Crew saves penguins

LONDON: A BBC film crew has won praise after rescuing trapped penguin mothers and chicks they were filming in the Antarctic.

The team capturing footage for the Sir David Attenborough series Dynasties took the rare decision to help out emperor penguins stuck in a ravine.

Nature documentary makers usually do not intervene in scenes they are filming.

‘‘That camera crew deserved MBEs for saving them penguins #Dynasties,’’ wrote one viewer on Twitter.

Behindthescenes footage broadcast after the second episode of Dynasties yesterday revealed the harsh conditions the TV crew faced in the Antarctic.

The programme tracked a colony of emperor penguins in Atka Bay battling to survive and breed in the cruel winter.

Director Will Lawson, director of photography Lindsay McCrae and camera assistant Stefan Christmann spent 337 days on the icy continent, working in 60degC temperatures and 100kmh plus winds.

On one occasion following a storm, the team discovered several penguin mothers and their chicks had become cut off from the colony in a ravine.

They filmed harrowing footage of mothers battling to drag their chicks up the sheer slope, some making the terrible choice to abandon their baby.

The crew returned two days later and made a ramp that helped the remaining penguins climb to safety. — BPA