Behind the scenes: programme one
A hot-blooded encounter on the Galapagos
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While filming thermal images of marine iguanas on the Galapagos, proceedings were interrupted by a young sea lion that erupted from the sea and landed a few feet from David Attenborough. It then hurried off up the beach.
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The crew went back to setting up the shot when, 30 seconds later, the reason for its dramatic arrival became apparent. A fully adult and more dangerous bull sea lion burst from the sea like a missile and landed in the same spot and stared at presenter and crew only a few feet away.
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Fortunately, cameraman Paul Stewart had spent a lot of time with sea lions and understood their psychology. Rather like Crocodile Dundee he had the presence of mind to walk over and, standing tall, he faced the seal down – the bluff worked and it turned and dropped back into the sea.
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A cold day on tortoise island
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The crew only had one day for a helicopter trip to Dassen Island, in South Africa, to film David with the highest density of tortoises in the world, where, bizarrely, they live alongside penguins. Because of the cold weather, flying was touch and go and the chance of finding a single tortoise out and about was practically zero. But an hour after landing the sun came out and, one by one, so did the tortoises.
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As the day got warmer, tortoise jousts broke out all around and the team were able to film David commentating on the vicious battle right in front of him. The males bite each other on the head and legs and joust with their "lances". To get a tortoise eye view of the fray, a matchbox-sized tortoise cam was glued to a shell, revealing the real intensity of the fight.
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An entry from director Scott Alexander's diary
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Turning Turtle
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Every morning I'd get up early to see if there were any leatherback turtles left on the beach – I was in Trinidad, looking for one laying its last few eggs and covering its tracks. We had filmed them with infrared and thermal cameras, but we wanted to film one with David heading off back to the sea as the sun rose over the horizon.
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However, this particular morning, one of the turtles had got lost. It had managed to get past the large tree trunks laid on the ground between the beach and the small village and was up at the main road a good 600 yards from the beach.
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I joined the local turtle team, who, as volunteers, patrol the beach during the laying season. They had managed to turn the turtle round but the recent rain had left the grass too slippery and it was going nowhere, its huge flippers failing to get any grip.
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The sun was already rising and so was the temperature – and the turtle was obviously exhausted from its all-night struggle. Our only option was to carry it down to the beach – a big adult female, easily weighing over 500 kgs, with no easy grip handles. So, someone's lovely iron gates were quickly whipped off their hinges and we began the difficult task of man-handling the turtle on to the gate.
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It didn't try and push us away, and, standing right beside its impressive beak-like mouth, I never felt in any danger.
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Eventually, we got the turtle on to the beach and it made its way to the sea under its own steam. As it disappeared into the surf, the rest of the crew arrived – they'd found a turtle up the beach to film and wanted to know what I'd been doing.
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