Have you ever wondered what it might be like to observe the lives of animals? How they might act among one another when undisturbed by the presence of a human being? This becomes possible with Animals with Cameras, A Nature Miniseries, premiering Wednesdays, January 31 – Feburary 14, 2018 at 8 p.m. EST on PBS (check local listings). Each episode will be available to stream the following day at pbs.org/nature and on PBS apps.

By equipping animals with custom, state-of-the-art cameras, Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan  (Nature – Snowbound: Animals of Winter) and a team of pioneering animal behaviorists explore these fresh, untold perspectives of animal life. This new insight allows for deeper understanding of their behavior and habitats, and mysteries that have once eluded scientists can now be solved.

Christ Watts, camera design expert, custom-built the cameras to fit on the animals unobtrusively and for easy removal at a later point. Immerse yourself into the secret lives of nine different animal species through the perspective of the animals themselves. Instead of simply observing animal life from afar, you can 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.”

This new technique in capturing footage has allowed for several on-camera firsts, such as being able to see newborn meerkats in their burrow or witnessing an unborn devil ray kicking inside its mother's stomach. Up until now, both of these phenomena have never been captured on film.

Animals with Cameras, A Nature Miniseries visits eight countries and features three different species per episode. 

 

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