Prior to departure, the producers worked with a local team in the field including an experienced naturalist with the correct permits for collecting and handling these delicate wild wonders… and set them the task of finding one.
From nudibranchs and newts, lungfish and lizards, to tunicates and tapirs… we ended up being spoilt for choice.
Chris Packham explains,
“They’re very fragile and they’re quite small and therefore difficult to find. Eventually, after an enormous endeavour, hours and hours, they found a velvet worm… It was put in a tank with a load of leaf litter so that it would be comfortable.”
So far so good, until… just before filming a routine check led to panic.
“All we had to do was get up the next day, tramp out there, bring the tank, get the velvet worm out. Except that when we get up in the morning, the velvet worm’s not in the tank. There’s talk of an escape. But the thing is that it’s highly improbable that this tiny, fragile animal could have escaped from the tank.”
The team were initially baffled, but a local expert advised them that this ‘disappearing act’ is quite common as they can contort their bodies in extraordinary ways to hide. Although we were told they often reappear, the team couldn’t just wait around.
A last-minute velvet worm search party was sent out and miraculously one was found just in the nick of time. It might have been smaller than a toothpick, but Chris was in raptures and the scene was ‘in the can’. After its 5 minutes of fame, it was returned safely to where it was originally found.
The velvet worm was not the only unusual animal interaction of the series as we discovered that living animals were often the best way to illustrate principles of evolution. We chose to restrict filming to one key geographical region per episode, giving us an opportunity to seek out peculiar often overlooked creatures – while also limiting our long-haul travel and thus carbon impact. From nudibranchs and newts, lungfish and lizards, to tunicates and tapirs… we ended up being spoilt for choice.
With all the animals filmed across the series, welfare was paramount. To reduce impact on wild populations we often sought out animals already habituated to humans – frequently in sanctuaries or reserves. We worked with experts to locate, source and handle wild animals appropriately to minimise any potential stress and we ensured local guidelines and laws were always followed.
It was important for us that Chris had a first-hand experience with each episode’s iconic animal in their natural habitat – and the giant elephants, hatching ostriches, intelligent dolphins, hungry bats and racing horses all proved to be challenging in their own way.
