0:00:02 > 0:00:05Scotland.
0:00:05 > 0:00:10A paradise for wildlife, and a cameraman's dream.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18This country, with its rugged mountains and endless coastline,
0:00:18 > 0:00:23has produced a generation of the best wildlife cameramen in the world.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30For decades, five film-makers, all rooted in Scotland,
0:00:30 > 0:00:34have travelled the globe to bring home incredible images,
0:00:34 > 0:00:38shaping our understanding of the natural world.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43How did these men learn the incredible skills needed
0:00:43 > 0:00:46for catching the natural world in action?
0:00:47 > 0:00:50What is it that prepared them for travelling the globe
0:00:50 > 0:00:53and enduring the toughest of environments?
0:00:53 > 0:00:55BEAR GROWLS
0:00:56 > 0:01:00In this series, these five cameramen will share their extraordinary
0:01:00 > 0:01:03stories, and the secrets of their trade.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06Secrets often learned from filming wildlife
0:01:06 > 0:01:09in the wildest parts of Scotland.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14But this time the camera is on them.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34When filming land mammals, large and small,
0:01:34 > 0:01:38our cameramen must take on every kind of environment.
0:01:41 > 0:01:43Through jungle,
0:01:43 > 0:01:45savannah,
0:01:45 > 0:01:49mountains and forests,
0:01:49 > 0:01:52they track some of the planet's most remarkable creatures.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57My career has rested on the resilience and ingenuity
0:01:57 > 0:01:59of men like these.
0:01:59 > 0:02:00The shots they capture
0:02:00 > 0:02:04give us an intimate insight into life in the natural world.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07HOWLING
0:02:09 > 0:02:13Scots-born Gordon Buchanan is an expert at forging
0:02:13 > 0:02:15relationships with land animals.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22He has filmed some of the planet's rarest and most dangerous animals.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Sometimes getting too close for comfort.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30I've got a bear, I'll show you how close it is.
0:02:32 > 0:02:33Too close!
0:02:37 > 0:02:40Gordon is famous for his work with big cats.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44In the grasslands of the Maasai Mara in Kenya,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48he spent time following a family of leopards.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53Filming these shy animals takes skill and patience.
0:02:53 > 0:02:58Leopards will do their utmost to stay out of sight,
0:02:58 > 0:03:02so if you do manage to find a leopard, it is incredibly exciting
0:03:02 > 0:03:05because, you know, just getting a glimpse of the animal,
0:03:05 > 0:03:06you know that it's special
0:03:06 > 0:03:10and if you're able to stay with it for a length of time,
0:03:10 > 0:03:12you know that every second that you're with it,
0:03:12 > 0:03:14it is an intimate moment.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21Spending extended periods of time getting to know big cats
0:03:21 > 0:03:23is a unique privilege.
0:03:23 > 0:03:28Gordon had the good fortune to film Bella the leopard for three years.
0:03:30 > 0:03:35I got to know this one cat, and it was amazing. It was like seeing
0:03:35 > 0:03:37an old friend when I went back there.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45On this one occasion, because we were hooking up with Bella every
0:03:45 > 0:03:49single day, we knew that she hadn't eaten for four days, and that's
0:03:49 > 0:03:52sort of getting to the point where the survival of her cubs, her own
0:03:52 > 0:03:57survival depends on her being able to run something down and catch it.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13When it comes to watching something like a leopard hunt, you know, it is
0:04:13 > 0:04:18fantastic because you are seeing one of these rare spectacles, something
0:04:18 > 0:04:22that is incredibly difficult to see and even harder to film.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31Those are the shots you kind of go to bed at night-time
0:04:31 > 0:04:35just kind of smiling to yourself and kind of, I suppose, quite smugly
0:04:35 > 0:04:38because the chances of messing it up are really, really high.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46Gordon first learned about wildcat behaviour in his native Scotland.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54His big break came when he spent a year filming wildlife,
0:04:54 > 0:04:58including Scottish wildcats, in the Cairngorms.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05It was probably one of the most challenging years that
0:05:05 > 0:05:11I have ever had. I definitely learnt to become a filmmaker, I think just
0:05:11 > 0:05:15in that period of time, because I had to make these three half-hour films,
0:05:15 > 0:05:19and having never done that before, I was just learning on the job.
0:05:21 > 0:05:26His mentor at the time was naturalist Dick Balharry.
0:05:26 > 0:05:2915 years later, they meet again in the Cairngorms.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34I remember when you came here, you were so keen,
0:05:34 > 0:05:37and really up for everything, and strong and able,
0:05:37 > 0:05:39"Where are they?" sort of thing. "We'll go and get them!"
0:05:39 > 0:05:45How do you feel when you come back here to see this land
0:05:45 > 0:05:49and then compare it to your sort of world...you know, jaunts?
0:05:49 > 0:05:53I could spend a happy day up in the Cairngorms,
0:05:53 > 0:05:57as happy as I would be in the jungles of Papua New Guinea,
0:05:57 > 0:06:00but I think there's something special about Scotland
0:06:00 > 0:06:03and I don't think that's just because I'm Scottish. There is
0:06:03 > 0:06:08a sort of magic and a mystery to a lot of what Scotland has to offer.
0:06:08 > 0:06:14And the more I travel, the more I see that Scotland is unique.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22These special landscapes feed a passion for wildlife.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25They proved an effective training ground for another
0:06:25 > 0:06:28Scotland-based wildlife cameraman, Mark Smith.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37From the icy wastes of the Antarctic
0:06:37 > 0:06:39via the Australian outback,
0:06:39 > 0:06:44and the remote Falkland Islands, Mark has filmed all over the world.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51But it was Scotland he fell in love with, and decided to make his home.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56I wanted to come up and live here on the west coast
0:06:56 > 0:07:01because I think it is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05I'll go on filming trips, you know, to Africa or to Asia
0:07:05 > 0:07:08and spend six weeks sort of banging your head against a brick wall,
0:07:08 > 0:07:13trying to get the shots to look nice and the light is so harsh.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16And then you come back here and you think,
0:07:16 > 0:07:19"Why aren't there more films made around here?"
0:07:19 > 0:07:22Because the quality of the light is just fantastic.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26And you go into some of these forests and some of these woodlands
0:07:26 > 0:07:29and it's the most beautiful, beautiful thing that you've seen.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32Much more beautiful than the place you've often been out away filming.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Like Gordon, Mark learnt the essential skills of wildlife
0:07:39 > 0:07:42film-making in the Scottish Highlands.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48He spent seven months in beautiful Glen Affric near Loch Ness,
0:07:48 > 0:07:50tracking and filming red deer.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57We got a camper van and just kind of immersed ourselves in the place.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59Spent time with the animals and get to know them,
0:07:59 > 0:08:01sort of get inside their head a bit.
0:08:07 > 0:08:12Mark has returned to Glen Affric to see if he can find his old friends.
0:08:13 > 0:08:19Everybody thinks that, erm, filming wildlife in Scotland or the UK
0:08:19 > 0:08:22is kind of easier for some reason,
0:08:22 > 0:08:24but actually it's completely the opposite.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28Most of the animals here are often very frightened of people
0:08:28 > 0:08:32because there's a lot of people in the country and they're often
0:08:32 > 0:08:37being hunted, and so really, starting to film in Scotland
0:08:37 > 0:08:40is a great kind of training ground about getting close to animals.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43If you can get close to a lot of the wilder animals in Scotland,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46then you can probably do it in most places in the world.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49Red deer, generally, they can be the most difficult animals,
0:08:49 > 0:08:50you know, ever to film.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53And, erm, there's another one coming.
0:08:54 > 0:08:55Fantastic.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00So that's two of them. There's one behind, yeah!
0:09:00 > 0:09:03That's three of them. Nice.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05Oh, he's even nicer, this one.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11They're just looking over the top at us.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21Northern Pakistan in winter.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28A most unforgiving landscape with challenging terrain.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31But home to the rarely-seen snow leopard.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38The snow leopard was kind of the holy grail of wildlife film-making.
0:09:38 > 0:09:43There had been films made about snow leopards, and good films as well,
0:09:43 > 0:09:46but they'd always been in places where it was almost impossible
0:09:46 > 0:09:48to get close to them.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53You didn't really sort of feel intimate with the animal at all.
0:09:59 > 0:10:04We turned up in this place after some extraordinary journey,
0:10:04 > 0:10:08some kind of Boy's Own adventure, getting over these 12,000 foot passes
0:10:08 > 0:10:11to get into this valley in winter.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16Christmas Day was spent on a fruitless search
0:10:16 > 0:10:17for the elusive leopard.
0:10:18 > 0:10:24Then five days later, he received some promising news.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28We just got a report that there was a snow leopard up on the ridge.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31We were too low where we were before,
0:10:31 > 0:10:35so we are just trying to get some height to get a better view of it.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37The people on the radio said it was just up
0:10:37 > 0:10:42the valley on the cliff on the left here.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46When I first saw that snow leopard, I just could not believe it.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49You can imagine you're in this incredible mountain environment,
0:10:49 > 0:10:52every hour of the day you're scanning this hillside,
0:10:52 > 0:10:55these rocks for something that looks like a snow leopard.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57And, after two weeks, three weeks of that you just think,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00"This is never going to happen. These animals don't exist."
0:11:00 > 0:11:05And then for your binoculars suddenly to be filled with
0:11:05 > 0:11:08that animal looking straight at you, it was just extraordinary.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16And actually the last thing in your mind at that moment is filming it.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23For three weeks, he filmed the behaviour of mother and cub
0:11:23 > 0:11:28in intimate detail but he still lacked the prized hunting sequence.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34On the very last day of the shoot,
0:11:34 > 0:11:38they spotted an injured markhor next to the leopard's cave.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42We thought if ever it's going to happen, this is the chance we've got
0:11:42 > 0:11:47to film a real proper hunt and we had about two hours left of daylight.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55About three o'clock in the afternoon, she went to the corner of the cave,
0:11:55 > 0:11:58looked around and immediately saw this markhor.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02She went into this whole stalking up the hillside...
0:12:05 > 0:12:09..and got to this point where she could obviously see the markhor
0:12:09 > 0:12:11and she disappeared behind this rock.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16And I'm looking through this view finder,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19this black-and-white view finder right on the end of a long lens,
0:12:19 > 0:12:23and you think, if you take your eyes off this rock now
0:12:23 > 0:12:26and then she comes out, you'll never find her again because you cannot
0:12:26 > 0:12:28find anything in that landscape.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30And suddenly she went.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58In my memory it took several minutes,
0:12:58 > 0:13:00the whole shot's actually over in a few seconds.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06It was an incredible feeling of achievement. Finally, you've done it.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09And it's probably five seconds of real elation
0:13:09 > 0:13:12before you start worrying whether it's in focus
0:13:12 > 0:13:16and all the rest of the worries that you have after it.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20Mark was the first person ever to film a snow leopard hunting.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27Gordon Buchanan also bagged a filming first
0:13:27 > 0:13:32when working in the unforgiving bamboo groves of China.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36Pandas are famous for mating only rarely.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39Some pairs only mate once in their lives.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44Not surprising then, that the act had never been filmed in the wild before.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51Pandas, China, bamboo - I was thinking it would be, I don't know,
0:13:51 > 0:13:56maybe sort of big groves of bamboo with pandas in there somewhere.
0:13:56 > 0:14:02No, this was sort of incredibly steep mountains
0:14:02 > 0:14:06covered in the thickest bamboo ever and bamboo is
0:14:06 > 0:14:09THE worst thing to walk through.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13It snags on everything, it twangs back, hits you in the face,
0:14:13 > 0:14:15it sort of trips you up. It is impenetrable.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20So we get up to the top of the mountains
0:14:20 > 0:14:24where the pandas were at that time of year and you just sit and listen.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27If you could hear pandas off in the distance,
0:14:27 > 0:14:30you could start working your way towards them.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35They call across the valleys, males letting other males know
0:14:35 > 0:14:39that they're there, females letting males know that they're there.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45We really struck lucky, we just happened to be there
0:14:45 > 0:14:49at the perfect time, and I managed to film this sequence.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02It was so difficult going through the bamboo, that we had actually
0:15:02 > 0:15:06ditched the tripod days and days before because it was impossible.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09So I had shot that entire sequence on my shoulder,
0:15:09 > 0:15:13which isn't ideal when you're shooting wildlife.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17It's kind of on page one of the wildlife filmmaker's handbook,
0:15:17 > 0:15:19use a tripod.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21But sometimes the behaviour outweighs
0:15:21 > 0:15:24the sort of technical quality of the images.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31Wildlife cameramen need an in-depth knowledge of animal behaviour.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38But they can't know every animal they're asked to film.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40One day the phone went and the producer said,
0:15:40 > 0:15:42"I'd love it if you could go off
0:15:42 > 0:15:44"and try and film a colugo sequence for us."
0:15:44 > 0:15:46And I said, "Sure, yeah, great!"
0:15:46 > 0:15:48I thought, "I haven't got a clue what this is," and I thought,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51"I'll try and get some more information."
0:15:51 > 0:15:53"So where are you thinking of filming?" "Borneo."
0:15:53 > 0:15:57"OK, good, we've got a sort of..." I didn't know what a colugo was.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01I think I kind of quietly went over to my computer and tried to tap in,
0:16:01 > 0:16:04"How would you spell colugo?" And up it popped.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07"Yes, of course, people call them the flying lemur, don't they?"
0:16:07 > 0:16:10"Yes, but they don't fly and they are not a lemur."
0:16:10 > 0:16:12So suddenly I was looking at an image
0:16:12 > 0:16:14of this really peculiar-looking creature.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20Filming the colugo was a significant challenge.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23It is one of the world's most camouflaged animals
0:16:23 > 0:16:25and only comes out at night.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29They blend in perfectly, you know,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33these flaps of skin that go from their arms to their legs,
0:16:33 > 0:16:36that kind of flap in against the side of a tree.
0:16:36 > 0:16:37So when they are lying against a tree trunk,
0:16:37 > 0:16:39they just become part of the tree.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46They could be like 50 feet up in the trees and just sort of boing,
0:16:46 > 0:16:48jump off the tree and glide.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55So I thought, "God. OK, how do we do it?"
0:16:55 > 0:16:58But then we just sort of began to understand the animal,
0:16:58 > 0:17:01how they moved, what they were likely to do,
0:17:01 > 0:17:05so the unpredictable became slightly predictable.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22The sad thing about filming wildlife is that the moment the most
0:17:22 > 0:17:28incredible things are happening, you are terrified of messing it up.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31And, you know, it's a shame. I've been lucky enough to see
0:17:31 > 0:17:35lots of incredible things, but at the time, I find
0:17:35 > 0:17:37it's really quite stressful
0:17:37 > 0:17:40because you know this has never been filmed before.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44It's a unique piece of behaviour, so it has to be focused and composed,
0:17:44 > 0:17:47and the camera has to be running and you have to make sure,
0:17:47 > 0:17:49"Is that battery about to run out?"
0:17:49 > 0:17:52So there's not that many things to think about but when you combine it
0:17:52 > 0:17:59with something rare and unusual, it spoils the experience a little bit
0:17:59 > 0:18:01to observe that, but then I suppose
0:18:01 > 0:18:03if you've managed to record it on tape, then you've got
0:18:03 > 0:18:06the rest of your life to sit back and watch it again and again.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17A memorable shoot for Mark Smith
0:18:17 > 0:18:22was with wolves in the sparse open wilderness of the Arctic.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28The real challenge of filming these Arctic wolves
0:18:28 > 0:18:30up on Ellesmere Island, in the high Arctic
0:18:30 > 0:18:32was the fact that the landscape is so huge.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36So you have to go through this whole process
0:18:36 > 0:18:40of surveying your landscape, working out where you can go.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42Say for instance, the river,
0:18:42 > 0:18:45you have to work out how deep the river is.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49The only way we could do it, we had to take our trousers off
0:18:49 > 0:18:53and our socks and shoes and walk in this river to see how deep it was,
0:18:53 > 0:18:58and put little cairns at each crossing point, this braided river,
0:18:58 > 0:19:02so the next time you know you can just drive across and follow them.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09When you're following this pack, they become very used to you.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11I mean, they are quite naive, wolves, anyway.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14They've not really seen humans before,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17so you'd be going along with them as they are on a hunt,
0:19:17 > 0:19:20so they are going fast through the landscape
0:19:20 > 0:19:24and you are there trying to keep up with them
0:19:24 > 0:19:30and at one point, the tamest of the whole pack came right up next to me
0:19:30 > 0:19:33lolloping along, and she would be within three feet of the quad bike,
0:19:33 > 0:19:36and she'd look up at me as if to sort of say,
0:19:36 > 0:19:38"Why are you so useless? Why are you going so slowly?"
0:19:38 > 0:19:40It was the most amazing moment.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57A golden rule for wildlife cameramen
0:19:57 > 0:20:01has always been to simply observe nature and never interfere.
0:20:10 > 0:20:15Ignore me, ignore me. Ignore me, get away.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18But when he was working on a series about
0:20:18 > 0:20:22North American black bears, Gordon broke this rule several times.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26Part of me, I just want to pick her up and give her a big cuddle.
0:20:27 > 0:20:32The bears were being studied by controversial animal biologist
0:20:32 > 0:20:35Dr Lynn Rogers, who adopts a more hands-on approach.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41This is all part of Lynn's unconventional technique,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45which is by giving a bear a few handouts,
0:20:45 > 0:20:50that they'll let you touch them, so you can put a collar on them,
0:20:50 > 0:20:54and follow them and observe the natural behaviour.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58And to be honest, I was really dubious about it at the beginning,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01but now I see it, it is quite incredible
0:21:01 > 0:21:03what Lynn has been able to do.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10Touching a wild animal was something that I never wanted to do.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14I never wanted to get hands on, I was quite happy to watch and observe.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19It took time for me to figure out what it was all about, and I saw
0:21:19 > 0:21:24very quickly the benefits of this little system that was in place.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28You know, what you could reveal about those animals' lives.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32It's quite easy to forget what an amazing experience this is.
0:21:38 > 0:21:44One must always remind one's self that they are big wild animals.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53When one of the mother bears abandoned her cub,
0:21:53 > 0:21:55Gordon was faced with a dilemma,
0:21:55 > 0:21:59and one which took him into further controversial territory.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02Should he intervene and save her life?
0:22:02 > 0:22:04There wasn't an issue for me.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08I could see that this was a bear cub that needed help,
0:22:08 > 0:22:12and I thought, "Forget this. Forget this line."
0:22:12 > 0:22:17By helping this animal, seeing it through a tough time,
0:22:17 > 0:22:19just a couple of weeks, giving it a little bit of food
0:22:19 > 0:22:23is going to make the difference between life and death.
0:22:23 > 0:22:28We did everything we could to keep her alive and she survived.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38A few years before getting close to the black bears,
0:22:38 > 0:22:42Gordon found himself in a much more dangerous situation
0:22:42 > 0:22:44on a night shoot in Sri Lanka.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51He was surrounded by a group of crocodiles and leopards
0:22:51 > 0:22:54who were fighting over a wild boar carcass.
0:22:56 > 0:23:01About 12 crocodiles come in and had this massive tussle with the carcass,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05and dragged it into this thick, thick, lantana bush
0:23:05 > 0:23:09and you just couldn't see anything at all.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12And I sat there and kind of weighed up my options, I thought,
0:23:12 > 0:23:16"I'll maybe just encourage this carcass out of the bushes a bit."
0:23:16 > 0:23:20At least to a place where I could see it and where I could film it.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24So I walk, sort of picking my way between the crocodiles,
0:23:24 > 0:23:27leant into the bush and grabbed a hold
0:23:27 > 0:23:30of this huge pig's trotter and started pulling it out.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34It must have weighed about, you know, easily 12, 13 stone,
0:23:34 > 0:23:38and I sort of snagged and pulled it out and I just sort of looked up
0:23:38 > 0:23:43and I had a head torch on, and just on this little kind of rock,
0:23:43 > 0:23:47there was three fully grown leopards just watching me.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49And I thought, you know, God,
0:23:49 > 0:23:52I remember what our domestic cat was like
0:23:52 > 0:23:55if you went anywhere near its food when it was eating.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57I thought, "Well, in for a penny, in for a pound,"
0:23:57 > 0:24:02so I just kept on pulling this thing and pulled it clear of the bushes.
0:24:05 > 0:24:07And by the time I actually switched the camera back on,
0:24:07 > 0:24:10the leopards were back on the carcass and happily feeding away.
0:24:12 > 0:24:13I wouldn't say I was fearless
0:24:13 > 0:24:17but I get a buzz out of doing things that are a little bit,
0:24:17 > 0:24:19a little bit dicey.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25Gordon was only able to capture this extraordinary sequence
0:24:25 > 0:24:27with the use of an infrared camera.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33Huge advances in technology have helped unlock
0:24:33 > 0:24:36the secrets of animals' nocturnal behaviour.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43Another piece of kit that has revolutionised wildlife film-making
0:24:43 > 0:24:44is the camera trap.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49The technology in a camera trap is really quite straightforward.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53It's a passive infrared sensor, like you have in security lights,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56and a camera in a waterproof box.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59And they are...they are fantastic.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03It gives you an opportunity to have a constant presence
0:25:03 > 0:25:05anywhere you want 24 hours of the day.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11The camera trap proved crucial when Gordon was working in Bhutan.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16He went there to find out
0:25:16 > 0:25:18if tigers were living high up in the Himalayas.
0:25:20 > 0:25:21If they did,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25their chances of survival as a species would be much greater.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30These little camera traps, they are giving us
0:25:30 > 0:25:35a little peep through a keyhole into a very rich environment.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39A place that is more than capable of supporting tigers.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43Come on, just once. I don't even want a whole tiger!
0:25:44 > 0:25:48I just want a tail, a stripe, an ear.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51Just something to tell me that tigers are here.
0:25:51 > 0:25:57I just so wanted to find tigers there.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00It was so, so important for the survival,
0:26:00 > 0:26:04the long-term survival of tigers as a species.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15Oh, I don't believe it. Oh, God.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!
0:26:25 > 0:26:27Oh, gosh.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32My reaction was just one of huge relief on so many different levels.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34I was completely overwhelmed.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46As a wildlife cameraman, there's a lot of sacrifice
0:26:46 > 0:26:48and your family have to sacrifice a lot
0:26:48 > 0:26:50because you're away from home.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54And you only want to do that if it's worthwhile
0:26:54 > 0:26:58and, you know, when we found these tigers, I thought,
0:26:58 > 0:27:01no, this is almost... A lot of the absences,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04a lot of the time I've spent away from my wife and my kids,
0:27:04 > 0:27:07it's been worth it because we've done something really quite important.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15The work of wildlife cameramen can help ensure
0:27:15 > 0:27:18the very survival of a species.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23These tenacious individuals work in difficult conditions
0:27:23 > 0:27:27to capture enduring images of the natural world.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31Images that can help safeguard its conservation.
0:27:35 > 0:27:40I think you have to be quite stubborn to just keep going,
0:27:40 > 0:27:44relentlessly each day, building a sequence.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48A lot of it is tough,
0:27:48 > 0:27:52a lot of it is physically very demanding, mentally very demanding,
0:27:52 > 0:27:56and it's lonely and it can be... it can be boring.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59But, on those rare occasions, and they are rare occasions,
0:27:59 > 0:28:03when you look across your entire career, where you are able
0:28:03 > 0:28:06to get what you're after and capture something interesting,
0:28:06 > 0:28:10something unique, something never seen before on film,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13that's when I realise that I do have the best job in the world.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23Next time, our cameramen are looking to the sky,
0:28:23 > 0:28:27filming flying devils in the Falklands,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30black kites on a dump in Delhi
0:28:30 > 0:28:33and sharks looking for an easy meal.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35Phew! That was a lucky albatross!
0:28:52 > 0:28:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd