Sunday, June 16, 2024 from 8 - 11 p.m. on KPBS 2 / Stream now with KPBS Passport!
—Never-Before-Seen Animal Behavior Revealed—
Go where no human cameraman can go and witness a new perspective of the animal kingdom in ANIMALS WITH CAMERAS, A NATURE MINISERIES. The three-part series journeys into animals’ worlds using custom, state-of-the-art cameras worn by the animals themselves. Capturing never-before-seen behavior, these animal cinematographers help expand human understanding of their habitats and solve mysteries that have eluded scientists until now. Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan (NATURE “Snowbound: Animals Of Winter”) and a team of pioneering animal behaviorists join forces to explore stories of animal lives “told” by the animals themselves.
The cameras are custom-built by camera design expert Chris Watts to fit on the animals unobtrusively and to be easily removed at a later point. From this unique vantage point, experience the secret lives of nine different animal species. Sprint across the savanna with a cheetah, plunge into the ocean with a seal and swing through the trees with a chimpanzee.
“The chance to capture elusive moments, like a penguin’s underwater hunting habits or a meerkat family’s sleeping rituals in their underground burrow, was an extraordinary experience I never thought I would be privy to,” said Buchanan. “Thanks to the special cameras, we were able to answer some tough questions that scientists have always wondered about: why do devil rays migrate every summer? What personality of dog is most effective in protecting a herd of sheep from wolves? Why is there an overpopulation of brown bears in Turkey, when they are endangered elsewhere?”
“Never before have we seen such high-quality footage directly from the animal’s point of view,” said NATURE Executive Producer Fred Kaufman. “This miniseries greatly expands our comprehension of animal behavior and this camera technology opens up new possibilities for discovering so much more.”
The one-of-a-kind sequences captured by the animals include several on-camera firsts:
- The cameras allowed for newborn meerkats to be shown in their burrow for the first time ever, as meerkat pups don’t emerge from the burrow until they reach three weeks of age.
- In the Atlantic Ocean, an unborn devil ray is shown kicking inside its mother’s stomach — a phenomenon never before captured on film.
EPISODE GUIDE:
The miniseries visits eight countries and features three different species per episode.
Episode 1 encore Sunday, June 16 at 8 p.m. on KPBS 2 - Witness the secret lives of animals as never before, as this three-part series uncovers truly unprecedented behavior. See a side of the animal kingdom where human cameramen can’t go when animals become the cinematographers.
Episode 2 encore Sunday, June 16 at 9 p.m. on KPBS 2 - See how the cameras capture young cheetahs learning to hunt in Namibia, reveal how fur seals on an Australian island evade the great white sharks offshore, and help solve a conflict between South African farmers and Chacma baboons.
Episode 3 encore Sunday, June 16 at 10 p.m. on KPBS 2 - Deep-dive with Chilean devil rays in the Azores, track brown bears’ diets in Turkey and follow dogs protecting flocks of sheep from gray wolves in southern France.
Watch On Your Schedule: This series premiered in 2018 and is currently available to stream on demand with KPBS Passport, video streaming for members supporting KPBS at $60 or more yearly, using your computer, smartphone, tablet, Roku, AppleTV, Amazon Fire or Chromecast. Learn how to activate your benefit now.
Listen To NATURE Podcasts: The InsideNATURE podcast picks up where the NATURE program leaves off. We speak to filmmakers behind some of NATURE’s greatest films, track down updates on animal characters from past episodes, and go beyond the headlines to talk with experts on the frontline of wildlife research and conservation.
Listen Now: Wildlife Filmmaker Gordon Buchanan On "Animals with Cameras"
Join The Conversation: NATURE is on Facebook, Instagram, #NaturePBS #AnimalsWithCamerasPBS
You can follow @gordonjbuchanan on Twitter
Credits: A BBC Studios production for PBS and BBC with THIRTEEN Productions LLC. For NATURE, Fred Kaufman is executive producer. Bill Murphy is series producer. For BBC, Tim Martin is executive producer and Dan Rees is series producer.
