Animals with Cameras is a new ground-breaking series with wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan, who joins forces with scientists to put cameras on animals. Together, they make extraordinary discoveries about the lives of some of the planet’s most fascinating species.
In this series with the help of the animals themselves, they’re the ones that do the filming.
Animals with Cameras Episode 1
In the first episode, the team uncover the hidden lives of three iconic animals. In the Kalahari Desert the team put cameras on wild meerkats for the first time, allowing scientists to finally understand what these miniature mammals get up to underground.
Heading to Cameroon, Gordon works with scientist Mimi Swift, who is desperate to understand whether Kimbang, a four-year-old orphan chimp, has the skills she needs to be able to join a chimp family living wild in the forest.
Leaving Africa for Argentina, the team have penguins carry tiny cameras far out to sea on an epic journey of up to 300 kilometres. For the first time, scientists are able to see the tactics these charismatic characters use to catch their prey.
Animals with Cameras Episode 2
In Namibia, Gordon joins a cheetah conservationist who wants to see if three orphaned cheetahs, who she has raised from a day old, can learn to hunt effectively in the thick vegetation. The on-board cameras, the first to ever be worn by cheetahs hunting in Africa, give the team an amazing first-hand view. The cheetahs initially struggle to choose the right prey, almost getting skewered by a bull gemsbok, but eventually the team sees the cheetahs use the thick cover to their advantage as they stalk and bring down their prey.
In Australia, the team puts cameras on fur seals to try to see how they hunt their prey and avoid attacks by great white sharks. The footage reveals the seals diving straight to the bottom as they enter the water to avoid detection, and spinning to give a 360-degree view when near the surface. We see the first ever images of the seals eating cuttlefish and following dolphins to take advantage of their fish-herding behaviour to get an easy meal.
In South Africa cameras are deployed on wild baboons in an effort to understand why these clever monkeys sometimes raid farmers’ crops. The cameras give a remarkable insight into the shy baboons’ lives, showing intimate scenes of sunbathing and grooming. Crucially, the cameras also show that the baboons will choose wild fruits over crops if they’re available, suggesting that the planting of wild fruit trees near farms could help solve this tricky conflict.
Animals with Cameras Episode 3
In the heart of the Atlantic, Gordon Buchanan joins a team looking to discover why huge numbers of devil rays, fish with ‘wings’ nearly four metres across, gather every summer near the Azores archipelago. The team deploy specially designed cameras which are towed behind the rays and can survive the crushing ocean depths.
The never-before-seen footage includes rays feeding on plankton and ‘sun-bathing’ to warm up after a chilly dive. Most exciting of all, the cameras film unborn ray pups kicking inside their mothers – a sign that this gathering might be a breeding ground for these mysterious ocean giants.
In northeast Turkey the on-board cameras are carried by brown bears as part of a study trying to understand why so many bears survive in a small patch of forest. The cameras capture a dramatic fight between two males, a lengthy chase through the forest and a touching courtship scene. The footage helps the scientists’ conservation plans by revealing that, although the forest is excellent bear habitat, it probably can’t support many more of these endangered predators.
In southern France on-board cameras help scientists trying to prove that guard dogs can help protect sheep flocks from wolf attacks. The night-vision cameras show how the dogs work together as a team to fend off the wolves. This could be great news for people who want to see wolf numbers increase in the French countryside.
What: Animals with Cameras SABC 3
When: Sundays, 6.30pm from 23 February 2020
Web: www.sabc3.co.za
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