Relive the experience of the BBC natural history crew tracking big game in the Serengeti
Claire Webb - 6 July 2019
The camera crew who filmed Serengeti, the BBC’s groundbreaking natural history series, used drones to track down their animal stars, but they still had to rely heavily on the knowledge of local guides. “We were transfixed by their ability to find animals,” says producer Philip Dalton. “It’s like a superpower. They’d say, ‘There’s a leopard over there,’ and even our experienced cameramen would say, ‘There’s no leopard over there.’ But there would be a leopard, literally a kilometre away, in a bush.
“Another time, we’d lost track of a cheetah and cubs and these guys said: ‘Yesterday it rained and the hyenas were to the west, and there’s a line they like to take down this valley when the hyenas are over there, so we reckon they’re about three kilometres that way.’ And so we drove through the bush – offroad and totally disorientated – and the guides found the cheetahs under a bush in the middle of nowhere. It’s almost shamanic. They just get under the skin of the animals and know how they think.”
The five-part natural history series was shot over two years in a private reserve in the heart of the Serengeti – a protected, 11, 000 - square mile ecosystem in East Africa. Encompassing Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park and Kenya’s Maasai Mara, along with a number of game reserves and conservation areas, it’s the stage for the largest terrestrial migration of mammals on the planet. More than 1.5 million wildebeest, 300,000 gazelle and 200,000 zebra chase the rains, thundering across its plains and woodlands from northern Tanzania to the Maasai Mara and back again. The region is most famous for its lions, but the series also follows spotted hyenas, baboons, elephants and leopards.
“The Serengeti is an Eden for anybody who’s seeking a quintessential wildlife experience and wants to see how the planet used to be before humans made a real mess of it,” says Dalton. “There’s nowhere else you’ll see such a diversity of birds and mammals in one place. It’s mesmerising and life-changing – I was lucky enough to take my ten-year-old boy out a few months ago and I’ve never seen him so happy. He’s got a very different world view and he’s passionate and adventurous now. He wants to have his life around animals and wildlife. My father did the same for me when I was 13 and that’s why I do the job that I’m doing now – it’s all from that one experience in the Rift Valley in East Africa.”
For most of us, a safari is a trip of a lifetime because it comes with a hefty price tag: seven-day safaris in the Serengeti start at around £1,700 per person, while you can expect to pay over £4,000 for luxurious set-ups, not including flights. Dalton recommends paying extra to sleep under canvas. “The tented camp safari experience adds another dimension. The reserve put us up in tents initially and it was really nice. You were there with the elements. You could hear the hyenas, and the lions in the morning roaring, and you have animals walking through the camp. The stars are incredible. In the evening, if it’s not raining, you sit around a fire and look at the Milky Way.”
His three filming crews used ingenious cameras to capture the immersive footage. They had a roving camera that resembled a boulder, stationary cameras disguised as rocks that were triggered automatically when animals came within range, and cinema cameras mounted on vehicles for rock-steady shots at 40mph.
While tourists are unlikely to come eye-to-eye with a hyena (probably to their relief ), many reserves use open vehicles, sometimes with no doors at all. “Animals see safari vehicles a lot, so they are habituated to them and don’t necessarily notice you,” says Dalton. “You can have lions and cheetahs come right past you, within inches. On rare occasions a cheetah in a hunt will use the vehicle as a promontory and jump on the bonnet. So you can get very close, which is what makes it special.”
Surprisingly, he says not to worry about capturing your wildlife encounters. “You can’t help but take pictures, but it’s important to put the camera down. We never get the chance to do it during filming, but on rare occasions when you can just relax and take it all in without putting a camera to your eye, that’s the best bit. It’s more important to experience it than share it on Facebook.”
The camera crew who filmed Serengeti, the BBC’s groundbreaking natural history series, used drones to track down their animal stars, but they still had to rely heavily on the knowledge of local guides. “We were transfixed by their ability to find animals,” says producer Philip Dalton. “It’s like a superpower. They’d say, ‘There’s a leopard over there,’ and even our experienced cameramen would say, ‘There’s no leopard over there.’ But there would be a leopard, literally a kilometre away, in a bush.
“Another time, we’d lost track of a cheetah and cubs and these guys said: ‘Yesterday it rained and the hyenas were to the west, and there’s a line they like to take down this valley when the hyenas are over there, so we reckon they’re about three kilometres that way.’ And so we drove through the bush – offroad and totally disorientated – and the guides found the cheetahs under a bush in the middle of nowhere. It’s almost shamanic. They just get under the skin of the animals and know how they think.”
The five-part natural history series was shot over two years in a private reserve in the heart of the Serengeti – a protected, 11, 000 - square mile ecosystem in East Africa. Encompassing Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park and Kenya’s Maasai Mara, along with a number of game reserves and conservation areas, it’s the stage for the largest terrestrial migration of mammals on the planet. More than 1.5 million wildebeest, 300,000 gazelle and 200,000 zebra chase the rains, thundering across its plains and woodlands from northern Tanzania to the Maasai Mara and back again. The region is most famous for its lions, but the series also follows spotted hyenas, baboons, elephants and leopards.
“The Serengeti is an Eden for anybody who’s seeking a quintessential wildlife experience and wants to see how the planet used to be before humans made a real mess of it,” says Dalton. “There’s nowhere else you’ll see such a diversity of birds and mammals in one place. It’s mesmerising and life-changing – I was lucky enough to take my ten-year-old boy out a few months ago and I’ve never seen him so happy. He’s got a very different world view and he’s passionate and adventurous now. He wants to have his life around animals and wildlife. My father did the same for me when I was 13 and that’s why I do the job that I’m doing now – it’s all from that one experience in the Rift Valley in East Africa.”
For most of us, a safari is a trip of a lifetime because it comes with a hefty price tag: seven-day safaris in the Serengeti start at around £1,700 per person, while you can expect to pay over £4,000 for luxurious set-ups, not including flights. Dalton recommends paying extra to sleep under canvas. “The tented camp safari experience adds another dimension. The reserve put us up in tents initially and it was really nice. You were there with the elements. You could hear the hyenas, and the lions in the morning roaring, and you have animals walking through the camp. The stars are incredible. In the evening, if it’s not raining, you sit around a fire and look at the Milky Way.”
His three filming crews used ingenious cameras to capture the immersive footage. They had a roving camera that resembled a boulder, stationary cameras disguised as rocks that were triggered automatically when animals came within range, and cinema cameras mounted on vehicles for rock-steady shots at 40mph.
While tourists are unlikely to come eye-to-eye with a hyena (probably to their relief ), many reserves use open vehicles, sometimes with no doors at all. “Animals see safari vehicles a lot, so they are habituated to them and don’t necessarily notice you,” says Dalton. “You can have lions and cheetahs come right past you, within inches. On rare occasions a cheetah in a hunt will use the vehicle as a promontory and jump on the bonnet. So you can get very close, which is what makes it special.”
Surprisingly, he says not to worry about capturing your wildlife encounters. “You can’t help but take pictures, but it’s important to put the camera down. We never get the chance to do it during filming, but on rare occasions when you can just relax and take it all in without putting a camera to your eye, that’s the best bit. It’s more important to experience it than share it on Facebook.”