Polar bears suspend their “family time” to assist BBC filmmakers
Dec 19, 2017
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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It’s all you need, really. There you are, in the middle of a field of ice and snow, filming polar bears and their not-so-subtle courtship ritual, and one of your cameras topples over. In this case, the remotely controlled “Blizzardcam”.
Riding on mini skis and propelled by a couple of fan blade motors, the Blizzardcam took a topple going over a bank of snow. It did not escape the notice of the curious courting polar bears. It’s a cute and interesting interaction, made all the more humorous by David Tennant’s narration.
The clip is as intriguing, amusing and well produced as we’ve come to expect from the BBC. Right up until the camera fell over.
While not all interactions between animals and cameras go quite so well, here it seems that the polar bears were quite happy with the voyeuristic BBC crew. They interrupted their “activities” to investigate the strange device.
After giving it a good sniff, one of the polar bears flips the camera upright allowing it to carry on filming.
It’s interesting to see how gently it flips the camera back over. Perhaps it thought it was some sort of animal that was in distress. Or, less likely, maybe they’re just exhibitionists who like to perform for the camera.
Whatever the reason, we wish the happy couple a glorious three weeks.
[via Laughing Squid]
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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9 responses to “Polar bears suspend their “family time” to assist BBC filmmakers”
I love those bears, It’s extremely heartening that they dying do to climate change and lack of food in some areas.
The Polar bear population has more or less tripled since 1960, there is no problem for the bears, but it seems that the charity workers and global warming aficionados may be starting to realise that with grown-ups in charge of some of the larger countries that their silly little game is up and their careers are maybe under threat.
Well until the next spurious claim anyway.
Everyone can agree that polar bear population viability varies in different areas. However, there is considerable controversy about the degree to which they are endangered and even about their comparative numbers. For example, do the increased numbers being counted now simply reflect an improved ability to count them? Anyone who wishes to know more about this subject is advised to search the Internet for a variety of articles from a variety of sources rather than relying on unsupported blather from folks who sneer at “global warming aficionados”.
It would have been a much longer comment had I pasted URL’s for the many sources of information that I have consulted on this subject.
A similar piece was published here a couple of weeks ago, slightly different in that the earlier story involved a photographer filming a dying Polar Bear. Notably, he made similar crass comments about him feeling sick… barf barf, but did not think that there might be something he could do.
The fact is, that just like mice, human beans and giraffes…. polar bears die too. There are many lazy assumptions made on the subject of climate change, and they are all immediately regarded as the gospel truth by governments across the globe… There is tax take at stake!
The difference with this item is that the film is great fun.
Since we have no idea what the Polar Bear population was in the 1960’s, any claim that the number has tripled is simply bullshit.
I have been watching entirely too many “Lemme Smash” videos lately..
One of the best nature videos I have watched.
Drones are just the latest way to annoy wildlife. Watching such a majestic apical predator playing with such crap really makes me sad.
they should get inspiration from robot fighting competitions and devise a way to make their robot upright again