Wildlife
documentary experts defend crew’s decision to help trapped birds
Mon 19
Nov 2018 17.41 GMTLast modified on Mon 19 Nov
2018 20.45 GMT
Leading
wildlife camera operators and film-makers have defended the film crew on David
Attenborough’s latest BBC series over
their decision to break with convention and intervene to save a group of
penguins that had become trapped in a ravine.
Nature
film-makers are discouraged from intervening in the events they are attempting
to capture on film. While the general principle is to avoid interfering with
the natural course of events, the crew on the Dynasties series stepped in when
they saw the birds’ predicament.
The
penguins at the centre of Sunday’s episode of Dynasties had either blown or
tumbled into a gully in a storm and were unable to to get out. In what BBC
Earth described as an “unprecedented move”, the crew dug a shallow ramp so some
of the penguins would be able to use it to save themselves.
Veteran
wildlife cameraman Doug Allan, whose work has been lauded by Attenborough,
described the convention of not interfering as a “cardinal rule”. He said: “If
[for example] you’re watching a predator and prey relationship, the key thing
is your presence must not influence the outcome.”
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