Bumble in the jungle
Attenborough crew tell of bee hell while filming
SIR David Attenborough’s crew suffered two-and-a-half-years of jungle torment filming his new BBC show dealing with snakes, scorpions, blood-sucking flies – and swarms of bees.
New series Dynasties looks at the family lives of emperor penguins, lions, wolves and tigers in dwindling habitats – with episode one focusing on alpha male chimp David as he tries to defend his position from younger rivals.
But it was the creepy-crawlies that pushed the team to breaking point in the steaming West African jungles of Kedougou Region in south-east Senegal.
The crew regularly woke at 3.30am to trek 15 miles to find the troop of endangered chimps.
Each carried more than 80kg of kit and five litres of water a day to avoid dehydration and heatstroke.
Then they would sit motionless for nine hours filming in the 40⁰F heat – unless they were attacked by bugs and bees. Producer and director Rosie Thomas said: “The number of things we faced every day was ridiculous – like blood-sucking mosquitos and tsetse flies.
“They’re bad – but the sweat bees were horrendous.
“The small stingless bees swarm around you trying to get to anything that’s moist.
“They go in your mouth, up your nose, in your eyes, in your hair – they’re the most irritating things. Then there are the stinging bees – honey bees. If the chimps raided a bees’ nest we’d have to run as fast as we could in the opposite direction as the bees would chase you for miles to sting you. It was horrendous.”
The crew also had to avoid snakes and scorpions as they trekked through the jungle.
Rosie, 38, said: “It’s incredibly hot, you have to walk incredibly long distances carrying everything – it’s tough.
“Both the cameramen and I all caught various different diseases of some sort, although we don’t know what they were.
“We’re all fine now, but we all ended up in hospital back in the UK after one shoot or another.”
But Rosie insists that the trials of filming will feel worth it when viewers see the final result, starting tonight. She hopes Dynasties will bring as much awareness to the difficulties facing the natural world – and their diminishing habitats – as 92-yearold Sir David’s previous series Blue Planet II. The series last year led to a boost for the campaign to clear the oceans of plastic. “When you realise this is what these animals go through it’s quite extraordinary,” said Rosie. “In West Africa, mineral mining has risen in recent years, putting pressure not only on David’s group but on chimps across west Africa. “We’re trying to raise awareness that there’s this competition for space and it’s going to become more and more impossible for them to adapt. “Hopefully people will engage with these issues and feel what these animals have gone through.”
■■■Dynasties begins tonight at 8.30pm on BBC One.