Capturing wildlife on film isn’t without risk, but filming crews are kept safe by numerous safety measures and equipment. However, even those sometimes fail in a stark reminder that nature is wildly unpredictable.
- “I glanced in the mirror and saw a huge, deadly creature crawling out of my shirt. I've never disrobed so quickly in my life.”
- “Security tapped me on the shoulder. A deadly green mamba was slithering across the desk”
6 times filming a wildlife documentary has gone scarily wrong
A close call
A journey out onto the river in Zimbabwe to film the mesmerising lunar rainbows that form in the mist of Victoria Falls during a full moon turned into a life or death situation for Jamie McPherson and Tommy Varley.
“As I was to discover, filming rainbows is not necessarily a serene experience,” said McPherson.
The two men headed out onto the water in a small fibreglass speedboat; the plan was to spend the night filming and head back upstream in the morning. After catching a beautiful sequence of lunar rainbows on camera, they packed the kit back up. McPherson was a bit nervous about how close they were to the edge (about 30 metres), but got on with the job at hand.
And then...
“We’re out of fuel,” Tommy yelled.
The engine cut out, and the boat was carried by the fast-flowing water towards the 100m drop.
Find out what happened next:
- “We were in a small boat in the deadly, croc-infested Zambezi River, just metres from the edge of Victoria Falls. Then the engine spluttered and cut out...”
Ice crack
When shooting the Netflix series Our Planet in 2016, Jamie McPherson once again stared death in the face – and this time, it was icy.
The mission was to film polar bears using a specially-designed rig with a camera attached to the front of an all-terrain vehicle (ATV). The usual way to film polar bears is to head onto the ice in a snowmobile, but using the rig would allow the crew to follow and film the bears simultaneously, which was meant to be safer and faster. In theory...
Together with series producer Alistair Fothergill and guide Einar Eliassen, McPherson headed out onto the ice.
- David Attenborough narrates astounding BBC footage of a ferocious polar bear launching itself at a trembling terrified seal
- What is the biggest bear in the world? Clue: it towers overs humans and weighs almost a tonne
But there was one caveat to using the ATV instead of a snowmobile – it was much heavier, and had a roof, so swimming away in case of ice breaking wouldn’t be as easy.
The ice was getting thinner every day due to rising temperatures. Nonetheless, the crew managed to capture beautiful footage of the polar bears hunting, and everything was going smoothly.
Until the final day of the shoot, when the ice cracked, and the ATV started to sink into the freezing water.
Find out what happened next:
- “There was a loud ‘CRACK.‘ The filming vehicle was falling rapidly through the sea ice, and we had seconds to escape.” What you don't see on Netflix's Our Planet
Under arrest
Felicity Lanchester and cinematographer Barrie Britton, on assignment for the 2013 BBC One series Africa in the Kambui Hills, south-east Sierra Leone, got back to their base camp after a tiring shift to find... seven detectives waiting to arrest them.
Their crimes? “Illegal entry into Sierra Leone; illegal stay in the Eastern District; and suspected subversive activities in the forest.”
“We had reams of paperwork to prove we had permission to be in Kambui, but that last charge scared me – and I was even more alarmed when we were accused of training a rebel army,” said Lanchester.
Find out what happened next:
- “A policeman listed our alleged crimes: 'Illegal entry into Sierra Leone, illegal stay, and suspected subversive activities in the forest...'”
The vicious harpy
A mission to adjust a remote camera in a harpy eagle nest turned into a vicious fight for James Aldred. During a nearly 50m climb up a tree, he was targeted by the female eagle desperate to protect her young.
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“I was beginning to wonder exactly how the harpy mother was going to react to the giant monkey that was about to pay her nest an unwanted visit,” said Aldred.
He was prepared for the attack – a police riot helmet, stab vest and improved protection with rawhide leather strips. Aldred couldn't see the eagle, so he decided to take the chance and make a dash for it. Suddenly, she appeared.
“The next time I saw the furious harpy, she was perched about 7m above me. I needed to clamber up onto the nest-cam branch, which involved turning my back on her for a moment. Before I knew what was happening, I was seeing stars and my ears were ringing.”
Find out what happened next:
- ”The blow was unbelievably powerful, like being hit with a baseball bat. To make it worse, one of her talons pierced my neck, leaving it numb and bleeding.”
Cheetah chase
Another dangerous experience for Jamie McPherson, this time in Kenya while filming cheetahs at night.
The challenge wasn't filming at night – as McPherson says, he's done his fair share of night-filming. “But it was all static and using cameras that created images more akin to an etch-a-sketch than anything you'd watch on TV.”
During this shoot, for Peter Eison's new production Night on Earth, the crew would be driving at night, off road and at the speed of a cheetah. Which is... pretty fast.
- Just how are cheetahs able to run so fast? All you need to know about the beautiful big cat, including the secrets behind its phenomenal speed
- “She’s seen something….” A cheetah mum must distract a prowling big cat away from her cubs. Will her risk pay off?
When filming during the day, the crew tends to not wear seatbelts – it's generally a slow ride with a lot of looking around to spot wildlife. “Perhaps foolishly, we adopted the same approach for this shoot,” said McPherson.
Sammy and Bazil, their drivers, combined their skill behind the wheel with a detailed knowledge of the area and incredible eyesight. The area had recently been ravaged by a bushfire, but that seemed no obstacle for them.
Or so they thought...
On the second night, the crew was driving over the freshly burned ground, following male cheetahs closing in on a gazelle. Then, suddenly...
SLAM! Everything went black.
The glacier
It seems Jamie McPherson can't catch a break – his another near-death experience came in 2016, when filming a calving event of the Store Glacier in Western Greenland.
- Why scientists just drilled 1,000m to the bottom of the ‘Doomsday Glacier’
- Iceberg guide: how they form, where they're found, and how they're used by wildlife
Store is one of the fastest growing moving glaciers in the world, moving up to 20m per day. A calving event is when enormous chunks of ice break away from a glacier, creating icebergs.
“As we flew down the ice sheet and the glacier came into view, we were taken aback by its sheer scale. At more than 11km long and 100m tall, it was like something out of Game of Thrones,” said McPherson.
For the most part, the scene was quite serene – but during the calving event, all hell broke loose.
It was the final day of the shoot, and the crew was close to giving up as nothing has happened so far. Suddenly, the ice started falling.
“GO! GO! GO!”
McPherson and director Adam Chapman jumped into the chopper and headed right into the action.
The first shot worked well, looking down the face from above. The second shot was the same, but this time from the face onto the wall.
This one didn't go as cleanly, as the plume of water and truck-sized chunks of ice shot towards the chopper.
Find out what happened next:
