,640
give it the grip it needs
to climb almost anything
that stands in its way.


537
00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:20,600
It can advance as much as seven
centimetres in a day.


538
00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:31,720
Now digital cameras allow us
to see how a shot is developing
while we are still taking it,


539
00:42:31,720 --> 00:42:37,360
instead of having to wait till it
was finished as we used to
have to do with film cameras.


540
00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:41,440
And we can also use computers
attached to small motors


541
00:42:41,440 --> 00:42:46,040
to move a camera
in-between exposed frames,


542
00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:51,760
so that the camera can, in fact,
travel alongside the plant.


543
00:43:10,240 --> 00:43:17,480
Using this new technology,
it became possible to condense
the arrival of spring in a woodland


544
00:43:17,480 --> 00:43:18,600
into a few seconds.


545
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:34,080
But the wonderful thing about
wildlife film making


546
00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:36,880
is that no matter how much you've
seen and filmed,


547
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:40,320
there's always going to be something
to surprise you.


548
00:43:40,320 --> 00:43:41,720
I remember back in 1994,


549
00:43:41,720 --> 00:43:47,760
we were filming nepenthes rajah, the
largest pitcher plant in the world,


550
00:43:47,760 --> 00:43:50,840
growing up
in the mountains of Borneo.


551
00:43:50,840 --> 00:43:56,040
And I made an assumption
about how it obtained
its nitrogen fertiliser.


552
00:43:58,200 --> 00:44:02,800
I guess this one...


553
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:08,560
contains...
two or three pints of liquid.


554
00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:14,600
It's so big that it catches not just
insects but even small rodents.


555
00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:20,520
And one was recorded that has in it
the body of a drowned rat.


556
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:23,680
So if ever there was a carnivore
among plants, this is it.


557
00:44:25,240 --> 00:44:26,880
But I was wrong.


558
00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:32,880
In 2010, scientists discovered that
the plant gets its nitrogen


559
00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:35,240
in a quite different way.


560
00:44:35,240 --> 00:44:41,520
And we couldn't resist going back
to see of we could find out
what the truth was.


561
00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:46,120
Mount Kinabalu in Sabah is home
to many rajah pitcher plants.


562
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:50,880
BUZZING
They certainly seem
to attract insects.


563
00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:53,800
that fall into their bowls
just as other pitchers do,


564
00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:56,280
but they also have larger visitors.


565
00:44:56,280 --> 00:44:59,520
A tree shrew.


566
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:07,200
It's licking
the underside of the lid


567
00:45:07,200 --> 00:45:13,200
where the pitcher secretes nectar
with which it lures visitors.


568
00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:16,280
But even though its backside is
hanging over the bowl,


569
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:20,640
it doesn't seem to be in any danger
of falling in and drowning.


570
00:45:20,640 --> 00:45:24,040
So what's going on?


571
00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:25,080
It leaves a clue.


572
00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:26,120
A dropping.


573
00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:33,320
So the pitcher
is a tree shrew toilet.


574
00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:38,440
The tree shrew feeds
by licking the secretions
from the pitcher plant's lid


575
00:45:38,440 --> 00:45:45,320
and the pitcher plant
gets its fertiliser by collecting
the tree shrew's droppings.


576
00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:51,240
Wildlife cameramen are always
trying to film


577
00:45:51,240 --> 00:45:55,640
some piece of animal behaviour
that no-one has ever see before.


578
00:45:55,640 --> 00:46:00,560
And aerial photography
enable then to do just that.


579
00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:09,960
In the early days, we occasionally
managed to get up in a small plane
to get a shot of the landscape.


580
00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:16,680
But the plane vibrated so much
that you couldn't use long lenses
to get close-ups of animals


581
00:46:16,680 --> 00:46:20,240
and if you went low the roar
of the engine frightened them.


582
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:26,880
So we tried
other forms of aerial transport.


583
00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:35,680
Balloons were a little quieter, but
they took you where the wind blew
them, not where you wanted to go.


584
00:46:35,680 --> 00:46:39,200
And getting steady shots
was still difficult.


585
00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:49,560
It wasn't until the invention
of a kind of mount


586
00:46:49,560 --> 00:46:55,080
that could hold the camera almost
miraculously free of vibration


587
00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:58,120
that it was possible to use
the long lenses necessary


588
00:46:58,120 --> 00:47:02,560
in order to film animals
from a height and they didn't
even know you were there.


589
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:10,880
It's almost impossible to follow
a wild dog hunt at ground level


590
00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:14,800
through the treacherous swamplands
of the Okavango Delta in Africa.


591
00:47:16,560 --> 00:47:19,160
But the Planet Earth series
used a helicopter


592
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:23,640
with a new stabilising mount that
kept the camera vibration-free


593
00:47:23,640 --> 00:47:31,000
and you could get close-ups from
so high up that the animals below
didn't know you were there.


594
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:33,920
There they go.
They're racing. They're racing.


595
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:37,640
Four dogs all spread out.


596
00:47:37,640 --> 00:47:39,680
Tighten up a much as you can.


597
00:47:39,680 --> 00:47:42,880
By inter-cutting aerial shots
and shots from the ground,


598
00:47:42,880 --> 00:47:46,080
we could show how the dogs
worked as a team,


599
00:47:46,080 --> 00:47:51,160
with fresh animals joining the hunt
to harry their prey
and cut off its escape.


600
00:47:54,280 --> 00:47:57,040
This new perspective
gives us the big picture,


601
00:47:57,040 --> 00:48:01,280
helping us to understand behaviour
we could only see fragments
of before.


602
00:48:09,560 --> 00:48:11,080
Stay with him. He's almost got him!


603
00:48:13,760 --> 00:48:15,320
They're heading towards the water.


604
00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:24,040
Ooh!
The croc's gonna get the impala.


605
00:48:29,320 --> 00:48:36,280
So now we have the techniques
to film almost anything on land
or in the sea or in the air.


606
00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:42,440
But to get pictures of animals
that lived in the past,
you have to recreate life.


607
00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:46,400
In the early days, our attempts
were pretty crude.


608
00:48:46,400 --> 00:48:53,320
We used solid models of extinct
fish placed in swamps to show the
arrival of amphibians on land.


609
00:48:53,320 --> 00:49:01,400
We moved on to line drawings
of dinosaurs and I even appeared
alongside one.


610
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:06,960
It's easy to imagine some 12 foot
species of peragasaurus
like Dimetrodon


611
00:49:06,960 --> 00:49:11,320
lying basking on the rocks
in the early morning sun.


612
00:49:11,320 --> 00:49:16,920
And then we began to animate
the drawings, but not very
realistically.


613
00:49:16,920 --> 00:49:21,640
It would take the advent of
computer animation to make them
move like real animals.


614
00:49:23,280 --> 00:49:28,640
We wanted to use these new computer
techniques to bring to life a moa,


615
00:49:28,640 --> 00:49:33,040
the giant, extinct
ostrich-like bird on New Zealand.


616
00:49:33,040 --> 00:49:38,360
First of all,
I had to walk into a woodland glade


617
00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:40,560
holding a moa bone.


618
00:49:40,560 --> 00:49:44,400
Then what would happen would be that


619
00:49:44,400 --> 00:49:47,640
that bone would be suspended,
I would take my hands away,


620
00:49:47,640 --> 00:49:50,800
and all the rest of the bones
and the skeleton
would appear from nowhere


621
00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:53,240
and materialise
to form the complete skeleton.


622
00:49:53,240 --> 00:49:56,040
So I had to walk in,
hold the bone,


623
00:49:56,040 --> 00:50:00,080
then take my hands away
and let it drop, which seemed
a silly thing to do.


624
00:50:02,600 --> 00:50:04,680
But electronic trickery
made it stay there


625
00:50:04,680 --> 00:50:07,960
and then added the rest of the bones
of the moa's skeleton.


626
00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:11,760
It had just three toes.


627
00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:18,960
Its pelvis and its spine lead up
to an extraordinarily long neck.


628
00:50:23,720 --> 00:50:27,880
This bird stood over six feet,
two metres tall.


629
00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:30,280
But then we wanted it
to walk away.


630
00:50:30,280 --> 00:50:36,320
And so what the computer expert
got us to do was to imagine
where it was going to stand


631
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:39,720
and then conceal
ourselves in the vegetation,


632
00:50:39,720 --> 00:50:44,040
each of us holding a bit of
fishing line attached to a branch.


633
00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:48,360
And with our computer expert
conducting us as though he was
conducting an orchestra,


634
00:50:48,360 --> 00:50:52,440
the moa came in,
this branch was brushed away,


635
00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:55,840
and then it reached up and pecked
another leaf and the leaf moved


636
00:50:55,840 --> 00:50:58,360
and then it moved away
and the bushes moved.


637
00:50:58,360 --> 00:51:01,280
It was really quite convincing.


638
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:06,280
The first human settlers
on these islands


639
00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:09,480
saw these giants alive
and called them moas.


640
00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:16,240
Among them were the tallest birds
that ever existed, that weighed
over 200 kilos, 400 pounds.


641
00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:24,160
So now we could recreate extinct
creatures whenever we liked,


642
00:51:24,160 --> 00:51:27,400
in their entire full-colour,
animated glory.


643
00:51:37,480 --> 00:51:43,280
A succession of technological
advances has certainly changed the
way we make natural history films.


644
00:51:47,240 --> 00:51:49,680
These days,
with every year that passes,


645
00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:53,040
we seem to get
more and more equipment.


646
00:51:53,040 --> 00:51:56,560
Longer lenses,
more electronic bits of kit.


647
00:51:56,560 --> 00:52:01,560
But in the end, often the most
memorable shot comes


648
00:52:01,560 --> 00:52:05,640
from just one camera and one person


649
00:52:05,640 --> 00:52:08,880
with a deep understanding
of the natural world.


650
00:52:12,480 --> 00:52:14,560
To film a wild snow leopard


651
00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:19,200
was once the ultimate challenge
for a wildlife cameraman.


652
00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:28,040
Doug Allen went to the Himalayas


653
00:52:28,040 --> 00:52:31,120
to attempt to do what so many
cameramen before him


654
00:52:31,120 --> 00:52:33,200
had tried but failed.


655
00:52:33,200 --> 00:52:37,200
I guess this is where
you could say it really starts.


656
00:52:37,200 --> 00:52:40,640
We're up here
in snow leopard country.


657
00:52:40,640 --> 00:52:46,240
You look around and anywhere and at
any time, you might just see it.


658
00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:52,080
These are big, big mountains and
there are not many snow leopards.


659
00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:57,280
Nevertheless, Doug took to his hide
and waited.


660
00:52:59,840 --> 00:53:01,320
HE SIGHS


661
00:53:01,320 --> 00:53:04,360
This is tedious stuff.


662
00:53:04,360 --> 00:53:05,840
Not a sign.


663
00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:15,920
If you got just a little bit
of a hint, a wee bit of a sighting
now and again,


664
00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:18,080
your spirits would be lifted.


665
00:53:18,080 --> 00:53:23,400
But right now, I'd swap a little
bit of this animal's charisma


666
00:53:23,400 --> 00:53:25,960
for a little bit more visibility.


667
00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:30,960
And things didn't improve,
even after two weeks.


668
00:53:30,960 --> 00:53:33,080
Yeah, of course, it's boring.


669
00:53:33,080 --> 00:53:34,880
It's as boring as hell.


670
00:53:45,200 --> 00:53:49,560
After seven weeks of patiently
sitting and watching


671
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:53,520
these distant shots
are all Doug managed to film.


672
00:53:53,520 --> 00:53:55,720
So he had to return home
empty-handed.


673
00:53:58,520 --> 00:54:05,280
The following winter cameraman
Mark Smith took up the challenge and
tried a different location


674
00:54:05,280 --> 00:54:07,440
this time in Pakistan.


675
00:54:09,080 --> 00:54:13,880
We've just got a lot of snow and
we'll be able to track snow leopard.


676
00:54:13,880 --> 00:54:19,920
So we'll have a lot better chances
of filming it. It's just fantastic.


677
00:54:19,920 --> 00:54:25,760
After that promising start,
things didn't go so well for Mark.


678
00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:31,080
He and the crew spent a fruitless
month trudging through the snow.


679
00:54:33,400 --> 00:54:38,760
Mark spent all Christmas
in the mountains with no sign
of a snow leopard.


680
00:54:38,760 --> 00:54:42,360
But it was a much happier New Year.


681
00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:49,280
Just... We just got a report
that there's a snow leopard
up on the ridge.


682
00:54:49,280 --> 00:54:51,720
And we were too low
where we were before,


683
00:54:51,720 --> 00:54:55,640
so we're just trying to get some
height to get a better view of it.


684
00:54:55,640 --> 00:55:00,240
Finally, Mark was rewarded
with his first ever glimpse.


685
00:55:00,240 --> 00:55:02,120
I looked up onto the ridge


686
00:55:02,120 --> 00:55:05,240
and I could see
this leopard-shaped rock,


687
00:55:05,240 --> 00:55:08,120
which I'd seen
a million times before.


688
00:55:08,120 --> 00:55:13,840
And I looked through binoculars
and it was a leopard just sat there.


689
00:55:13,840 --> 00:55:16,640
It was perched
just on the top of a rock


690
00:55:16,640 --> 00:55:19,280
and it looked down at us
and sat down


691
00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:21,880
in a sort of sphinx-like posture.


692
00:55:21,880 --> 00:55:26,200
A few days later,
Mark's patience paid off.


693
00:55:28,680 --> 00:55:33,920
There was not jut an adult female,
but with her a one-year-old cub.


694
00:55:45,640 --> 00:55:49,680
Overall,
Mark spent eight months in Pakistan.


695
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:57,120
And his dedication enabled him
to document the most intimate
moments of a snow leopard's life.


696
00:56:00,760 --> 00:56:04,000
Including a hunt.


697
00:56:05,960 --> 00:56:10,440
Silently she positions herself
above her prey.


698
00:56:42,280 --> 00:56:43,760
BLEATING


699
00:56:48,320 --> 00:56:49,360
SCREECHES


700
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:03,880
The revelations brought by wildlife
films today


701
00:57:03,880 --> 00:57:08,720
were beyond my imagination
when I set out 60 years ago.


702
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:25,760
They have transformed not only
our understanding
of the natural world,


703
00:57:25,760 --> 00:57:28,720
but our attitudes towards it.


704
00:57:37,160 --> 00:57:41,720
There have been a lot of changes
in the way that we've filmed
the natural world


705
00:57:41,720 --> 00:57:43,520
during the last 50-60 years,


706
00:57:43,520 --> 00:57:47,840
but there's also been a great change
in the way we understand that world


707
00:57:47,840 --> 00:57:52,000
and that's what I'll be looking at
in the next programme.


708
00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:55,040
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