‘The walruses were banging on the walls’

Sophie Lanfear on taking on 108,000 of the creatures in Russia

It was like a zombie film. The walruses turned up over night. It was pitch-black outside and you could hear them coming ashore and getting louder and louder, their tusks scraping the sides of our cabin. They were banging on the walls, right next to where our heads were. It was scary.

The next morning, the walruses had blocked all the exits. We had to climb out through slats in the ceiling to get on the roof and film them from above. There were 108,000 walruses on that one beach, filling every patch of space. The sea ice has retreated so far, more and more walruses need a place to rest and they have to go on land to sites like this.

Seven of us lived in a tiny cabin for two months. We all had to poo in the same bucket. It was gross, especially when it froze. We had flares to keep us safe but a stick is the best way to stave off polar bears. In Russia, it’s illegal to shoot a polar bear. We didn’t have a gun with us, just this long stick. A polar bear only came towards us with her cub once though.

Watching the walruses climb the cliffs to escape the crush was harrowing. I never imagined walruses were capable of climbing that high. They’d be on the edge for hours, looking over, teetering, and eventually you could see them wanting to join the ones going off to sea. So they would just walk off the cliff. The first time, you can’t take it in. You’re rooting for them not to do it.

It was shocking seeing something so large fall from such a height. Some die outright, or crush others below, some don’t die and go back out to sea only to return to shore later for their last breaths. They’re lying there tremoring in front of you. That’s what really broke me.

Some walruses made it down! We saw some groups of six or seven go back the way they came. It was amazing. We were cheering for them: “Woohoo, they’ve worked it out!”

Sophie Lanfear started out studying meerkats in the Kalahari Desert, then joined the BBC Natural History Unit to make The Meerkats. She produced the Polar episode.

‘The chopper pilot had to dodge an iceberg’

Adam Chapman on surviving a collapsing glacier in Greenland

A chunk of ice the size of the Empire State Building cracking off the glacier. Photograph: Netflix

Glaciers are never silent; they’re always making bangs and cracks and groans. You’re constantly on tenterhooks thinking they’re about to go.

We got down to the last day, and the last hour, of our filming window before we lost the light. By then, I thought we wouldn’t see the glacier breaking. But it started making these grinding bass sounds. You could almost feel it through the ground.

We jumped in the helicopter. As we lifted off, a chunk of ice the size of the Empire State Building cracked off the glacier. It looked like something from Inception. Physics seemed to get turned on its head. 75m tonnes of ice were crashing around. It was hard to know what was up and what was down.

We were low to the water, and massive lumps of ’berg were racing up and shooting higher than the helicopter until we were looking up at it. It was one of the most surreal things I’ve ever seen.



Then a huge block of ice came off the glacier and hit another bit, which sent this piece of ice the size of a truck spinning through the air towards our helicopter. It was one of those moments when you think: “Well that was a little too close.”

More than once, the pilot had to suddenly dodge a ’berg after he saw it coming up in his mirror. Later, one on my side rose up and I had to shout: “UP UP UP – you’ve gotta get up!”

It was the most mindboggling 20 minutes of my career. A couple of times, there was that slight question in your mind: no one’s ever done this before, are we pushing it too far? The pilot had never flown around a glacier before. This was uncharted territory for us all.

Afterwards, everyone went quiet. The idea of what this massive event represents for the climate made us go from elation to sadness.

Adam Chapman produced the Global, Deserts and Grasslands episodes. He has produced Big Cat Diary, Bear Diary and Life for the BBC, and North America for Discovery.

‘A shark would latch on to my foot’

Doug Anderson on filming a feeding frenzy in French Polynesia

‘You definitely have butterflies before a job like this’ ... the perils of shooting predators at night. Photograph: Netflix

The bite-proof chainmail I had to wear to film the sharks was a nightmare. I took my kids to the Tower of London the other day and there were all these mannequins showing chainmail through the ages. I was just thinking: “Imagine wielding a sword with this stuff on. How did people joust? Or run into battle?”

My chainmail weighed a stone, but it made filming possible. Trying to make this job safe took literally thousands of emails. Our main worry was if a shark bit our buoyancy compensator and it burst, all of a sudden we’d be incredibly heavy and sink to the bottom with no way of getting back to the surface.

You definitely have butterflies before a job like this. The thing about a night shoot, especially when working with predators, is you can only see what you light up. “It’s behind you, it’s behind you!”

I got bitten virtually every night. A shark would latch on to my leg or foot for a grab and rag. It felt like being bitten by a decent-sized dog, but without the lacerations. If a tiger shark or a great hammerhead had turned up, around the three-metre mark, we would have called it quits straight away. But this didn’t feel like a big problem; these were five or six feet long.

Every time they had a feeding frenzy, we got really immersive. We wanted the audience to feel like they were part of it. There’s that shot of adrenaline you get being so close to such amazing animals acting in a natural way. It is pretty exciting.

Sharks have taken an absolute hammering over the last 50 to 80 years. And it’s becoming increasingly clear they’re an essential part of the ecosystem, especially on coral reefs. Areas where there is more biodiversity – more sharks, more fish, more types of coral, more everything – are less vulnerable to change like global warming. It’s that simple.

Doug Anderson is a cameramen specialising in underwater film. He has worked on Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Frozen Planet, for which he spent six months in the Antarctic recording killer whales and filming under the sea ice at the foot of the Ross Ice Shelf.

‘You don’t mess with them’

Huw Cordey on filming moody orangutans in Sumatra

Pluto the orangutan in the worst place to film on the planet. Photograph: Netflix

It was up there with the worst places to film on the planet. You’re standing in water all day, getting trench foot. You get rashes from poisonous plants. And it’s challenging enough trying to film an animal up in the canopy, while you’re on the ground in a swamp with vines tripping you up every single step. But by the time you’d set up the heavy camera, the orangutan has moved on. That would happen time and time again.

Every day for two months, we filmed from 6am. Sometimes we lost them and spent several days trying to find them. That’s why you have to be there so many hours – you have to even out all the bad luck.

We filmed the first time orangutans have been captured using tools. We knew the signs: the female will start snapping twigs to fashion a tool. They whittle a stick to extract ants, termites, or honey from a tree. They also wrap their hands with leaves then stick them into holes to get honey. It’s impressive. The females are much better at using tools; males are much slower at picking it up.

Orangs get bad-tempered at times. We saw one pull a huge tree towards him, and he just felled it. You have to be careful around them because they’ll throw things at you – sticks, branches – just to make a point: “I’m here, making my presence felt.” They’re unbelievably powerful, and you don’t want to mess with them. When you see one in that mood, you definitely back off.

The official figures say 100 orangutans are being lost a week. It may even be more. The only thing we all know is that they are in desperate trouble.

Huw Cordey directed the Jungles episode. He joined the Natural History Unit in 1995 and has produced three episodes of Planet Earth and The Hunt, among many other films.

‘There’s a moment when you realise you’re prey’

Jeff Wilson on shadowing Siberian tigers

‘Here’s an animal you’re desperate to see, but that you could very easily be a meal for.’ Photograph: Netflix

We spent two winters on their trail. The first year, we had very little luck. We put hides in the forest that had to be tiger-proof, so the largest cat in the world can’t punch through if it’s hungry. The hides are the length of a seven-foot bed. Our camerapeople had everything they needed for seven days in there: food, a bucket for human waste and lots of down as it gets to minus 25 degrees. Three people sat in those boxes for months, and only one of them ever saw a tiger in daylight … for 30 seconds.

They all had terrifying cabin fever. You have to keep your blood flowing when you’re trapped in a box, and you desperately need to wiggle your toes but don’t want to make a sound. All of them got into a meditative state to cope with the cold and the monotony. You have to effectively put your brain and body into shutdown, but be ready to film in a split-second. It’s like having a trip.

There was huge excitement the first time we saw one. But that 30 seconds of time equates to 10 seconds of footage – not enough to build a sequence around. The first year we backed ourselves too heavily with the hides. The cats are a lot more clever than we gave them credit for. That’s a nice thing, to be slapped down by Mother Nature. It restores the balance of who’s really in charge.

The next winter, we set up 30 camera traps to build a network of eyes. Our cameraman Kieran had to go and check the traps. You have these horror moments when you’re wandering through a forest and you realise you’re a prey item. It’s a mixed emotion: here’s an animal you’re desperately trying to see, but that you could very easily be a meal for.

We never encountered any poachers, though Siberian tigers have nearly been poached to extinction. There are only 550 animals left on the planet. For wildlife filmmakers, this is the holy grail. We filmed 35,000 hours in the end. Of that, there were only 37 shots of a tiger. It’s a herculean effort.

Jeff Wilson produced the Forests episode. He joined the Natural History Unit in 2001 for David Attenborough’s Life of Mammals. Since then he has made films including Planet Earth, Frozen Planet and Great Bear Stakeout, working on every continent.

• Our Planet is on Netflix now.