CAMERA CLOSE SHAVE
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article on favourite wildlife TV moments in the January 2017 issue, and noticed that you asked us to recall our favourite moment, so here we go!
The TV moment that has always stood out for me was during the Walking with Lions documentary, filmed by husband and wife team Lynne and Phil Richardson in Zimbabwe. There is one particular scene that I can recall very clearly. It’s when they started filming a herd of elephants, which began to give warning signs that they weren’t happy with the camera crew being so close.
The crew decided to move out of sight, leaving one camera in place. One of the elephants then started to run towards the camera. You can see it charging at full speed, not looking like it was going to stop. My heart went into my mouth.
Finally, the elephant did halt, and calmly walked away as if nothing had happened.
Later in the programme, you see the camera crew approaching the remaining camera and realising that the elephant stopped just a couple of feet short of it.
I can still vividly recall the scene as it brings a sense of excitement and fear, and serves as a reminder of how important it is for us to understand animal behaviour.