0:00:50 > 0:00:53In a lifetime of natural history filmmaking
0:00:53 > 0:00:57I've seen many odd animals, but few odder than these
0:00:57 > 0:00:59proboscis monkeys in Borneo.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04I first saw them 50 years ago.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09ARCHIVE: 'Late one evening, we had a great stroke of luck.'
0:01:09 > 0:01:13'For a troupe of the extraordinary long nosed proboscis monkey
0:01:13 > 0:01:15'had come down to the river bank to feed.'
0:01:22 > 0:01:24'When I started filming such creatures,
0:01:24 > 0:01:28'it was quite easy to show viewers animals that hitherto had only
0:01:28 > 0:01:31'been seen in the wild by intrepid explorers.'
0:01:39 > 0:01:42'As the years passed, one way and another, we got better
0:01:42 > 0:01:47'and better shots and in the process, I had some memorable encounters.'
0:02:01 > 0:02:03Boo!
0:02:03 > 0:02:06This is a very intelligent animal.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12And top of the menu right now is salmon.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16SNARLING
0:02:18 > 0:02:20I think that was pretty clear!
0:02:24 > 0:02:27I've been lucky enough to live through what might be
0:02:27 > 0:02:30considered the golden age of natural history filmmaking.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35Almost every year it seemed we found some new way of revealing
0:02:35 > 0:02:38new things about the natural world.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46'In the 1950s, much of the wildlife of the planet was still unfilmed, even unknown.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50'And in the following 60 years,
0:02:50 > 0:02:54'a succession of technical innovations enabled us to reveal more
0:02:54 > 0:02:58'and more of the natural world in increasing detail.'
0:03:15 > 0:03:23This is the first natural history film I ever saw - in 1934, when I was eight.
0:03:23 > 0:03:24And I thought it was wonderful.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33Ladies and gentlemen.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35Let me put you out of your misery at once.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39You're not going to see me for long, although I am inviting
0:03:39 > 0:03:43you to come on this trip with me, you will only see me occasionally.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48The man in the pith helmet is Cherry Kearton, one of the first
0:03:48 > 0:03:52people to try and capture the lives of wild animals on film.
0:03:52 > 0:03:57There are five million penguins on this island, which are called
0:03:57 > 0:03:58the jackass penguins.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02I'm always polite to animals,
0:04:02 > 0:04:07and as I intend to stay with the penguins for several months,
0:04:07 > 0:04:09I am naturally adopting my most friendly manner.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14Kearton travelled around the world filming wild animals that
0:04:14 > 0:04:16had never been filmed before.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18His approach was hardly scientific,
0:04:18 > 0:04:20but nonetheless he was very entertaining.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25His sister, a typical flapper,
0:04:25 > 0:04:30not content with being one of the fair sex, wants to join the air sex
0:04:31 > 0:04:36But resigns herself to just a flip here, a flap there,
0:04:36 > 0:04:38and a flop in between.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46For all its obvious flaws, his films captured my childish imagination
0:04:46 > 0:04:52and made me dream of travelling to far-off places to film wild animals.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59And this is one of the very cameras Cherry Kearton used.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02It's enclosed in a wooden box.
0:05:02 > 0:05:10It was driven by hand and used 35mm film.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12This distance across.
0:05:13 > 0:05:18Within a few years, it was superseded by improved models like this one,
0:05:18 > 0:05:22which had a metal box and it worked by clockwork
0:05:22 > 0:05:24and it had a variety of lenses.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28But it still used hefty 35mm film.
0:05:28 > 0:05:33Happily however, there were smaller versions available.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36A camera like this.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40This used 16mm film which was only half the size
0:05:40 > 0:05:42and it was powered by clockwork.
0:05:42 > 0:05:48But unfortunately the BBC thought cameras like this were unprofessional.
0:05:48 > 0:05:54And there was a huge row as to whether or not I could be allowed to take it.
0:05:54 > 0:05:59But in the end I did, and it was with this I set off
0:05:59 > 0:06:04to ramble around the jungles of the world looking for unfilmed animals.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10My first natural history series, Zoo Quest,
0:06:10 > 0:06:13recorded the progress of animal collecting expeditions
0:06:13 > 0:06:16arranged with the London Zoo and brought to the screen,
0:06:16 > 0:06:20places and animals that had never before been seen on television,
0:06:20 > 0:06:21or in the cinema, come to that.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28One targeted the largest lizard in the world which
0:06:28 > 0:06:31lived on the small Indonesian island of Komodo.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35Few people had heard of it and Indonesia no-one seemed sure where the island was.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39Eventually, we set off with a fisherman who said that he did,
0:06:39 > 0:06:42but after a couple of days at sea, I had my doubts.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48I said to the captain, "You have been to Komodo before, haven't you?"
0:06:48 > 0:06:50And he said, "Baloom."
0:06:50 > 0:06:53And I didn't know what baloom meant.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57So I had to go and find my Indonesian dictionary and looked it up
0:06:57 > 0:06:58and it said, "Not yet."
0:07:00 > 0:07:02So, it was clear he didn't know the way.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08After a week at sea and having survived encounters with coral reefs
0:07:08 > 0:07:12and whirlpools, we arrived at what I thought must be Komodo.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18And I remember wading ashore across a coral lagoon
0:07:18 > 0:07:22and finding a tiny little village and saying, "Excuse me, is this Komodo?"
0:07:22 > 0:07:23HE CHUCKLES
0:07:23 > 0:07:26And they, "Komodo". So it was OK.
0:07:28 > 0:07:33The locals recommended we should use a dead goat as bait.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37Once in the bush we began to build a trap using materials
0:07:37 > 0:07:40gathered from nearby, as I recorded in my journal.
0:07:42 > 0:07:47This was the dragon trap with a little bait in there.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51When the dragon, if he went in the front end, trod on there,
0:07:51 > 0:07:55it pulled it down which then pulled the ring down which released the rod,
0:07:55 > 0:07:59which then pulled down, because of the lump of rock on the bottom.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01So, clunk, down it would go.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05And now, all we had to do was to wait.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13There was a rustle in the bush and there was the dragon.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16Our first sight of this magnificent monster.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21To my surprise, we were looking at the trap and I heard a noise behind me.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24I turned round and there was the dragon.
0:08:24 > 0:08:25That was taken at that particular moment.
0:08:25 > 0:08:33Looking at me straight in the eye from only about a couple of yards away.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37We looked at each other and I thought, at least I might take your photograph.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40So that was the photograph I took of him.
0:08:40 > 0:08:46Then, he rather wearily heaved himself up and strolled round us
0:08:46 > 0:08:50and went down into the dry riverbed where we'd made the trap.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58And down came the door.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02Hastily we piled boulders on the door so he couldn't lift it up.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04We'd got him.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08Those early films seem pretty ordinarily these days,
0:09:08 > 0:09:09but they were nonetheless popular
0:09:09 > 0:09:13because what ever we showed was new to most of our viewers.
0:09:18 > 0:09:24So, in the 1950s we were taking cameras like this all over the world.
0:09:24 > 0:09:29And then, an Austrian biologist and filmmaker decided to try
0:09:29 > 0:09:31and take it under water.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33His name was Hans Hass,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37and he developed his own special housing to do that.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44Hans and his wife Lotte
0:09:44 > 0:09:48were the first to bring the wonders of life under the sea to television.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50And their programs were all the more sensational
0:09:50 > 0:09:54because few people at that time had scuba dived.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57Take care, down there are sharks.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59We are right on the reef's edge.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06In the '50s, sharks had a terrible reputation.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08They were the killers of the sea.
0:10:08 > 0:10:14Anybody in water alongside a shark was clearly courting certain death.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21Here were Hans and Lotte swimming alongside them.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24The nation was astounded.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29The sequence certainly had shock value, but perhaps it was also
0:10:29 > 0:10:33the first step in changing our perceptions of sharks.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37And like all television, it was still shown in black and white.
0:10:39 > 0:10:46So, during the Zoo Quest series I had to describe an animal's colour in words.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50This one was among the most brilliantly coloured of all
0:10:50 > 0:10:52chameleons in the world.
0:10:52 > 0:10:57His eyeballs are bright, rust-red and his body and legs striped
0:10:57 > 0:11:00and blotched with a vivid green.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05But, television was changing fast.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12In the 1960s, the BBC was given a second television network
0:11:12 > 0:11:16operating on a higher technical standard with the specific
0:11:16 > 0:11:20job of introducing colour television.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24And in 1965, I was put in charge of it with an office
0:11:24 > 0:11:26here in the Television Centre in London.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33To demonstrate colour on television could be both accurate and not garish,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36I commissioned a series about the history of art.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38It was called Civilisation.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42I'm standing in the Sistine Chapel
0:11:42 > 0:11:46and above my head is one of the greatest works of man,
0:11:46 > 0:11:48Michelangelo's ceiling.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51It was presented by Kenneth Clarke and became a great success.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56So we followed it with other series on a similar scale about science,
0:11:56 > 0:11:58economics and the history of America.
0:12:00 > 0:12:05But I knew the most dazzlingly colourful series would be one about wildlife.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10After eight years in administration,
0:12:10 > 0:12:14I decided I wanted to go back to making programs.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19And I put up a suggestion we should make 13 one-hour programmes
0:12:19 > 0:12:24in colour tracing the whole history of life on Earth.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33Thanks to the development of jet air travel,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36we were able to film in 30 countries around the globe.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40And as I traced the history of life on the planet, I could appear
0:12:40 > 0:12:44to move from one continent to another in the space of a single sequence.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47The South American rainforests are the richest
0:12:47 > 0:12:50and varied assemblage of life in the world.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54These limestones in Morocco...
0:12:54 > 0:12:56Macaques live in many parts of Japan.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58WHINING
0:12:59 > 0:13:04Life On Earth was shown in 100 different countries
0:13:04 > 0:13:07and seen by perhaps as many as 500 million people.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12Natural history television was now a global phenomenon,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15revealing our wonderful world in colour to all.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22During the series, we made full use of both colour
0:13:22 > 0:13:26and scuba gear to help show the underwater world as never before.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32I even tried to follow Hans Hass' lead exploring the underwater world.
0:13:34 > 0:13:40One of the problems with underwater films was you cannot talk underwater.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Most of the time if you have a breathing apparatus on your back,
0:13:43 > 0:13:45you have something in your mouth.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49But Alistair, one of my producer colleagues, was very keen we should
0:13:49 > 0:13:54try and introduce the presenter talking to camera underwater.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58There was a wonderful new invention called the bubble helmet and this is it.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01You can put a microphone in one side of it.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05So, we went down to the swimming pool in the hotel where we were staying
0:14:05 > 0:14:08and this was screwed on my head.
0:14:08 > 0:14:13It took a long time to screw it down tight to make it watertight.
0:14:13 > 0:14:15I put it on like this.
0:14:15 > 0:14:21I waded it into the water and I hadn't gone more than a foot underwater,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24When suddenly, water started bubbling in, very alarming.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28It was rising around you and I was going to drown.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30How long would it take to get this off?
0:14:30 > 0:14:32So I came out in a hurry. There was a fault, I said.
0:14:32 > 0:14:39"Nonsense," said Alistair, "give it to me." He put it on his shoulders.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43And I, with some pleasure screwed it down quite tight
0:14:43 > 0:14:45and he waded into the pool.
0:14:45 > 0:14:47And he came out even quicker than me with water
0:14:47 > 0:14:51and he was gesticulating to get it off.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55And I finally took it off and he said, "There's a fault."
0:14:55 > 0:14:56I said, "Yes, there is".
0:14:56 > 0:15:01So I happily left the helmet behind and reverted to my old mask
0:15:01 > 0:15:06and scuba gear when it came to my next underwater assignment -
0:15:06 > 0:15:12to reveal the extraordinary social behaviour and intelligence of dolphins.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14They are full of curiosity,
0:15:14 > 0:15:16they play with odd things they find, such as twigs,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19and swimming among them leaves you in no doubt
0:15:19 > 0:15:21that they are highly intelligent.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23CONSTANT CLICKS AND SQUEAKS
0:15:23 > 0:15:28They will even mimic you as you spin or hang in the water.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45Until the 1980s, you could only shoot 10 minutes of film under water
0:15:45 > 0:15:48before you had to come back to the surface,
0:15:48 > 0:15:50open the underwater housing, take out the camera,
0:15:50 > 0:15:51put in a new roll of film.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56But then video cameras solved that problem.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00Videotapes ran for 30 minutes.
0:16:00 > 0:16:01And now, at last, we had the chance
0:16:01 > 0:16:04of properly recording animal behaviour underwater.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10In addition, video cameras were far more sensitive,
0:16:10 > 0:16:13so we could record at much lower light levels,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16making artificial lights unnecessary.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20It was a huge breakthrough for underwater filming,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24and crucial to the success of The Blue Planet series.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29Now it was possible to record for the first time marlin hunting.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43The seas and oceans were full of animals
0:16:43 > 0:16:48whose extraordinary behaviour, up till now, no one had ever seen.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52And the shots just got better and better.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03Cameramen could now stay underwater long enough
0:17:03 > 0:17:05to capture every moment of the action,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08and be in the right place at the right time
0:17:08 > 0:17:11for the most dramatic events.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29So now we can capture previously unseen animal behaviour
0:17:29 > 0:17:32throughout the seas of the world.
0:17:44 > 0:17:49On land it had, until now, been impossible to film animals
0:17:49 > 0:17:53behaving naturally at night, when most mammals are active.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57All we could do was shine a spotlight on them
0:17:57 > 0:17:59and film them as they ran away.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10And it was the same problem wherever animals lived in darkness.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16Caves are fascinating places, but difficult places to work in.
0:18:16 > 0:18:22When I first came here to this one in Gomantong in Borneo back in 1972,
0:18:22 > 0:18:25we had to bring a lot of lights with us
0:18:25 > 0:18:28in order to film the many millions of birds and bats
0:18:28 > 0:18:30that live in here.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36And the droppings of all those creatures
0:18:36 > 0:18:38make the cave wreak of ammonia.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51HE INHALES
0:18:51 > 0:18:54The smell brings it all back to me.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57When I was here 40 years ago,
0:18:57 > 0:19:01the director said, "There's a pile of droppings
0:19:01 > 0:19:03at the far end of the cave
0:19:03 > 0:19:05that goes right up to the roof."
0:19:05 > 0:19:08"Why don't you climb up to the top?"
0:19:08 > 0:19:12And when I got to the top he shouted, "Say something!"
0:19:12 > 0:19:13So I tried.
0:19:17 > 0:19:25And...what it is is...these bats... packed tight on the roof here.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28They're flying now all around my head.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30This cave, this particular part of it,
0:19:30 > 0:19:32Oohh! ..makes... (COUGHS)
0:19:32 > 0:19:36This ammonia is really quite, quite choking.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39..makes a very perfect place for a home.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42HIGH-PITCHED CHATTERING
0:19:42 > 0:19:48One of the really astounding things is that this immense number of bats
0:19:48 > 0:19:52flying round here in a panic -
0:19:52 > 0:19:54not one is colliding with the other.
0:19:54 > 0:19:59Nor, indeed, am I in any danger whatsoever of being hit by them.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03And then the director said, "Cut!", the camera stopped,
0:20:03 > 0:20:05the lights went out,
0:20:05 > 0:20:07and a bat flew straight in my face.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11So perhaps their much praised echo location
0:20:11 > 0:20:14is not quite as perfect as people say.
0:20:15 > 0:20:22The film cameras we used then needed normal white light, like these.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25But the problem with that is that they disturb animals
0:20:25 > 0:20:29accustomed to living in the dark.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33But then the security industry developed a new type of camera
0:20:33 > 0:20:39like this one, which uses infrared light and doesn't need these lights,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42but nonetheless can see in the dark, as you can see -
0:20:42 > 0:20:45I turn off one, I turn off the other...
0:20:47 > 0:20:52..and now, even though it's pitch dark, you can see me.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56Most animals, like us, can't see infrared.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58And that meant that with these cameras,
0:20:58 > 0:21:02we could now watch them behave perfectly normally in the dark.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07And that revealed some extraordinary behaviour.
0:21:07 > 0:21:12And also led to one or two pretty uncomfortable moments.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16Lions are mostly active at night,
0:21:16 > 0:21:19and seldom roar during the day.
0:21:22 > 0:21:28We tried to persuade them to do so with the help of scientists,
0:21:28 > 0:21:32by playing back the roar of a strange lion to a resident pride.
0:21:35 > 0:21:36LION ROARS
0:21:40 > 0:21:41ROARS MORE LOUDLY
0:21:43 > 0:21:45ROARS
0:21:45 > 0:21:47Even that didn't work.
0:21:52 > 0:21:57But 12 years later, I set off in an open-sided Land Rover with
0:21:57 > 0:22:00the latest infrared technology to try again.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04As usual, they were sleeping.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06I would have to wait for darkness.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10INSECTS CHIRP
0:22:10 > 0:22:12GROWL/ROAR
0:22:12 > 0:22:14We drive up.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18I go on one side, the camera goes on the other.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20And the lion starts roaring.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23But the problem is, I can't see where it is.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26I can't even see where the camera is.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28"Cue", says the producer.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31So I start trying to say my piece.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33Trying not to be too frightened of this lion
0:22:33 > 0:22:37which is somewhere in the blackness, and, as far as I can make out,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40within a couple of yards of me and no side on the Land Rover.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44And I then had to do my piece to camera looking around,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47seeing where on earth the camera was.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51And now in the darkness there are a number of them roaring...
0:22:51 > 0:22:53just around here.
0:22:53 > 0:22:59There are two, I know, within three or four yards of where I am,
0:22:59 > 0:23:04and a third, perhaps 20 yards over there.
0:23:04 > 0:23:09Though it's difficult to tell because it's pitch black.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12REPEATED SHORT ROARS
0:23:12 > 0:23:17Those are not aggressive roars, they are communication roars,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20but they are quite enough to chill the blood
0:23:20 > 0:23:22in the blackness of the night.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25SHORT ROARS CONTINUE
0:23:33 > 0:23:36A few years later, similar technology made it possible to film
0:23:36 > 0:23:40one of the most extraordinary hunting sequences ever recorded,
0:23:40 > 0:23:46using whole batteries of infrared lights mounted on vehicles.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56ELEPHANT TRUMPETS
0:24:00 > 0:24:03A solitary lion stands no chance,
0:24:03 > 0:24:06but the whole pride is here.
0:24:10 > 0:24:11There are 30 of them,
0:24:11 > 0:24:14and they are specialist elephant hunters.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40THUNDERCLAPS
0:24:40 > 0:24:43This remarkable behaviour could not have been filmed in any other way,
0:24:43 > 0:24:46and it proved conclusively what many others had doubted -
0:24:46 > 0:24:51that a big pride of lions can indeed bring down and kill
0:24:51 > 0:24:54an animal as big as an elephant.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59Other cameras were developed that worked simply by concentrating
0:24:59 > 0:25:04what little light comes from the stars and moon.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07And we used such a starlight camera to record an encounter I had
0:25:07 > 0:25:11with a wonderful New Zealand nocturnal bird,
0:25:11 > 0:25:14the kiwi.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17We heard of a place where kiwis came out of the bush
0:25:17 > 0:25:18and walked along the beach
0:25:18 > 0:25:20looking for sandhoppers.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23Now they find their way by smell,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26so I thought, how can I conceal myself?
0:25:26 > 0:25:33So I lay on the tideline where all the rotting seaweed was lying.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35And I just lay on it.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39And this little...enchanting little creature came slowly along,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43probing its beak into the sand.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45Phwff! Blowing out the sand. Coming closer. Phwff!
0:25:46 > 0:25:49'Probing sand with your nostrils is all very well,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52'but it does clog them up.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54'So you need to blow them clear every now and then.'
0:26:03 > 0:26:05'It's sense of smell is so acute,
0:26:05 > 0:26:09'it can pick out the largest juiciest hoppers deep in the sand
0:26:09 > 0:26:11'without even seeing them.'
0:26:14 > 0:26:17Our starlight camera can see much better than I can.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21'I need a torch to see this extraordinary creature properly.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24'But he doesn't seem to mind.'
0:26:24 > 0:26:26OCEAN CRASHES NEARBY
0:26:32 > 0:26:36He comes right up to me because his eyes are very small.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38Poor eyesight is putting it mildly.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41But he can smell, but he didn't.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45Because the seaweed was even stronger smelling than me.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54There are other ways of filming in the dark -
0:26:54 > 0:26:56by using thermal cameras like this one.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03Up above me there are a lot of bats.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07And the camera shows them as different colours.
0:27:07 > 0:27:13The yellow lights here are bats that have just flown in
0:27:13 > 0:27:16and are still warm from their exertion.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20as well as revealing where animals are,
0:27:20 > 0:27:25the thermal cameras can also reveal something of the condition they are in.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29For example, my face now, because I'm rather hot,
0:27:29 > 0:27:31is likely to be an orange colour.
0:27:34 > 0:27:39Where I am cooler it will be red, and this probably, is verging on blue.
0:27:39 > 0:27:46But if I take a bottle of cold water, that's likely to be black.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51Ahhh! Very good, too.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57Thermal cameras also proved useful in the Galapagos,
0:27:57 > 0:27:58to demonstrate some
0:27:58 > 0:28:03of the remarkable physiological adaptations of reptiles.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06Once they are thoroughly warmed up,
0:28:06 > 0:28:10marine iguanas can maintain their body temperature
0:28:10 > 0:28:12just about as constantly as I can.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15And what's more, at about the same level,
0:28:15 > 0:28:21or indeed, slightly higher - around 37 degrees centigrade.
0:28:21 > 0:28:26But when they go into the cold sea to feed on submerged seaweed,
0:28:26 > 0:28:29their temperature falls very rapidly.
0:28:34 > 0:28:38A recently emerged iguana is black. It's chilled to the bone.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45Now they need heat in order to be able to digest that meal of seaweed,
0:28:45 > 0:28:49and they get that by spread-eagling themselves
0:28:49 > 0:28:50on these black, hot, sun-baked rocks.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02So, thermal cameras reveal just how skilled
0:29:02 > 0:29:06reptiles are at harnessing the power of the sun.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14One of the things we discovered when starting work
0:29:14 > 0:29:16on the Trials of Life
0:29:16 > 0:29:20was a new lens which enabled you to have an object close to the camera -
0:29:20 > 0:29:22a small little creature, perhaps -
0:29:22 > 0:29:27and yet have all the distance to the far horizon in complete focus.
0:29:27 > 0:29:32So I would be able to walk up from the distance to something close to camera,
0:29:32 > 0:29:34all the time being in focus.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38It's not always easy to decide in these partnerships,
0:29:38 > 0:29:40which is exploiting which.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44The balance of advantage is often very delicate.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48Take for example these ants in Australia.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50They are extremely ferocious,
0:29:50 > 0:29:51and normally they will
0:29:51 > 0:29:52rip apart any caterpillar.
0:29:52 > 0:29:54But see how they're treating this one.
0:29:56 > 0:29:58When we first saw that shot in the viewing theatre...
0:29:58 > 0:30:03We all went down to the canteen for a cup of tea and talked about it,
0:30:03 > 0:30:07and I heard someone next to me, who'd just joined the team
0:30:07 > 0:30:14talking to her friend, and she said, "Fantastic stuff they've got in Australia. Amazing!
0:30:14 > 0:30:17"But I would never want to go there myself,
0:30:17 > 0:30:20"because they have caterpillars there that are two feet long!"
0:30:20 > 0:30:26So, sometimes with all our optical tricks, we can get too clever.
0:30:26 > 0:30:30BIRDSONG
0:30:30 > 0:30:35Never the less, insects filmed in close-up are truly fascinating.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39These are tree ants in Borneo,
0:30:39 > 0:30:42and they have a wonderful way of making their nests.
0:30:45 > 0:30:46I first tried to film how they did so,
0:30:46 > 0:30:50when I was here in Borneo back in the '50s.
0:30:53 > 0:30:54'Then we noticed this group
0:30:54 > 0:30:57'with their jaws locked tight in the lower leaf,
0:30:57 > 0:31:00'and their hind legs attached to the upper leaf.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06'The colony is constructing a new nest.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08'And these patient workers
0:31:08 > 0:31:11'are holding two leaves of the future nest in position,
0:31:11 > 0:31:13'so that other members
0:31:13 > 0:31:15'can fasten them together
0:31:15 > 0:31:17'to form the outer wall of their new home.'
0:31:20 > 0:31:24To get those shots, we had to tear apart the nest to get
0:31:24 > 0:31:27the ants to work out in the open.
0:31:27 > 0:31:29These days we can do better than that.
0:31:29 > 0:31:34This is an optical probe that I can make mover forwards or
0:31:34 > 0:31:38backwards and even...from side to side.
0:31:38 > 0:31:43And so with that, you can go into the nest
0:31:43 > 0:31:46and get shots of the ants behaving totally naturally.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56That is a stranger in the nest.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59That is a little bug which they are attacking.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06It was technical developments like these that allowed us
0:32:06 > 0:32:11eventually to enter the world of the insect.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14A motorised jib arm enables filmmakers to suspend a camera above
0:32:14 > 0:32:18a column of aggressive driver ants and watch the organised way
0:32:18 > 0:32:22they hunt through the forest.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25Workers carry the colony's larvae.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29Ferocious soldiers link legs to form a defensive roof and walls,
0:32:29 > 0:32:32enclosing the column.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37Were the camera or cameraman to accidentally touch
0:32:37 > 0:32:40just one of these soldiers, they would all immediately attack.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42But they're blind,
0:32:42 > 0:32:46and they can't see the camera hanging just centimetres above them.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02So we can track along with them as the army takes its prey
0:33:02 > 0:33:04back to the bivouac where the queen is waiting.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14Wildlife film-making can take a lot of patience.
0:33:14 > 0:33:16Cameramen may have to spend hours and hours,
0:33:16 > 0:33:20if not days and weeks, to film one particular action.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25But that can be helped using modern security technology.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29And we used such technology to get a shot of something
0:33:29 > 0:33:33that as far as I know, had never been filmed before in the wild.
0:33:37 > 0:33:41Rattlesnakes hunting.
0:33:43 > 0:33:48Scientists working in New York State had implanted radio transmitters in
0:33:48 > 0:33:51a group of rattlesnakes so that each could be found by using an aerial.
0:33:53 > 0:33:54There he is.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57The camera crew placed remotely controlled cameras
0:33:57 > 0:34:01and infrared lights next to a snake lying in ambush.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07The cameras were attached to motion detectors that would turn them on
0:34:07 > 0:34:10if anything moved in their field of vision.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13The following night I checked the replay.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20There's a mouse.
0:34:25 > 0:34:31It's pitch dark and the mouse clearly has no idea the snake is there.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34Bu the snake is well aware of the mouse.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42He's worked out that that is the path along which the mice run.
0:34:47 > 0:34:49Oh, my goodness!
0:34:55 > 0:34:58That's a dead mouse, all right.
0:34:59 > 0:35:04So it was that technology designed to keep burglars out of our homes,
0:35:04 > 0:35:10enabled us to record the rattlesnake's hunting strategy in the wild.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19Another revelatory film technique involves playing with time -
0:35:19 > 0:35:21slowing down the action.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24Cameramen have long down that,
0:35:24 > 0:35:28simply by increasing the number of images taken per second.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31Kestrels are known as wind-hoverers,
0:35:31 > 0:35:36because of their apparent ability to hang motionless in the air.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40And slow motion photography enables us to see details
0:35:40 > 0:35:44of their flying technique that we can't see with the naked eye.
0:35:44 > 0:35:49By filming this trained bird, with this special camera,
0:35:49 > 0:35:52we can slow down the motion and see exactly how they do it.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57It's flying at the same speed as the oncoming wind, and the air
0:35:57 > 0:36:02flowing over its wings provides just enough lift top keep it airborne.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08By flying as slowly as this, they risk stalling,
0:36:08 > 0:36:12because the windflow over the wing doesn't provide enough lift.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17Slowing down the action by ten times, we can see how the
0:36:17 > 0:36:21kestrel extends the finger-like projection on the leading edge of its wing
0:36:21 > 0:36:27and spreads its tail-feathers to generate more lift.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30Commercial airliners do the same thing
0:36:30 > 0:36:34when they adjust their wing flaps to slow them down for landing.
0:36:37 > 0:36:42If a kestrel is to see its prey successfully while hovering,
0:36:42 > 0:36:44it has to keep its head perfectly still,
0:36:44 > 0:36:49not easy when the wind is constantly trying to blow you off position.
0:36:49 > 0:36:50But in slow motion,
0:36:50 > 0:36:55you can see how the kestrel responds immediately to changes in the wind.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58Constantly adjusting the set of its wings
0:36:58 > 0:37:02and allowing it's neck to stretch and contract.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06So that while its body is constantly moving,
0:37:06 > 0:37:12its eyes stay fixed and can spot the slightest movement on the ground below.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19One of my favourite slow-motion moments
0:37:19 > 0:37:25was when I was able to fool a lovesick hoverfly with a peashooter.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31It might seem that he's absolutely motionless,
0:37:31 > 0:37:38but, in fact, he's having to make continual changes to adjust for slight currents in the air.
0:37:38 > 0:37:40It's an amazing piece of acrobatics,
0:37:40 > 0:37:47far better than anything that we could do in a helicopter.
0:37:47 > 0:37:52And it's all done in order to impress the female
0:37:52 > 0:37:58to show her that he is superb at holding his territory.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03With his superb eyesight, he's ready to spot anything
0:38:03 > 0:38:08that might whiz by him at high speed that could be a female.
0:38:08 > 0:38:13And I might just be able to fool him with a peashooter.
0:38:20 > 0:38:25By watching his response slowed down by about 50 times,
0:38:25 > 0:38:31it's clear that the male is indeed so hyped up that he will pursue any fast-moving object
0:38:31 > 0:38:35that comes near him in the hope that it might be a female.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39Those poor males must have been exhausted by the time I'd finished with them.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47By combining the best macro-lenses with digital slow-motion cameras,
0:38:47 > 0:38:54we were able to reveal the extreme athletic prowess of some even tinier creatures.
0:38:57 > 0:39:05These springtails, as they're name suggests, have a rather novel way of jumping.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14They have a tiny two-pronged lever beneath their abdomen.
0:39:14 > 0:39:19One small flick from it can catapult them six inches, some 15 centimetres, into the air.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29It's the equivalent of a human being jumping over the Eiffel Tower.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37So with slow-motion cameras,
0:39:37 > 0:39:44we can watch actions and distinguish details that are impossible to see with the naked eye.
0:40:10 > 0:40:19At the other end of the scale, we can manipulate time to speed up excessive slow action.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22This is a time-lapse studio
0:40:22 > 0:40:25where you can control lights and cameras very precisely.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29A film camera shoots 25 frames per second,
0:40:29 > 0:40:33but if you modify one so that it only shoots one frame per second
0:40:33 > 0:40:36and then show the film at normal speed,
0:40:36 > 0:40:39well, then, you increase the speed of action by 25m times.
0:40:41 > 0:40:46And as the sophistication of time-lapse photography has increased,
0:40:46 > 0:40:52so we've been able to show that plants can be as competitive and aggressive as many an animal.
0:41:00 > 0:41:06And it was the mastery of time-lapse that allowed us to make a series called The Private Life of Plants.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19Condense three months into 20 seconds,
0:41:19 > 0:41:24and the desolation of winter quickly warms into the riot of spring.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Speed a week into a minute, and you can sense the urgency
0:41:34 > 0:41:38with which the ground-living plants race to unfurl their flowers.
0:41:48 > 0:41:55Of all the woodland plants, the humble bramble is one of the most aggressive.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59It waves its shoots agitatedly from side to side
0:41:59 > 0:42:02as if feeling for the best way forward.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12The invading stem's backward-pointing spines
0:42:12 > 0:42:17give it the grip it needs to climb almost anything that stands in its way.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20It can advance as much as seven centimetres in a day.
0:42:25 > 0:42:31Now digital cameras allow us to see how a shot is developing while we are still taking it,
0:42:31 > 0:42:37instead of having to wait till it was finished as we used to have to do with film cameras.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41And we can also use computers attached to small motors
0:42:41 > 0:42:46to move a camera in-between exposed frames,
0:42:46 > 0:42:51so that the camera can, in fact, travel alongside the plant.
0:43:10 > 0:43:17Using this new technology, it became possible to condense the arrival of spring in a woodland
0:43:17 > 0:43:18into a few seconds.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34But the wonderful thing about wildlife film making
0:43:34 > 0:43:36is that no matter how much you've seen and filmed,
0:43:36 > 0:43:40there's always going to be something to surprise you.
0:43:40 > 0:43:41I remember back in 1994,
0:43:41 > 0:43:47we were filming nepenthes rajah, the largest pitcher plant in the world,
0:43:47 > 0:43:50growing up in the mountains of Borneo.
0:43:50 > 0:43:56And I made an assumption about how it obtained its nitrogen fertiliser.
0:43:58 > 0:44:02I guess this one...
0:44:02 > 0:44:08contains... two or three pints of liquid.
0:44:08 > 0:44:14It's so big that it catches not just insects but even small rodents.
0:44:14 > 0:44:20And one was recorded that has in it the body of a drowned rat.
0:44:20 > 0:44:23So if ever there was a carnivore among plants, this is it.
0:44:25 > 0:44:26But I was wrong.
0:44:26 > 0:44:32In 2010, scientists discovered that the plant gets its nitrogen
0:44:32 > 0:44:35in a quite different way.
0:44:35 > 0:44:41And we couldn't resist going back to see of we could find out what the truth was.
0:44:41 > 0:44:46Mount Kinabalu in Sabah is home to many rajah pitcher plants.
0:44:46 > 0:44:50- BUZZING - They certainly seem to attract insects.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53that fall into their bowls just as other pitchers do,
0:44:53 > 0:44:56but they also have larger visitors.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59A tree shrew.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07It's licking the underside of the lid
0:45:07 > 0:45:13where the pitcher secretes nectar with which it lures visitors.
0:45:13 > 0:45:16But even though its backside is hanging over the bowl,
0:45:16 > 0:45:20it doesn't seem to be in any danger of falling in and drowning.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24So what's going on?
0:45:24 > 0:45:25It leaves a clue.
0:45:25 > 0:45:26A dropping.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33So the pitcher is a tree shrew toilet.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38The tree shrew feeds by licking the secretions from the pitcher plant's lid
0:45:38 > 0:45:45and the pitcher plant gets its fertiliser by collecting the tree shrew's droppings.
0:45:45 > 0:45:51Wildlife cameramen are always trying to film
0:45:51 > 0:45:55some piece of animal behaviour that no-one has ever see before.
0:45:55 > 0:46:00And aerial photography enable then to do just that.
0:46:03 > 0:46:09In the early days, we occasionally managed to get up in a small plane to get a shot of the landscape.
0:46:09 > 0:46:16But the plane vibrated so much that you couldn't use long lenses to get close-ups of animals
0:46:16 > 0:46:20and if you went low the roar of the engine frightened them.
0:46:24 > 0:46:26So we tried other forms of aerial transport.
0:46:30 > 0:46:35Balloons were a little quieter, but they took you where the wind blew them, not where you wanted to go.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39And getting steady shots was still difficult.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49It wasn't until the invention of a kind of mount
0:46:49 > 0:46:55that could hold the camera almost miraculously free of vibration
0:46:55 > 0:46:58that it was possible to use the long lenses necessary
0:46:58 > 0:47:02in order to film animals from a height and they didn't even know you were there.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10It's almost impossible to follow a wild dog hunt at ground level
0:47:10 > 0:47:14through the treacherous swamplands of the Okavango Delta in Africa.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19But the Planet Earth series used a helicopter
0:47:19 > 0:47:23with a new stabilising mount that kept the camera vibration-free
0:47:23 > 0:47:31and you could get close-ups from so high up that the animals below didn't know you were there.
0:47:31 > 0:47:33There they go. They're racing. They're racing.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37Four dogs all spread out.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39Tighten up a much as you can.
0:47:39 > 0:47:42By inter-cutting aerial shots and shots from the ground,
0:47:42 > 0:47:46we could show how the dogs worked as a team,
0:47:46 > 0:47:51with fresh animals joining the hunt to harry their prey and cut off its escape.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57This new perspective gives us the big picture,
0:47:57 > 0:48:01helping us to understand behaviour we could only see fragments of before.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11Stay with him. He's almost got him!
0:48:13 > 0:48:15They're heading towards the water.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24Ooh! The croc's gonna get the impala.
0:48:29 > 0:48:36So now we have the techniques to film almost anything on land or in the sea or in the air.
0:48:36 > 0:48:42But to get pictures of animals that lived in the past, you have to recreate life.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46In the early days, our attempts were pretty crude.
0:48:46 > 0:48:53We used solid models of extinct fish placed in swamps to show the arrival of amphibians on land.
0:48:53 > 0:49:01We moved on to line drawings of dinosaurs and I even appeared alongside one.
0:49:01 > 0:49:06It's easy to imagine some 12 foot species of peragasaurus like Dimetrodon
0:49:06 > 0:49:11lying basking on the rocks in the early morning sun.
0:49:11 > 0:49:16And then we began to animate the drawings, but not very realistically.
0:49:16 > 0:49:21It would take the advent of computer animation to make them move like real animals.
0:49:23 > 0:49:28We wanted to use these new computer techniques to bring to life a moa,
0:49:28 > 0:49:33the giant, extinct ostrich-like bird on New Zealand.
0:49:33 > 0:49:38First of all, I had to walk into a woodland glade
0:49:38 > 0:49:40holding a moa bone.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44Then what would happen would be that
0:49:44 > 0:49:47that bone would be suspended, I would take my hands away,
0:49:47 > 0:49:50and all the rest of the bones and the skeleton would appear from nowhere
0:49:50 > 0:49:53and materialise to form the complete skeleton.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56So I had to walk in, hold the bone,
0:49:56 > 0:50:00then take my hands away and let it drop, which seemed a silly thing to do.
0:50:02 > 0:50:04But electronic trickery made it stay there
0:50:04 > 0:50:07and then added the rest of the bones of the moa's skeleton.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11It had just three toes.
0:50:13 > 0:50:18Its pelvis and its spine lead up to an extraordinarily long neck.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27This bird stood over six feet, two metres tall.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30But then we wanted it to walk away.
0:50:30 > 0:50:36And so what the computer expert got us to do was to imagine where it was going to stand
0:50:36 > 0:50:39and then conceal ourselves in the vegetation,
0:50:39 > 0:50:44each of us holding a bit of fishing line attached to a branch.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48And with our computer expert conducting us as though he was conducting an orchestra,
0:50:48 > 0:50:52the moa came in, this branch was brushed away,
0:50:52 > 0:50:55and then it reached up and pecked another leaf and the leaf moved
0:50:55 > 0:50:58and then it moved away and the bushes moved.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01It was really quite convincing.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06The first human settlers on these islands
0:51:06 > 0:51:09saw these giants alive and called them moas.
0:51:09 > 0:51:16Among them were the tallest birds that ever existed, that weighed over 200 kilos, 400 pounds.
0:51:18 > 0:51:24So now we could recreate extinct creatures whenever we liked,
0:51:24 > 0:51:27in their entire full-colour, animated glory.
0:51:37 > 0:51:43A succession of technological advances has certainly changed the way we make natural history films.
0:51:47 > 0:51:49These days, with every year that passes,
0:51:49 > 0:51:53we seem to get more and more equipment.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56Longer lenses, more electronic bits of kit.
0:51:56 > 0:52:01But in the end, often the most memorable shot comes
0:52:01 > 0:52:05from just one camera and one person
0:52:05 > 0:52:08with a deep understanding of the natural world.
0:52:12 > 0:52:14To film a wild snow leopard
0:52:14 > 0:52:19was once the ultimate challenge for a wildlife cameraman.
0:52:25 > 0:52:28Doug Allen went to the Himalayas
0:52:28 > 0:52:31to attempt to do what so many cameramen before him
0:52:31 > 0:52:33had tried but failed.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37I guess this is where you could say it really starts.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40We're up here in snow leopard country.
0:52:40 > 0:52:46You look around and anywhere and at any time, you might just see it.
0:52:47 > 0:52:52These are big, big mountains and there are not many snow leopards.
0:52:52 > 0:52:57Nevertheless, Doug took to his hide and waited.
0:52:59 > 0:53:01HE SIGHS
0:53:01 > 0:53:04This is tedious stuff.
0:53:04 > 0:53:05Not a sign.
0:53:09 > 0:53:15If you got just a little bit of a hint, a wee bit of a sighting now and again,
0:53:15 > 0:53:18your spirits would be lifted.
0:53:18 > 0:53:23But right now, I'd swap a little bit of this animal's charisma
0:53:23 > 0:53:25for a little bit more visibility.
0:53:25 > 0:53:30And things didn't improve, even after two weeks.
0:53:30 > 0:53:33Yeah, of course, it's boring.
0:53:33 > 0:53:34It's as boring as hell.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49After seven weeks of patiently sitting and watching
0:53:49 > 0:53:53these distant shots are all Doug managed to film.
0:53:53 > 0:53:55So he had to return home empty-handed.
0:53:58 > 0:54:05The following winter cameraman Mark Smith took up the challenge and tried a different location
0:54:05 > 0:54:07this time in Pakistan.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13We've just got a lot of snow and we'll be able to track snow leopard.
0:54:13 > 0:54:19So we'll have a lot better chances of filming it. It's just fantastic.
0:54:19 > 0:54:25After that promising start, things didn't go so well for Mark.
0:54:25 > 0:54:31He and the crew spent a fruitless month trudging through the snow.
0:54:33 > 0:54:38Mark spent all Christmas in the mountains with no sign of a snow leopard.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42But it was a much happier New Year.
0:54:43 > 0:54:49Just... We just got a report that there's a snow leopard up on the ridge.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51And we were too low where we were before,
0:54:51 > 0:54:55so we're just trying to get some height to get a better view of it.
0:54:55 > 0:55:00Finally, Mark was rewarded with his first ever glimpse.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02I looked up onto the ridge
0:55:02 > 0:55:05and I could see this leopard-shaped rock,
0:55:05 > 0:55:08which I'd seen a million times before.
0:55:08 > 0:55:13And I looked through binoculars and it was a leopard just sat there.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16It was perched just on the top of a rock
0:55:16 > 0:55:19and it looked down at us and sat down
0:55:19 > 0:55:21in a sort of sphinx-like posture.
0:55:21 > 0:55:26A few days later, Mark's patience paid off.
0:55:28 > 0:55:33There was not jut an adult female, but with her a one-year-old cub.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49Overall, Mark spent eight months in Pakistan.
0:55:51 > 0:55:57And his dedication enabled him to document the most intimate moments of a snow leopard's life.
0:56:00 > 0:56:04Including a hunt.
0:56:05 > 0:56:10Silently she positions herself above her prey.
0:56:42 > 0:56:43BLEATING
0:56:48 > 0:56:49SCREECHES
0:57:00 > 0:57:03The revelations brought by wildlife films today
0:57:03 > 0:57:08were beyond my imagination when I set out 60 years ago.
0:57:20 > 0:57:25They have transformed not only our understanding of the natural world,
0:57:25 > 0:57:28but our attitudes towards it.
0:57:37 > 0:57:41There have been a lot of changes in the way that we've filmed the natural world
0:57:41 > 0:57:43during the last 50-60 years,
0:57:43 > 0:57:47but there's also been a great change in the way we understand that world
0:57:47 > 0:57:52and that's what I'll be looking at in the next programme.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd