Animals with Cameras (2018–2021): Season 1, Episode 2 - Episode #1.2 - full transcript
Three orphaned juvenile cheetahs in Namibia are fitted with cameras on the head to prove to the conservationist who adopted them but can't raise them like a real mother how they manage to learn some hunting techniques on their own, by trial and error. South African (pumpkin) farmers need some of the baboons who regularly raid their fields expertly fitted with cameras to work out why they stay away other periods, despite plentiful produce. An Australian professor and his student assistant study from an isolate island near Tasmania camera-fitted members of the penguin colony who brave the ring of great white sharks to reach rich fishing grounds where they rival albatross and profit from dolphin fish school-herding expertise.
As a wildlife cameraman,
I have travelled the world,
trying to capture life's most
intimate and dramatic moments.
But wouldn't it be incredible
if we could see the world
from an animal's point of view?
Well, in this series, that is
exactly what we're going to do,
with the help of
the animals themselves.
They're going to be the ones
that are doing the filming.
They're going to take us to places
that a cameraman like me
simply cannot go,
and reveal a side of their lives
like we have never seen before.
Working with scientists,
we're designing cameras small enough
to take us into their hidden world
for the first time.
We're heading in. Wow.
Barging past some pups.
Our camera crew is one of the most
diverse teams to ever film
a wildlife series.
From 30-centimetre tall meerkats...
..to 60mph cheetahs.
From free diving fur seals...
..to nest-building chimps.
Our unconventional film crew
are revealing surprising behaviour
and giving us new insights
into how they live their lives.
Wow. That's really cool.
Instantly, you get a real chimp
point of view.
This is their world,
their footage.
Oh, yeah, look. Wow!
Their story.
And we're going to see it
through their eyes.
She's definitely got
her game face on.
In this programme, our cameras
reveal the hidden lives
of three very different families.
In Australia's shark-infested
waters,
we discover how fur seals escape
from the deadly jaws
of one of the ocean's top predators.
Oh, wow. Goodness me.
In South Africa, we see the conflict
between baboons and local farmers.
With tensions mounting, could
our cameras help find a solution?
The cameras are basically
my last hope.
But my adventure begins
in the wilds of Namibia.
This is a stronghold for Africa's
most endangered big cat,
the cheetah.
Famously, cheetahs are spectacular
sprint predators,
chasing down their prey
over the open savannah.
That's how I've seen them
in the past.
In the open grassland, it's easy
to watch these incredible athletes.
But, here in Namibia,
they live in bushland,
where they're much harder to see.
We're hoping our cameras can help us
follow the lives of three
very special young cheetahs.
Conservationist Marlice Van
Vuuren adopted this trio
when they were orphaned
at just one day old.
They still rely on Marlice for food,
but she wants to find out
if they can catch their own prey.
Come.
Come!
Come.
She's hoping our cameras could
help her track their progress
as they learn to hunt
in this dense scrubland.
Who are your friends?
This is Odyssey. You're beautiful.
Male? Yeah, he's a boy.
OK. He's a male. What about
the other two?
They're two females,
Shiloh and Wonder.
Odyssey and his sisters
are now 18 months old.
By now, most wild cheetahs
would be making their own kills.
But these orphans
have had no-one to teach them.
Can they work out
how to hunt for themselves?
So, going to show you
what we've come up with.
This is the camera. Oh, OK.
Feel the... Feel the weight. Yeah.
And this goes on the head?
On the head. What do you think?
I would love to see the footage
out of this.
And it's nice
that it's nice and elastic,
and it's not going to restrict them
at all,
so I think it will work.
The cameras look good to us,
but the youngsters will decide
if they're happy to wear them.
Who is this? Is this Odyssey?
This is Odyssey. OK.
The one that sits down.
Hey, Odyssey.
Odyssey's sister, Wonder,
is first up for a fitting.
Camera's running.
I keep one part of my shirt clean,
so I can clean the lenses.
OK. That's perfect.
Look at you. Look at you!
Well, she's not upset,
otherwise she would immediately
start clawing and stop purring.
She's happy.
I'm their mum. To see what
they actually do when I'm not there,
it would make me very proud to know
that they're actually doing
very good.
Huh? Hello.
You want one? He's asking,
"Where's mine?"
It's all the latest thing amongst
cheetahs in this part of the world.
Don't worry, no stress.
There we go. You are... There we go.
Quite a couple. Yeah.
With new bling. You happy with that?
They've got Bushveld bling.
With two of the three cats
wearing cameras,
we watch them head into the bush.
They're soon out of our sight,
but the cameras
are filming their every move.
I don't know about you, but
I'm very excited we're seeing this.
OK, here we go.
Wow.
That's quite incredible.
That's what it looks like
to be a cheetah.
Oh, he's rolling around.
That's fantastic.
You can see, they're just
kind of chilling out,
enjoying being together.
This is an intimate insight
into the cheetahs' lives.
Oh...
Watch the camera.
Head shake.
While Odyssey takes a drink,
Wonder finds a good scratching post.
And it's not long before
our playful young cheetahs
decide to stretch their legs.
And we're running
with the fastest mammal on Earth.
Oh, wow. Yes, it's beautiful.
Look at the tail.
Wow. That is stunning.
Absolutely incredible.
Oh, look at that.
It's an amazing insight
into the youngsters' lives.
But what we really want to know
is whether they can hunt
for themselves.
Hopefully, the cameras
will give us the answer.
I'll also try to film them
for as long as I can.
Trying to spot the three cheetahs.
They've gone into this
very thick bush,
and...
I don't know where they are.
None of them. Any of them.
They're all gone.
It's only when Odyssey emerges from
the dense cover
that I finally find him.
Or, really, it's more a case
of him finding me.
Hey, beautiful.
No, no, no, no. OK, I think you're
going to jump up onto the car.
To get a better view.
OK, that's fine.
With this gain in height,
Odyssey can see so much more
than he can see
when he's down on the ground.
So this isn't about a cheetah
coming to say hello to us,
it's about just kind of having
a better field of view.
Maybe saying hello as well.
That's not what you're supposed
to be doing.
You going to go hunting?
Where's your sisters?
There's no room in the back,
if that's what you're thinking.
Odyssey's not showing much
sign of independence just yet.
But he does finally head off
to rejoin his sisters.
They've spotted a herd of gemsbok
in a clearing.
For young cheetahs,
these are a very dangerous target.
Three cats altogether.
They look like a force
to be reckoned with.
I don't quite know
how this is going to play out.
I have seen cheetahs hunt before,
but out in the open plains,
and I'm not sure how it's going
to change their behaviour,
somewhere as thick as this.
It's very, very scrubby and bushy.
OK, cheetah there, moving in.
Right.
OK, one's running.
Second one running.
Towards the game.
They don't yet know that the
cheetahs are gaining on them.
They're actually just...
OK, full-on run from the
front cheetah, a full-on run.
No, they're just scattering
the herd.
The gemsbok panic.
The cheetahs are after
an easy target.
OK. Oh!
Confusion, confusion.
It's very hard trying to keep track
of three cheetahs.
Wonder's camera captures
what I can't see.
She's chasing one animal
away from the group.
In amongst the bushes,
Wonder's losing speed.
Her sister Shiloh
charges in on the left,
but the gemsbok is now so far ahead,
it's safe.
The thick vegetation has scuppered
our cheetahs' chances.
Wonder skulks back to the clearing,
where the tables have turned.
Oh, just got charged
by a big, big gemsbok there.
They're now at risk of being
skewered by this large male.
The prey knows that the predator
is around -
the cheetah
have lost their advantage.
Ah!
Now they're just
getting chased away,
they're being humiliated.
Taking on such a large prey
was a real rookie mistake.
But will they learn
from the experience?
Over the next few days,
the cameras keep rolling.
The youngsters need to turn this
scrubby terrain to their advantage.
And soon, we see encouraging signs.
The three cheetahs are following
animal trails in the undergrowth.
Shiloh appears to sniff the ground,
to work out what prey is around.
See, this is impossible.
There's absolutely no way we could
see this any other way. Uh-huh.
They're also using the thick bush
as cover.
The closer they can get to the prey,
the more likely they are
to make a kill.
They're trying to get eyes on. Hm.
Odyssey creeps forward.
He spots the target
and freezes.
So his sister's
on his left, one of them.
That's a clear sign that they're
working together,
because he sees the prey, stops,
checks his sister's there.
And then he's looking back
to the prey. Yeah.
And there he goes.
Oh, my God!
Oh! It's a youngster.
My God!
One of his sisters is in front.
It's a baby. It's a baby eland.
Yeah.
Look at that. Oh, my gosh.
His sister, Shiloh, tries to trip
the calf.
Oh, so close.
Oh, my goodness me.
What on Earth?
Odyssey is forced to swerve
to avoid a thorn bush.
Could you see the difficulties of
negotiating those bushes?
And now the mum's trying to keep
them away.
There she goes.
My heart is in my mouth.
That is quite something.
A cheetah can only sprint
at top speed for ten seconds,
so the eland and her calf
manage to escape.
I'm completely blown away
by these images.
It's brilliant to follow them. Hm.
What are they actually doing
in the Veld?
Yeah. You know, and I'm proud
as the mum of them.
You know, they're actually working
in a team
and they... They have huge
challenges, and they take it.
They're not scared. So this is
amazing, this is really a good idea.
But Marlice has yet to see
a successful hunt.
We leave our cameras with her,
to keep watch
on the youngsters' progress.
For our next mission, I'm travelling
to the south coast of Australia,
to the remote and rugged
Kanowna Island.
Few animals have what it takes
to survive out here,
but there's one hardy sea mammal
that does.
The island itself is more of
a rocky outcrop.
It's uninhabited but for
the thousands of fur seals
that call it home.
On the island,
the fur seals are safe.
But the surrounding seas
are deadly...
Teeming with the ocean's
most feared predator,
the great white shark.
I'm here to help scientists
to discover
how fur seals avoid the sharks
and thrive in this unforgiving
wilderness.
We're hoping our cameras
will help solve the puzzle.
There it is.
Home, sweet home.
Leading the research team
is Professor John Arnold.
Hello. Gordon.
Nice to meet you. What an amazing,
amazing place.
Thank you. Good to meet you.
For the next week, this windswept
spot will be my home.
Oh, perfect. Everything a man needs.
John's team have been studying
the seals for 20 years.
But their lives out at sea
are still shrouded in mystery.
So what are the big questions you
want to be answered
by the seals taking cameras
with them?
They spend up to 80%
of their lives at sea.
Every time their mothers
leave the colony,
they have to run the gauntlet
of any sharks that are out there.
What are they doing?
Just seeing them on shore gives us
a very small view of their life.
The big Holy Grail for us,
is what are they seeing?
What are they hunting?
How successful they are
at catching prey...
It's a hard life for these seals.
There are around 15,000 fur seals
on Kanowna Island...
..so it's no surprise that the
island's a magnet for great whites.
These giant sharks specialise in
hunting marine mammals like seals.
Our first challenge will be
to test our cameras.
John's been fitting seals
with trackers for years.
He operates with military precision.
His tactic is to keep low...
I'm going to sneak in,
see what I can find.
Okey-dokey... keep quiet...
and bring a very large net.
OK, we've got her.
Let me know if there's anything
I can do.
Our mother seal gets a light
anaesthetic to help keep her calm.
Wow. 86.0, plus board,
so she's 80 kilos.
At such a healthy size,
John's happy that she won't be
hampered by a small camera.
OK. Well done.
Go back.
While our mum goes on her first
filming trip...
..I want to see what the seals
get up to close to shore.
The theory is that this spot
is too shallow for sharks.
It's the seal equivalent
of a paddling pool,
a safe and sheltered spot
where pups can learn to swim.
That is absolutely beautiful.
It is probably one of the nicest
things I've ever seen underwater.
This cove is the only place
I can observe these seals
beneath the waves.
But we want to understand
their lives
away from the sheltered shallows.
And that's what the deployment
of these cameras is all about.
Our camera testing seal
has also been taking a dip.
Time to see
what the footage reveals.
Heading down to sea.
See the way her shoulder blades
are working.
And she's about to jump
into the water.
There she goes. Into the...
Wow. Oh, wow!
Look at that!
As soon as she dives, the camera
captures unexpected behaviour.
Oh, look at that. Look at that.
She's rubbing against the rocks.
Oh, yeah.
On that green stuff.
They are rubbing... Wow, yeah, you
can see it very clearly there.
Yeah.
And now she's rubbing the side
of her face, her neck.
The other animals around her
are doing the same thing.
They're all doing it. Yeah.
And you've never seen this before?
No, I wouldn't have known.
I mean, you see them offshore
at the surface, playing.
This is brand-new stuff.
I've never seen this before.
Wow!
John thinks the seals could be using
the seaweed to clean their fur...
..brushing up against it
to remove parasites.
Already, we've captured
brand-new behaviour.
We deploy more cameras.
Hopefully, these seals will head
further out to sea.
We know from John's previous
research that some seals will travel
as far as Tasmania...
..a 200-mile round trip.
But they face the greatest danger
from sharks within the first few
miles of their journey.
There she goes.
Will our cameras finally reveal
the seals' survival strategy?
You see seals coming ashore
with injuries from sharks.
They're the lucky ones
that got away. Mm-hmm.
As soon as our seal
enters the danger zone,
she heads straight down
to the bottom.
It's a deliberate tactic.
Great whites prefer to ambush prey
from below.
She's trying to slip
under the shark's radar.
She can hold her breath
for eight minutes...
..but then she must come up for air,
and this is when
she's most vulnerable.
Now, she starts to swim
in a completely different way.
All the time when she's coming
towards the surface,
she's looking around. A 360 view.
In these dangerous surface waters,
she's doing everything she can
to avoid a surprise attack.
Rotating her head
gives her an all-round view.
Just constantly barrelling
and it's just twisting and turning,
it's incredible.
You wouldn't know that unless you
had a camera on an animal. Yeah.
As soon as she can, she returns
to the safety of the sea bed.
This is the first time John
has ever seen how seal mums
give sharks the slip.
Further out, she switches into
hunting mode.
Skimming over the sea floor
has another benefit.
She's onto something.
It's a cuttlefish.
Wow!
Look at that!
That's a big one.
Like a big plate of ink.
The cuttlefish squirts ink
to try and confuse the seal...
Wow.
..but it's too late.
I don't know if we've seen
cuttlefish in their diet before.
Really?
18 metres down, her super senses
soon detect something else.
Oh, what's she chasing here?
Oh...
It's big. Oh, yeah.
It's a big octopus.
See it, it's the tentacles.
Yeah. I didn't even see her
grab that.
A struggling octopus is hard to eat.
Our seal risks heading
to the surface.
Up here, she kills her prey and
bashes it into bite-sized chunks.
Wow.
At the same time she's doing that,
she's having to keep an eye out
for sharks. Yeah.
The cameras have revealed how
mothers specialise in hunting
on the sea floor.
But when this seal comes up for air,
something else
catches her attention.
Is that dolphins?
Yeah. Oh, wow. Wow, wow, wow!
Goodness me!
She's come across a bunch of
dolphins feeding in the bay pool.
Oh, you can see her snatching them
there.
Wow, that's incredible.
So, the presence of those dolphins
is going to help her.
Well, I think she's just getting
a free meal here.
The dolphins are
rounding up the fish,
and the seal dives in
for an easy meal.
The... Oh, there's another one.
Wow, that's incredible!
Without the onboard cameras,
John would have no idea these seals
take advantage of dolphins.
But once the dolphins leave,
the fish spread out.
A lone seal can't keep them
bunched together.
We see here that she's working
really hard
and there's a huge school
of fish there, but she's getting
very few of them.
With a belly full of food,
she heads back to the sea floor.
These cameras have given us a
remarkable insight into the lives
of these seals far out at sea.
For John, these insights
have transformed his research.
You've learned more from, say,
a two-hour video
of the animals underwater
than years and years
of dive recorders and GPS
data logger tracking, because now
you are seeing how they are behaving
underwater in response to what
they're seeing.
Therefore, the cameras give us
a brand-new view of their life.
Now we're facing
a very different challenge.
On the other side of the world,
there's trouble.
War is raging in the
South African bush...
..between the local farmers
and Chacma baboons.
The baboons' natural habitat
is shrinking,
forcing them into farmland,
where they damage
and eat the farmers' crops.
It's a battle that's threatening
farmers' livelihoods.
Raino just harvested
his butternut squash,
but half his crop was unsellable.
All of these butternuts, basically,
in the field is all damaged
with bite marks, scratching marks.
That's the way they carry on,
take a bite from each one.
Some farmers are already
shooting baboons,
so a solution
can't come soon enough.
Could cameras on the baboons reveal
how to keep them off these crops?
Scientist Leah Findlay has spent
the last five years
searching for answers.
So far, nothing has worked.
Baboons are very smart,
they're very dexterous, agile.
It's basically like having a pack
of ninjas on your farm.
Yeah, it's a pretty tricky problem
to solve.
We try everything
to stop the baboons.
In the beginning, we'd put branches,
thorn trees around it.
It never stopped them.
We've tried rubber snakes,
alarm systems.
We've made proper scarecrows
that move like this.
Takes you about a week or so and
then they're getting used to it.
We've tried electric fences, guards.
If the guards are walking
on this side,
they will be on the other side
of the field.
Then if she can run to that side,
then they will cross all the way
backwards,
coming to this side again.
They are very clever.
These clever monkeys are not
in the crop fields every day.
For the last week, the baboons
haven't been raiding,
even though there are thousands
of butternuts in the field.
If Leah can learn what is
keeping them away now,
perhaps she can use it to
keep them out permanently.
At this stage, I think the cameras
are basically my last hope,
because I can't carry on like this.
Now, we just need to get
our custom-built camera
onto a baboon.
I'm stuck!
Leah sets the trap, baited with
the baboons' beloved butternut.
When something pushes down
on the table,
it will pull the latch out
and the door will slide shut.
As night falls,
we have our first baboon.
A female. The vet anaesthetises
her and fits the camera.
Over the coming days, Leah catches
and puts cameras on more baboons.
There we go!
As the new day dawns,
we get our first glimpse into the
lives of these secretive animals.
They slept in the trees for safety.
Now they're sunbathing to warm up.
That's beautiful footage here.
She's having a good look at it,
isn't she?
So, this is basically our eyes now.
Whatever we see now,
it's like through their eyes.
Yeah.
Considering this has only
been on overnight,
she's not bothered by it, is she?
Nothing at all, not at all.
This one is grooming her.
Grooming is the way they socialise,
so I think she might be a more
dominant female. Hm.
It's wonderful to finally
see the baboons' world.
But will this teach Leah and Raino
how to keep them off the crops?
Fence. Not even jumping over it,
just going through it.
Yeah, just straight through, she
pulled it down and she went through.
It's like it's not even there.
These fences, to be honest,
I don't think are going to stop them
at all.
My opinion!
Does anything put the baboons off?
One of our cameras
gives us a clue.
And now they're running. Yeah.
Because nice open area... Yeah.
Which suggests that they don't like
being in it.
That's definitely something
that we can think about
in terms of the crops.
Leah thinks an empty space
around the crops
would be a better barrier
than a fence.
And soon, we get more
inside information.
The baboons are digging for water.
It's dry season, so the rivers
have dried up.
But there is an easier way
to get a drink.
Why bother digging
when there's a water trough?
Has the camera gone under water?
Yeah.
Is it waterproof?!
Has to be.
It gives Leah another idea.
I'm just thinking about, you know,
keeping water points
away from the crops,
because maybe having our water
close to the crops is, you know,
drawing them in.
And finally, we learn
why the baboons
aren't raiding at the moment.
This is the first ever glimpse
of what these baboons are eating
in the wild.
And it goes like this,
it's basically every time they
put a fruit in their mouth.
Yeah, yeah.
At first... Just shovelling it in,
yeah.
And it feels like she's going
to feed you.
Yeah!
Same kind of fruit, that kind
of roundish fruit tree.
Yeah, yeah.
This fruit could be the key.
It's from an alala palm.
They take up to four years to ripen
and fall to the ground.
And when they do, there are
thousands of them.
It's a feast.
The baboons are choosing this wild
fruit over the butternuts.
When there's enough feeding
and stuff,
they prefer to use
their natural food.
When there's plenty out there,
they don't come in. Yeah.
You could plant more of these trees
that have their natural food
that maybe they prefer. You know,
that might be an option.
The peak time for crop raiding
is the dry season,
when there is little
other food around.
If Raino could plant bushes and
trees that fruit in the dry season,
it might get the baboons through
this hunger gap
and keep them off his fields.
Our cameras reveal a wide range
of the baboons' favourite fruit
and berries,
showing Raino exactly
what to plant.
I think we've definitely learned
some new things.
We've learned a lot, yeah.
Does this make you feel any
differently about the baboons?
Having a baboon's-eye view?
Feeling more sorry for them,
actually. Oh, really? Yeah.
Why's that? It's their
natural environment,
so there has to be space
for everybody.
Leah has gained new insights into
the feeding habits of the baboons.
These will be crucial to her effort
to solve this tricky conflict,
finding a peaceful way for farmers
and baboons to coexist.
Back in Namibia, 700 miles away,
we've been putting our cameras
on three orphaned cheetahs.
OK. Fantastic, there we go.
Their surrogate mum, Marlice,
wants to know if they can hunt for
themselves in the bush.
We've seen some encouraging signs...
Oh, she's seen something.
They're all up on their feet
looking off in that direction.
I can't see what they can see.
..but until now, the cameras have
captured near misses.
No successful hunts.
Several months on,
Marlice is still using her cameras
to see how their hunting is
coming on.
Odyssey flushes a warthog.
A warthog is one of the animals
that they are most scared of.
The tusks on these powerful pigs
can kill.
Just in time, he realises it's
a mistake to follow a warthog
into the bush.
He did give up.
A bat-eared fox...
It's just amazing that...
I mean, I didn't even know that they
go for bat-eared foxes,
if it wasn't for the camera.
Shiloh and Wonder move in
from each side...
..and the cameras capture their
deadly strike.
With the cameras and with technology
like this,
it just proves that actually
without a mum,
without an adult showing them how
to do it, and with opportunities,
they can actually learn.
By working together, they're
becoming a formidable hunting trio.
And their choice of prey is
getting better.
Springbok are one of the fastest
of all African animals.
But up against cheetahs, this one
has little chance of escape.
Success at last.
The right prey and the perfect
technique.
I can see that they are ready.
They've learned a lot,
they are ready and they're working
in coalition.
It's two females and a male together
and making their hunt successful.
It helps me to kind of cut
the umbilical cord and know
that they actually, really,
they can go.
Yeah, it's really impressive to see
and I'm so proud of them.
Our cameras have given us an insight
that otherwise would be impossible
to see.
And it's the cheetahs themselves
that have given us their view
of their world.
They have taken us with them deep
into the African bush.
The cameras have shown Marlice
that her three young cubs
can fend for themselves.
And our new insights into the lives
of cheetahs
could help us to better protect
these incredible big cats.
In this episode,
two very different African animals
presented us with two very different
problems.
How to fit a camera onto
the superfast cheetah...
..and the super-shy baboon.
It was up to mini camera expert
Chris Watts to find the solutions.
When I first think about making
a camera system for an animal,
a lot of it is kind of really
studying how they move.
And with the cheetah, the first
thing you notice
is that the head is so stable
when they're moving and running,
the head is just completely locked.
And we all thought, how amazing
would it be if we could actually get
the camera on the head?
But before the team could try this
ambitious plan
on the three young orphans,
they needed to test their design
on a captive cheetah
with an easy-going nature.
Enter Pride - possibly the most
relaxed cheetah in Africa.
Her keeper, Derek Van Heerden,
didn't think she'd object
to trialling our head camera.
Chris designed a 3-D printed harness
fit for the heat
of the African bush.
Cooling is a massive issue.
We didn't want to put something
on their head which was going to,
you know, make them overheat.
So we've tried to have vent holes
here so you get air underneath
the head.
And the way we've attached it to
the cheetah's head is just using
this flexible, breathable neoprene.
Chris's design needed to be quick
to deploy,
but easy for the cheetah to
pull off if she wasn't happy.
I'm really excited to see
what we're going to get.
But no-one knew how Pride
would react.
Do you reckon...? Do you reckon
that's all right, isn't it?
Seems pretty good.
No problem.
Once Chris was happy with the fit...
..Derek and I kept a close eye on
how Pride was doing.
The key thing, really, is for this
camera to not interfere
with any of her senses.
Just a couple of minutes
with the camera on her head
and she's forgotten all about it.
Yeah.
It was encouraging to see how
comfortable she looked,
and how relaxed she was with other
cheetahs in her enclosure.
Oh, goodness me!
She gets a bit of a face-lick.
Wow.
Such an intimate moment.
Beautiful.
Certainly is amazing.
Ah, that's lovely, look at that.
That really is.
We had to be sure that Pride
could reach top speed while wearing
the camera.
It wasn't long before she was off.
There she is. Oh, whoa!
Really fast, there we go.
Unbelievable.
That's an explosive speed.
That thing is moving.
Look at this.
The footage was proof
that our camera wouldn't put a
cheetah off its stride.
That's amazing, it really
is excellent footage.
We were now ready to join our three
young orphan cheetahs
as they learn to hunt.
The next animal presented Chris with
a very different set of problems.
The wild baboons we wanted to film
in South Africa
were extremely scared of people.
A camera test with them was
out of the question.
So once again, Chris needed a
body double.
We chose a group of hand-reared
baboons in a sanctuary in Namibia.
They weren't timid.
In fact, quite the opposite.
It is quite unusual working
conditions.
Ooh, ooh!
Before making his prototype, Chris
studied the way baboons move.
In contrast to cheetahs, baboons
move their heads all the time.
For more stable shots,
the camera would have to be worn
around the neck.
But this posed another problem
due to the baboons' distinctive
facial features.
What I noticed is that their faces
are very long.
I'm quite concerned that the chin
might get in the shot.
But really, we've just got to try
it now and see what we get.
Testing was easier said than done.
Are you going to wear a camera?
The baboons might be used to
people...
Pff! OK.
Um, hmm...
..but they weren't used to
wearing collars.
It's to sort of make it into a bit
of a game.
Really don't want to annoy them
or lose a finger.
Oh, no, he's got it!
Eventually, perseverance
and patience paid off.
But, as Chris had feared,
the camera showed mostly chin.
Over the next few days, Chris
experimented,
altering the position and angle of
the camera to get the best results.
And finally...
..bingo!
You can see, you've got the bottom
of the chin just here,
and the lens there.
So height-wise, it's kind of
just about there.
The prototype camera could deliver
great footage.
But was it baboon-proof?
An adult male baboon can weigh
40 kilos...
and have canine teeth larger than
a leopard's.
But there's no way that will be
strong enough,
because a big wild male will just do
that straight away.
The last step was to add serious
reinforcement -
a stronger housing,
and a thicker collar.
Feels pretty much perfect.
Now Chris's baboon cams had to work
out in the wild.
Once in South Africa,
getting the cameras onto the baboons
was fairly straightforward.
There we go!
Here, the biggest challenge...
..was getting the cameras back.
Each was set to drop off after
two days filming.
In such dense scrub, Leah's only
chance of finding the camera
was to track the baboon using
the transmitter in its collar.
But baboons have no respect for
human boundaries.
With its camera just about to
drop off,
our baboon went trespassing on
a neighbouring farm.
We saw the baboon with
the collar on, with the camera,
crossing the road.
So she's just the other side of this
fence now.
Without permission to enter,
Leah couldn't follow the baboon
any further.
It's 4.55, so her collar
will be dropping off
in five minutes.
Bang on time,
the camera dropped off.
The battery in the tracking device
would soon be dead.
Finally, Leah got the go-ahead
to enter the farm.
It was now a race to find the camera
before the battery and the daylight
ran out.
It's getting louder.
I think it's that way.
And just as night was closing in...
Oh, there it is!
Ah, yes.
Ah.
We've got the collar.
I'm so happy.
Next time...
We dive into the Atlantic Ocean
to reveal a secret gathering of
giant devil rays.
These are unbelievably privileged
views.
In the mountains of Turkey,
we are with brown bears, where
tensions are running high.
Ooh. Oh, wow!
And in France,
we discover what happens
when dogs come face to face
with wolves.
I have travelled the world,
trying to capture life's most
intimate and dramatic moments.
But wouldn't it be incredible
if we could see the world
from an animal's point of view?
Well, in this series, that is
exactly what we're going to do,
with the help of
the animals themselves.
They're going to be the ones
that are doing the filming.
They're going to take us to places
that a cameraman like me
simply cannot go,
and reveal a side of their lives
like we have never seen before.
Working with scientists,
we're designing cameras small enough
to take us into their hidden world
for the first time.
We're heading in. Wow.
Barging past some pups.
Our camera crew is one of the most
diverse teams to ever film
a wildlife series.
From 30-centimetre tall meerkats...
..to 60mph cheetahs.
From free diving fur seals...
..to nest-building chimps.
Our unconventional film crew
are revealing surprising behaviour
and giving us new insights
into how they live their lives.
Wow. That's really cool.
Instantly, you get a real chimp
point of view.
This is their world,
their footage.
Oh, yeah, look. Wow!
Their story.
And we're going to see it
through their eyes.
She's definitely got
her game face on.
In this programme, our cameras
reveal the hidden lives
of three very different families.
In Australia's shark-infested
waters,
we discover how fur seals escape
from the deadly jaws
of one of the ocean's top predators.
Oh, wow. Goodness me.
In South Africa, we see the conflict
between baboons and local farmers.
With tensions mounting, could
our cameras help find a solution?
The cameras are basically
my last hope.
But my adventure begins
in the wilds of Namibia.
This is a stronghold for Africa's
most endangered big cat,
the cheetah.
Famously, cheetahs are spectacular
sprint predators,
chasing down their prey
over the open savannah.
That's how I've seen them
in the past.
In the open grassland, it's easy
to watch these incredible athletes.
But, here in Namibia,
they live in bushland,
where they're much harder to see.
We're hoping our cameras can help us
follow the lives of three
very special young cheetahs.
Conservationist Marlice Van
Vuuren adopted this trio
when they were orphaned
at just one day old.
They still rely on Marlice for food,
but she wants to find out
if they can catch their own prey.
Come.
Come!
Come.
She's hoping our cameras could
help her track their progress
as they learn to hunt
in this dense scrubland.
Who are your friends?
This is Odyssey. You're beautiful.
Male? Yeah, he's a boy.
OK. He's a male. What about
the other two?
They're two females,
Shiloh and Wonder.
Odyssey and his sisters
are now 18 months old.
By now, most wild cheetahs
would be making their own kills.
But these orphans
have had no-one to teach them.
Can they work out
how to hunt for themselves?
So, going to show you
what we've come up with.
This is the camera. Oh, OK.
Feel the... Feel the weight. Yeah.
And this goes on the head?
On the head. What do you think?
I would love to see the footage
out of this.
And it's nice
that it's nice and elastic,
and it's not going to restrict them
at all,
so I think it will work.
The cameras look good to us,
but the youngsters will decide
if they're happy to wear them.
Who is this? Is this Odyssey?
This is Odyssey. OK.
The one that sits down.
Hey, Odyssey.
Odyssey's sister, Wonder,
is first up for a fitting.
Camera's running.
I keep one part of my shirt clean,
so I can clean the lenses.
OK. That's perfect.
Look at you. Look at you!
Well, she's not upset,
otherwise she would immediately
start clawing and stop purring.
She's happy.
I'm their mum. To see what
they actually do when I'm not there,
it would make me very proud to know
that they're actually doing
very good.
Huh? Hello.
You want one? He's asking,
"Where's mine?"
It's all the latest thing amongst
cheetahs in this part of the world.
Don't worry, no stress.
There we go. You are... There we go.
Quite a couple. Yeah.
With new bling. You happy with that?
They've got Bushveld bling.
With two of the three cats
wearing cameras,
we watch them head into the bush.
They're soon out of our sight,
but the cameras
are filming their every move.
I don't know about you, but
I'm very excited we're seeing this.
OK, here we go.
Wow.
That's quite incredible.
That's what it looks like
to be a cheetah.
Oh, he's rolling around.
That's fantastic.
You can see, they're just
kind of chilling out,
enjoying being together.
This is an intimate insight
into the cheetahs' lives.
Oh...
Watch the camera.
Head shake.
While Odyssey takes a drink,
Wonder finds a good scratching post.
And it's not long before
our playful young cheetahs
decide to stretch their legs.
And we're running
with the fastest mammal on Earth.
Oh, wow. Yes, it's beautiful.
Look at the tail.
Wow. That is stunning.
Absolutely incredible.
Oh, look at that.
It's an amazing insight
into the youngsters' lives.
But what we really want to know
is whether they can hunt
for themselves.
Hopefully, the cameras
will give us the answer.
I'll also try to film them
for as long as I can.
Trying to spot the three cheetahs.
They've gone into this
very thick bush,
and...
I don't know where they are.
None of them. Any of them.
They're all gone.
It's only when Odyssey emerges from
the dense cover
that I finally find him.
Or, really, it's more a case
of him finding me.
Hey, beautiful.
No, no, no, no. OK, I think you're
going to jump up onto the car.
To get a better view.
OK, that's fine.
With this gain in height,
Odyssey can see so much more
than he can see
when he's down on the ground.
So this isn't about a cheetah
coming to say hello to us,
it's about just kind of having
a better field of view.
Maybe saying hello as well.
That's not what you're supposed
to be doing.
You going to go hunting?
Where's your sisters?
There's no room in the back,
if that's what you're thinking.
Odyssey's not showing much
sign of independence just yet.
But he does finally head off
to rejoin his sisters.
They've spotted a herd of gemsbok
in a clearing.
For young cheetahs,
these are a very dangerous target.
Three cats altogether.
They look like a force
to be reckoned with.
I don't quite know
how this is going to play out.
I have seen cheetahs hunt before,
but out in the open plains,
and I'm not sure how it's going
to change their behaviour,
somewhere as thick as this.
It's very, very scrubby and bushy.
OK, cheetah there, moving in.
Right.
OK, one's running.
Second one running.
Towards the game.
They don't yet know that the
cheetahs are gaining on them.
They're actually just...
OK, full-on run from the
front cheetah, a full-on run.
No, they're just scattering
the herd.
The gemsbok panic.
The cheetahs are after
an easy target.
OK. Oh!
Confusion, confusion.
It's very hard trying to keep track
of three cheetahs.
Wonder's camera captures
what I can't see.
She's chasing one animal
away from the group.
In amongst the bushes,
Wonder's losing speed.
Her sister Shiloh
charges in on the left,
but the gemsbok is now so far ahead,
it's safe.
The thick vegetation has scuppered
our cheetahs' chances.
Wonder skulks back to the clearing,
where the tables have turned.
Oh, just got charged
by a big, big gemsbok there.
They're now at risk of being
skewered by this large male.
The prey knows that the predator
is around -
the cheetah
have lost their advantage.
Ah!
Now they're just
getting chased away,
they're being humiliated.
Taking on such a large prey
was a real rookie mistake.
But will they learn
from the experience?
Over the next few days,
the cameras keep rolling.
The youngsters need to turn this
scrubby terrain to their advantage.
And soon, we see encouraging signs.
The three cheetahs are following
animal trails in the undergrowth.
Shiloh appears to sniff the ground,
to work out what prey is around.
See, this is impossible.
There's absolutely no way we could
see this any other way. Uh-huh.
They're also using the thick bush
as cover.
The closer they can get to the prey,
the more likely they are
to make a kill.
They're trying to get eyes on. Hm.
Odyssey creeps forward.
He spots the target
and freezes.
So his sister's
on his left, one of them.
That's a clear sign that they're
working together,
because he sees the prey, stops,
checks his sister's there.
And then he's looking back
to the prey. Yeah.
And there he goes.
Oh, my God!
Oh! It's a youngster.
My God!
One of his sisters is in front.
It's a baby. It's a baby eland.
Yeah.
Look at that. Oh, my gosh.
His sister, Shiloh, tries to trip
the calf.
Oh, so close.
Oh, my goodness me.
What on Earth?
Odyssey is forced to swerve
to avoid a thorn bush.
Could you see the difficulties of
negotiating those bushes?
And now the mum's trying to keep
them away.
There she goes.
My heart is in my mouth.
That is quite something.
A cheetah can only sprint
at top speed for ten seconds,
so the eland and her calf
manage to escape.
I'm completely blown away
by these images.
It's brilliant to follow them. Hm.
What are they actually doing
in the Veld?
Yeah. You know, and I'm proud
as the mum of them.
You know, they're actually working
in a team
and they... They have huge
challenges, and they take it.
They're not scared. So this is
amazing, this is really a good idea.
But Marlice has yet to see
a successful hunt.
We leave our cameras with her,
to keep watch
on the youngsters' progress.
For our next mission, I'm travelling
to the south coast of Australia,
to the remote and rugged
Kanowna Island.
Few animals have what it takes
to survive out here,
but there's one hardy sea mammal
that does.
The island itself is more of
a rocky outcrop.
It's uninhabited but for
the thousands of fur seals
that call it home.
On the island,
the fur seals are safe.
But the surrounding seas
are deadly...
Teeming with the ocean's
most feared predator,
the great white shark.
I'm here to help scientists
to discover
how fur seals avoid the sharks
and thrive in this unforgiving
wilderness.
We're hoping our cameras
will help solve the puzzle.
There it is.
Home, sweet home.
Leading the research team
is Professor John Arnold.
Hello. Gordon.
Nice to meet you. What an amazing,
amazing place.
Thank you. Good to meet you.
For the next week, this windswept
spot will be my home.
Oh, perfect. Everything a man needs.
John's team have been studying
the seals for 20 years.
But their lives out at sea
are still shrouded in mystery.
So what are the big questions you
want to be answered
by the seals taking cameras
with them?
They spend up to 80%
of their lives at sea.
Every time their mothers
leave the colony,
they have to run the gauntlet
of any sharks that are out there.
What are they doing?
Just seeing them on shore gives us
a very small view of their life.
The big Holy Grail for us,
is what are they seeing?
What are they hunting?
How successful they are
at catching prey...
It's a hard life for these seals.
There are around 15,000 fur seals
on Kanowna Island...
..so it's no surprise that the
island's a magnet for great whites.
These giant sharks specialise in
hunting marine mammals like seals.
Our first challenge will be
to test our cameras.
John's been fitting seals
with trackers for years.
He operates with military precision.
His tactic is to keep low...
I'm going to sneak in,
see what I can find.
Okey-dokey... keep quiet...
and bring a very large net.
OK, we've got her.
Let me know if there's anything
I can do.
Our mother seal gets a light
anaesthetic to help keep her calm.
Wow. 86.0, plus board,
so she's 80 kilos.
At such a healthy size,
John's happy that she won't be
hampered by a small camera.
OK. Well done.
Go back.
While our mum goes on her first
filming trip...
..I want to see what the seals
get up to close to shore.
The theory is that this spot
is too shallow for sharks.
It's the seal equivalent
of a paddling pool,
a safe and sheltered spot
where pups can learn to swim.
That is absolutely beautiful.
It is probably one of the nicest
things I've ever seen underwater.
This cove is the only place
I can observe these seals
beneath the waves.
But we want to understand
their lives
away from the sheltered shallows.
And that's what the deployment
of these cameras is all about.
Our camera testing seal
has also been taking a dip.
Time to see
what the footage reveals.
Heading down to sea.
See the way her shoulder blades
are working.
And she's about to jump
into the water.
There she goes. Into the...
Wow. Oh, wow!
Look at that!
As soon as she dives, the camera
captures unexpected behaviour.
Oh, look at that. Look at that.
She's rubbing against the rocks.
Oh, yeah.
On that green stuff.
They are rubbing... Wow, yeah, you
can see it very clearly there.
Yeah.
And now she's rubbing the side
of her face, her neck.
The other animals around her
are doing the same thing.
They're all doing it. Yeah.
And you've never seen this before?
No, I wouldn't have known.
I mean, you see them offshore
at the surface, playing.
This is brand-new stuff.
I've never seen this before.
Wow!
John thinks the seals could be using
the seaweed to clean their fur...
..brushing up against it
to remove parasites.
Already, we've captured
brand-new behaviour.
We deploy more cameras.
Hopefully, these seals will head
further out to sea.
We know from John's previous
research that some seals will travel
as far as Tasmania...
..a 200-mile round trip.
But they face the greatest danger
from sharks within the first few
miles of their journey.
There she goes.
Will our cameras finally reveal
the seals' survival strategy?
You see seals coming ashore
with injuries from sharks.
They're the lucky ones
that got away. Mm-hmm.
As soon as our seal
enters the danger zone,
she heads straight down
to the bottom.
It's a deliberate tactic.
Great whites prefer to ambush prey
from below.
She's trying to slip
under the shark's radar.
She can hold her breath
for eight minutes...
..but then she must come up for air,
and this is when
she's most vulnerable.
Now, she starts to swim
in a completely different way.
All the time when she's coming
towards the surface,
she's looking around. A 360 view.
In these dangerous surface waters,
she's doing everything she can
to avoid a surprise attack.
Rotating her head
gives her an all-round view.
Just constantly barrelling
and it's just twisting and turning,
it's incredible.
You wouldn't know that unless you
had a camera on an animal. Yeah.
As soon as she can, she returns
to the safety of the sea bed.
This is the first time John
has ever seen how seal mums
give sharks the slip.
Further out, she switches into
hunting mode.
Skimming over the sea floor
has another benefit.
She's onto something.
It's a cuttlefish.
Wow!
Look at that!
That's a big one.
Like a big plate of ink.
The cuttlefish squirts ink
to try and confuse the seal...
Wow.
..but it's too late.
I don't know if we've seen
cuttlefish in their diet before.
Really?
18 metres down, her super senses
soon detect something else.
Oh, what's she chasing here?
Oh...
It's big. Oh, yeah.
It's a big octopus.
See it, it's the tentacles.
Yeah. I didn't even see her
grab that.
A struggling octopus is hard to eat.
Our seal risks heading
to the surface.
Up here, she kills her prey and
bashes it into bite-sized chunks.
Wow.
At the same time she's doing that,
she's having to keep an eye out
for sharks. Yeah.
The cameras have revealed how
mothers specialise in hunting
on the sea floor.
But when this seal comes up for air,
something else
catches her attention.
Is that dolphins?
Yeah. Oh, wow. Wow, wow, wow!
Goodness me!
She's come across a bunch of
dolphins feeding in the bay pool.
Oh, you can see her snatching them
there.
Wow, that's incredible.
So, the presence of those dolphins
is going to help her.
Well, I think she's just getting
a free meal here.
The dolphins are
rounding up the fish,
and the seal dives in
for an easy meal.
The... Oh, there's another one.
Wow, that's incredible!
Without the onboard cameras,
John would have no idea these seals
take advantage of dolphins.
But once the dolphins leave,
the fish spread out.
A lone seal can't keep them
bunched together.
We see here that she's working
really hard
and there's a huge school
of fish there, but she's getting
very few of them.
With a belly full of food,
she heads back to the sea floor.
These cameras have given us a
remarkable insight into the lives
of these seals far out at sea.
For John, these insights
have transformed his research.
You've learned more from, say,
a two-hour video
of the animals underwater
than years and years
of dive recorders and GPS
data logger tracking, because now
you are seeing how they are behaving
underwater in response to what
they're seeing.
Therefore, the cameras give us
a brand-new view of their life.
Now we're facing
a very different challenge.
On the other side of the world,
there's trouble.
War is raging in the
South African bush...
..between the local farmers
and Chacma baboons.
The baboons' natural habitat
is shrinking,
forcing them into farmland,
where they damage
and eat the farmers' crops.
It's a battle that's threatening
farmers' livelihoods.
Raino just harvested
his butternut squash,
but half his crop was unsellable.
All of these butternuts, basically,
in the field is all damaged
with bite marks, scratching marks.
That's the way they carry on,
take a bite from each one.
Some farmers are already
shooting baboons,
so a solution
can't come soon enough.
Could cameras on the baboons reveal
how to keep them off these crops?
Scientist Leah Findlay has spent
the last five years
searching for answers.
So far, nothing has worked.
Baboons are very smart,
they're very dexterous, agile.
It's basically like having a pack
of ninjas on your farm.
Yeah, it's a pretty tricky problem
to solve.
We try everything
to stop the baboons.
In the beginning, we'd put branches,
thorn trees around it.
It never stopped them.
We've tried rubber snakes,
alarm systems.
We've made proper scarecrows
that move like this.
Takes you about a week or so and
then they're getting used to it.
We've tried electric fences, guards.
If the guards are walking
on this side,
they will be on the other side
of the field.
Then if she can run to that side,
then they will cross all the way
backwards,
coming to this side again.
They are very clever.
These clever monkeys are not
in the crop fields every day.
For the last week, the baboons
haven't been raiding,
even though there are thousands
of butternuts in the field.
If Leah can learn what is
keeping them away now,
perhaps she can use it to
keep them out permanently.
At this stage, I think the cameras
are basically my last hope,
because I can't carry on like this.
Now, we just need to get
our custom-built camera
onto a baboon.
I'm stuck!
Leah sets the trap, baited with
the baboons' beloved butternut.
When something pushes down
on the table,
it will pull the latch out
and the door will slide shut.
As night falls,
we have our first baboon.
A female. The vet anaesthetises
her and fits the camera.
Over the coming days, Leah catches
and puts cameras on more baboons.
There we go!
As the new day dawns,
we get our first glimpse into the
lives of these secretive animals.
They slept in the trees for safety.
Now they're sunbathing to warm up.
That's beautiful footage here.
She's having a good look at it,
isn't she?
So, this is basically our eyes now.
Whatever we see now,
it's like through their eyes.
Yeah.
Considering this has only
been on overnight,
she's not bothered by it, is she?
Nothing at all, not at all.
This one is grooming her.
Grooming is the way they socialise,
so I think she might be a more
dominant female. Hm.
It's wonderful to finally
see the baboons' world.
But will this teach Leah and Raino
how to keep them off the crops?
Fence. Not even jumping over it,
just going through it.
Yeah, just straight through, she
pulled it down and she went through.
It's like it's not even there.
These fences, to be honest,
I don't think are going to stop them
at all.
My opinion!
Does anything put the baboons off?
One of our cameras
gives us a clue.
And now they're running. Yeah.
Because nice open area... Yeah.
Which suggests that they don't like
being in it.
That's definitely something
that we can think about
in terms of the crops.
Leah thinks an empty space
around the crops
would be a better barrier
than a fence.
And soon, we get more
inside information.
The baboons are digging for water.
It's dry season, so the rivers
have dried up.
But there is an easier way
to get a drink.
Why bother digging
when there's a water trough?
Has the camera gone under water?
Yeah.
Is it waterproof?!
Has to be.
It gives Leah another idea.
I'm just thinking about, you know,
keeping water points
away from the crops,
because maybe having our water
close to the crops is, you know,
drawing them in.
And finally, we learn
why the baboons
aren't raiding at the moment.
This is the first ever glimpse
of what these baboons are eating
in the wild.
And it goes like this,
it's basically every time they
put a fruit in their mouth.
Yeah, yeah.
At first... Just shovelling it in,
yeah.
And it feels like she's going
to feed you.
Yeah!
Same kind of fruit, that kind
of roundish fruit tree.
Yeah, yeah.
This fruit could be the key.
It's from an alala palm.
They take up to four years to ripen
and fall to the ground.
And when they do, there are
thousands of them.
It's a feast.
The baboons are choosing this wild
fruit over the butternuts.
When there's enough feeding
and stuff,
they prefer to use
their natural food.
When there's plenty out there,
they don't come in. Yeah.
You could plant more of these trees
that have their natural food
that maybe they prefer. You know,
that might be an option.
The peak time for crop raiding
is the dry season,
when there is little
other food around.
If Raino could plant bushes and
trees that fruit in the dry season,
it might get the baboons through
this hunger gap
and keep them off his fields.
Our cameras reveal a wide range
of the baboons' favourite fruit
and berries,
showing Raino exactly
what to plant.
I think we've definitely learned
some new things.
We've learned a lot, yeah.
Does this make you feel any
differently about the baboons?
Having a baboon's-eye view?
Feeling more sorry for them,
actually. Oh, really? Yeah.
Why's that? It's their
natural environment,
so there has to be space
for everybody.
Leah has gained new insights into
the feeding habits of the baboons.
These will be crucial to her effort
to solve this tricky conflict,
finding a peaceful way for farmers
and baboons to coexist.
Back in Namibia, 700 miles away,
we've been putting our cameras
on three orphaned cheetahs.
OK. Fantastic, there we go.
Their surrogate mum, Marlice,
wants to know if they can hunt for
themselves in the bush.
We've seen some encouraging signs...
Oh, she's seen something.
They're all up on their feet
looking off in that direction.
I can't see what they can see.
..but until now, the cameras have
captured near misses.
No successful hunts.
Several months on,
Marlice is still using her cameras
to see how their hunting is
coming on.
Odyssey flushes a warthog.
A warthog is one of the animals
that they are most scared of.
The tusks on these powerful pigs
can kill.
Just in time, he realises it's
a mistake to follow a warthog
into the bush.
He did give up.
A bat-eared fox...
It's just amazing that...
I mean, I didn't even know that they
go for bat-eared foxes,
if it wasn't for the camera.
Shiloh and Wonder move in
from each side...
..and the cameras capture their
deadly strike.
With the cameras and with technology
like this,
it just proves that actually
without a mum,
without an adult showing them how
to do it, and with opportunities,
they can actually learn.
By working together, they're
becoming a formidable hunting trio.
And their choice of prey is
getting better.
Springbok are one of the fastest
of all African animals.
But up against cheetahs, this one
has little chance of escape.
Success at last.
The right prey and the perfect
technique.
I can see that they are ready.
They've learned a lot,
they are ready and they're working
in coalition.
It's two females and a male together
and making their hunt successful.
It helps me to kind of cut
the umbilical cord and know
that they actually, really,
they can go.
Yeah, it's really impressive to see
and I'm so proud of them.
Our cameras have given us an insight
that otherwise would be impossible
to see.
And it's the cheetahs themselves
that have given us their view
of their world.
They have taken us with them deep
into the African bush.
The cameras have shown Marlice
that her three young cubs
can fend for themselves.
And our new insights into the lives
of cheetahs
could help us to better protect
these incredible big cats.
In this episode,
two very different African animals
presented us with two very different
problems.
How to fit a camera onto
the superfast cheetah...
..and the super-shy baboon.
It was up to mini camera expert
Chris Watts to find the solutions.
When I first think about making
a camera system for an animal,
a lot of it is kind of really
studying how they move.
And with the cheetah, the first
thing you notice
is that the head is so stable
when they're moving and running,
the head is just completely locked.
And we all thought, how amazing
would it be if we could actually get
the camera on the head?
But before the team could try this
ambitious plan
on the three young orphans,
they needed to test their design
on a captive cheetah
with an easy-going nature.
Enter Pride - possibly the most
relaxed cheetah in Africa.
Her keeper, Derek Van Heerden,
didn't think she'd object
to trialling our head camera.
Chris designed a 3-D printed harness
fit for the heat
of the African bush.
Cooling is a massive issue.
We didn't want to put something
on their head which was going to,
you know, make them overheat.
So we've tried to have vent holes
here so you get air underneath
the head.
And the way we've attached it to
the cheetah's head is just using
this flexible, breathable neoprene.
Chris's design needed to be quick
to deploy,
but easy for the cheetah to
pull off if she wasn't happy.
I'm really excited to see
what we're going to get.
But no-one knew how Pride
would react.
Do you reckon...? Do you reckon
that's all right, isn't it?
Seems pretty good.
No problem.
Once Chris was happy with the fit...
..Derek and I kept a close eye on
how Pride was doing.
The key thing, really, is for this
camera to not interfere
with any of her senses.
Just a couple of minutes
with the camera on her head
and she's forgotten all about it.
Yeah.
It was encouraging to see how
comfortable she looked,
and how relaxed she was with other
cheetahs in her enclosure.
Oh, goodness me!
She gets a bit of a face-lick.
Wow.
Such an intimate moment.
Beautiful.
Certainly is amazing.
Ah, that's lovely, look at that.
That really is.
We had to be sure that Pride
could reach top speed while wearing
the camera.
It wasn't long before she was off.
There she is. Oh, whoa!
Really fast, there we go.
Unbelievable.
That's an explosive speed.
That thing is moving.
Look at this.
The footage was proof
that our camera wouldn't put a
cheetah off its stride.
That's amazing, it really
is excellent footage.
We were now ready to join our three
young orphan cheetahs
as they learn to hunt.
The next animal presented Chris with
a very different set of problems.
The wild baboons we wanted to film
in South Africa
were extremely scared of people.
A camera test with them was
out of the question.
So once again, Chris needed a
body double.
We chose a group of hand-reared
baboons in a sanctuary in Namibia.
They weren't timid.
In fact, quite the opposite.
It is quite unusual working
conditions.
Ooh, ooh!
Before making his prototype, Chris
studied the way baboons move.
In contrast to cheetahs, baboons
move their heads all the time.
For more stable shots,
the camera would have to be worn
around the neck.
But this posed another problem
due to the baboons' distinctive
facial features.
What I noticed is that their faces
are very long.
I'm quite concerned that the chin
might get in the shot.
But really, we've just got to try
it now and see what we get.
Testing was easier said than done.
Are you going to wear a camera?
The baboons might be used to
people...
Pff! OK.
Um, hmm...
..but they weren't used to
wearing collars.
It's to sort of make it into a bit
of a game.
Really don't want to annoy them
or lose a finger.
Oh, no, he's got it!
Eventually, perseverance
and patience paid off.
But, as Chris had feared,
the camera showed mostly chin.
Over the next few days, Chris
experimented,
altering the position and angle of
the camera to get the best results.
And finally...
..bingo!
You can see, you've got the bottom
of the chin just here,
and the lens there.
So height-wise, it's kind of
just about there.
The prototype camera could deliver
great footage.
But was it baboon-proof?
An adult male baboon can weigh
40 kilos...
and have canine teeth larger than
a leopard's.
But there's no way that will be
strong enough,
because a big wild male will just do
that straight away.
The last step was to add serious
reinforcement -
a stronger housing,
and a thicker collar.
Feels pretty much perfect.
Now Chris's baboon cams had to work
out in the wild.
Once in South Africa,
getting the cameras onto the baboons
was fairly straightforward.
There we go!
Here, the biggest challenge...
..was getting the cameras back.
Each was set to drop off after
two days filming.
In such dense scrub, Leah's only
chance of finding the camera
was to track the baboon using
the transmitter in its collar.
But baboons have no respect for
human boundaries.
With its camera just about to
drop off,
our baboon went trespassing on
a neighbouring farm.
We saw the baboon with
the collar on, with the camera,
crossing the road.
So she's just the other side of this
fence now.
Without permission to enter,
Leah couldn't follow the baboon
any further.
It's 4.55, so her collar
will be dropping off
in five minutes.
Bang on time,
the camera dropped off.
The battery in the tracking device
would soon be dead.
Finally, Leah got the go-ahead
to enter the farm.
It was now a race to find the camera
before the battery and the daylight
ran out.
It's getting louder.
I think it's that way.
And just as night was closing in...
Oh, there it is!
Ah, yes.
Ah.
We've got the collar.
I'm so happy.
Next time...
We dive into the Atlantic Ocean
to reveal a secret gathering of
giant devil rays.
These are unbelievably privileged
views.
In the mountains of Turkey,
we are with brown bears, where
tensions are running high.
Ooh. Oh, wow!
And in France,
we discover what happens
when dogs come face to face
with wolves.