Animals With Cameras

Thank you PBS for sending us this DVD to review!

Scientists have been tracking and studying animals for decades of their lives and despite all of their time and effort, they still have many unanswered questions and much to learn about various species. While meerkets can be observed when they’re above ground, what happens in their tunnels is a complete mystery until now! With the help of excellent engineering and tiny cameras and collars, scientists and viewers can now see what their tunnels look like from the inside and how they sleep in groups despite their hierarchy. Footage of newborn pups was also captured as an added bonus.

Unlike the chimps, the meerkats didn’t accept the collars right away. The chimpanzees enjoyed playing with the cameras and taking selfies with them. Capturing footage of them quickly and gracefully swinging from tree to tree is awe-inspiring. The strength in their arms is tremendous and the cameras had to get redesigned to compensate for their incredible power. One of the cameras did get lost in the jungle but the engineer thought ahead and placed tracking devices in them.

Some of the cameras were designed to fall off after several hours or days. The hook on the devil ray’s floating cameras purposely eroded away in the salt water and rose to the surface for retrieval. The radio collars on brown bears in Turkey were fitted with cameras that fell off in a few days. The footage from the bears' cameras revealed that they have been frequenting a nearby garbage dumpster as a food source.

Many of the scenarios for using the cameras are purely scientific while others are trying to find answers to avoid conflict between humans and wildlife threatening their livelihood. A group of baboons have temporarily stopped raiding a farmer’s butternut squash field and he wants to know what’s keeping them away so it can be done more often. In France, sheep were being attacked by a pack of wolves nearing extinction. Cameras placed on guard dogs proved that they were effective in driving back several wolf attacks.

My kids and I learned a lot by watching these three hour-long episodes and look forward to many more seasons of this show. The DVD can be yours for less than $16 and it’s worth considering for any animal lover in your family.

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