Eyes on the tigers
Advanced techniques have given film-makers game-changing insights into these big cats
- Gareth McLean
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In pursuit of elusive tigers, award-winning cinematographer Max Hug Williams has endured extremes. He’s faced temperatures of minus 40 in the Russian Far East in search of Siberian tigers; on a tree platform in Bhutan, home to Bengal tigers, he was nearly struck by lightning. Shortly afterwards, he was almost shot when mistaken for a poacher.
Happily, for Tiger Island, a new two-parter from the BBC’s Natural History Unit, Williams neither risked electrocution nor perforation. Not that the striking footage wasn’t still challenging to capture: in monsoon season on the eponymous island in western Nepal, it’s 40 degrees, 90 per cent humidity and too hot to work from 9am until after midnight. But the reward of capturing tigers’ previously hidden behaviours made the challenge worth it. Williams,
who won an Emmy for his work on Planet Earth II, says “Every day, I didn’t think we would see what we saw – and it blew my mind.”
For what Williams, fellow cinematographer Anna Dimitriadis and scientific consultant Dan O’Neill saw changed received wisdom about tigers to such an extent that O’Neill, who has travelled 300 miles up the Amazon and seen majestic jaguars lounge riverside, tells RT: “From a scientific perspective, it was completely mad.”
“Big cat scientist” Dan O’Neill, centre, with cinematographers Anna Dimitriadis and Max Hug Williams. BBC
For the precise nature of these discoveries, you’ll have to watch Tiger Island, but they were made possible by the use of remotely triggered cameras and advanced drone technology. These techniques enabled access to the tigers that would have been impossible for humans, and allowed the uninterrupted charting of their behaviour over long periods of time, including overnight, and all without troubling the tigers much. “They barely glance at the drones, which probably sound like a fly to them,” Williams says.
“What we’ve just done with Tiger Island, I would call a study, to be brutally honest, because it’s the first of its kind,” O’Neill says, sure that the drone technology is nothing short of a game-changer for making nature documentaries. “It’s allowing us into the natural world in a way that we’ve never had before. What we’ve captured in this programme is extremely valuable and will hopefully advance tiger conservation.”
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Tiger Island starts Sunday 7.15pm on BBC One
Authors
Gareth McLean
Gareth McLean has been writing about television for nearly 30 years. As a critic, he's reviewed thousands of programmes. As a feature writer, he's interviewed hundreds of people, from Liza Minnelli to Jimmy Savile. He has also written for TV.
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