Photographed by three-time Emmy Award winning filmmaker Neil Rettig, “American Eagle” is the first HD hour on bald eagles ever. In this behind-the-scenes exclusive, Rettig talks about the making of the film while he captures footage of the spring migration along the Mississippi River. Rettig shares his favorite experiences from the filming and explains why he believes wildlife filmmakers have a special responsibility to move people to think about the natural world, now more than ever.

Wildlife cinematographer Bob Landis

Wildlife cinematographer Bob Landis once taught high school math in Billings, Montana, filming wildlife on the side. But once he sold his first commissioned film, he decided to change course and focus solely on filmmaking.

Now he spends day after day filming in Yellowstone, living out of an old log cabin that has been updated with some modern amenities. His long list of credits includes NATURE’s In the Valley of the Wolves.

Submit your questions for Bob Landis in the comments field below, and he’ll respond during the week of January 18.

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Josh asks:

I was wondering if you knew how the druid pack is doing now?

Bob says:

Josh,

The Druids are in a bit of a decline. They’ve been hit hard with mange. I saw them this morning. Their alpha male 480 has left (possibly because all the females in the pack right now are his daughters). Two new male suitors are dogging the pack so there is sure to be a new alpha male soon. We are just about to enter the mating season so all this activity is picking up.

A note on mange – a male from the Molly’s pack had such bad mange last year he hardly had any hair at all. But this year he is doing quite well and his coat looks great.

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Steven asks:

I was wondering, if you and the crew were the only “meat” around, how did you keep from becoming wolf or bear dinner?

Bob says:

Steven,

Filming in Yellowstone is like no other place. Most of the time, I am filming from the road right next to tourists. I’m near my vehicle, and the animals are used to seeing people in that context.

As for the danger from wolves and bears, there was one bear-related death in Yellowstone about 20 years ago. It’s a very rare occurrence when humans turn into bear food in the park. And I’ve never been threatened by wolves even though they sometimes come in quite close. The fact that bison, elk, bears, and wolves are so accessible here is one of the most extraordinary things about Yellowstone.

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Sandy Sisti asks:

I was wondering how long it took you to accumulate all the footage for your new film.

Bob says:

Sandy,

There’s footage in CLASH that goes back four years. I go out to film every day but often film an animal that doesn’t get into my current project. Then I have that footage to use in the next film. But, really, it takes quite a few years to get all the bear/wolf footage I need for an hour-long film.

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James Whalen asks:

I was in Yellowstone on a 6-day backpacking trip in the Gallatin area, in 1994, before wolves were reintroduced. Back then coyotes were numerous, and every night we heard coyotes howling away. Is it true that the population of coyotes has been cut in half since wolves were reintroduced? I am a fan of wolf reintroduction because this makes Yellowstone a complete, balanced ecosystem.

Bob says:

James,

In the early days of wolf reintroduction, there was a reduction of coyotes of about 50 percent in Lamar Valley, and those numbers were simply extrapolated throughout the park — even in places where there were no wolves at all. But now, fifteen years on, coyote numbers have come back (even in Lamar), and park biologists now believe that there are at least as many coyotes as there were before wolves were reintroduced. I see about five or six from the road every day.

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Chris Stark asks:

I am making my first trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons this summer. I enjoyed “In the Valley of the Wolves”. Is the Lamar Valley the best place to view wolves in Yellowstone or are there other places to view?

Bob says:

Chris,

The Lamar Valley is part of what we call The Northern Range, and the road that runs from Mammoth through Lamar all the way to Cooke City will afford you the best chance to see wolves in the park. Wow, your first trip to Yellowstone! That takes me back. Have a wonderful time.

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Mike Wagner, Founder and Executive Director, Heart of the Wolf asks:

What do you think of the tragedy of the wolf pack that was annihilated and was a part of Yellowstone as a result of the Montana wolf hunts as of late?

Bob says:

Mike,

I was very disappointed when Montana Fish and Game had an early opening to the wolf hunt north of the park. If they had delayed that hunt until the general elk hunting season, those wolves would probably not have been outside of the park and exposed to hunting pressure. They might well have colonized the Slough Creek Pack’s territory, which had been left vacant when the Slough Creek Pack dissolved. There is still no pack that dens in that area, and we are waiting to see how things sort out this spring.

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Cynthia asks:

Wondering if you have to pay for a daily park filming fee or an annual fee?

Bob says:

Cynthia,

The Park permitting system sure has gotten complicated. As an individual with a camera, which is how I work most of the time, I pay an annual fee of $200. To film with a crew, I would have to pay a location fee of $150 per day. Whenever I film in the thermal areas, I must have a park monitor with me and that’s an additional $60 per hour for a minimum of three hours. That usually ends up at about $500 per day. The filming regulations and fees in National Parks are continuing to evolve.

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Carol asks:

My best friend Alan Sachanowski lives there in Yellowstone. He has taken many pictures of a bear called Rosie. My question is have you ever seen Rosie? Alan said that he did not see her last Year.

Bob says:

Carol,

Rosie is a Black bear, and her name comes from the fact that she lives in the Roosevelt Lodge area near Tower Junction and along the Canyon Road. She has a red ear tag, which makes her quite recognizable. She was named about 20 years ago, and it’s debated among the community of photographers if “Rosie” is the same bear from year to year. I did not see her last year either. Black bears usually live about 20 years, so we may meet a new “Rosie” this spring – which might well be one of her offspring.

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Kayla asks:

I was wondering, how do you become a wildlife cinematographer?

Bob says:

Kayla,

My own career began as a hobby. It just got out of control. I finally accumulated enough footage to make my first film and that got me started. But I recommend the old-fashioned approach of apprenticing with an established cinematographer or enrolling in a real film school. Montana State University has a good program specifically for wildlife cinematography. Good luck!

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Floyd Bond asks:

I had the pleasure of meeting you a couple years ago on a very cold morning when we were photographing wolves. About how many hours of shooting do you put in to make a one-hour film for television?

Bob says:

Floyd,

I generally put in about 300 days a year and 8 to 10 hours a day depending on the season and the length of daylight. It takes me about two to four years to make an hour of television. When you are out to Yellowstone next time, I look forward to meeting you again along the road – and almost all the mornings are cold!

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Jack Bean asks:

Do you need two objective lens covers for your Swarovski EL’s? I will bring them up for you when I come up again soon if you do. I saw a photograph of you with your binoculars on and they were missing.

Bob says:

Jack,

Great to hear from you! I don’t have those lens covers because I find that they get in the way. But thanks for your kind offer. And thanks for the great “Jack’s Jerky.” It always good to feed the photographers if not the bears!

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Rebecca Mottin (Ontario, Canada) asks:

Do you have any plans to use more Hayden wolf footage in future projects? I made sure to tape tonight’s broadcast since it was much better than what we came home with on our little video camera.

Bob says:

Rebecca,

Yes, I am currently working on a film that follows the story of one black wolf that was born into the Hayden Pack in 2007. But now the Hayden pack has left the park and been replaced by the Canyon Pack that’s moved into Hayden Valley. It takes a lot to keep up with these wolves! We plan to start editing this story in April and it may be on the air about this time next year. Stay tuned!

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Bob Safay asks:

Like some of the others I would like to know what HD Cams you used, what audio equipment, lens and filters.

Bob says:

Bob,

I use a Sony HD Cam and a Canon zoom lens 40 x 14. This one lens is what I use 99 percent of the time. There are filters built into the camera and I don’t use any additional ones. To record sound, I use a Sanheiser shot gun microphone and sometimes record sound right off my camera.

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Linda asks:

One question: what is the most interesting and/or amazing animal centric event that you have witnessed?

Bob says:

Linda,

What I really enjoy the most is filming animals just having a good time. They work so hard to make a living that I always feel good when I get to see them relax. My favorite moments from this film are that big bear playing in the water and the wolf pups of the Hayden Valley Pack playing by the river. I don’t think I could pick just one favorite moment after all these years!

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Wayne Gary asks:

The show ended with a bear protecting a kill on Christmas. What happened to the bear? Did he go into hibernation or stay out all winter?

Bob says:

Wayne,

I saw that bear a week later heading up toward the rim of the Yellowstone River Canyon. That’s the last anyone saw of him that winter so we think he denned up there somewhere. He sure took us all by surprise on Christmas morning. Christmas is usually for wolf watchers.

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Dale Klemm asks:

The end of your documentary showed a grizzly protecting a carcass on Christmas Day. My family was fortunate enough to view the same scenario in the Lamar Valley on Christmas Day 2008. Was this sequence shot during this time frame and was it the same bear?

Bob says:

Dale,

I filmed the Christmas bear at Geode Creek about 15 miles from Lamar on Christmas Day 2008. I didn’t hear of another bear like this, and this behavior was so unusual that I certainly would have heard about it. It must have been the same bear. Is there any chance you were over by Geode Creek? It’s halfway between Mammoth and Tower Junction.

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Bob Hilger asks:

How are the cougars doing in yellowstone in relation the influx of the wolves? I know there are not a whole lot of lions in the park to begin with, and I am sure the wolves will not hesitate to kill one if they had have a chance.

Bob says:

Bob,

Interesting question. The park has done extensive research on cougars both pre-wolf and post-wolf, and the numbers seem to have stayed about the same. Wolves and lions use different territories and different habitats. But at a carcass, wolves will certainly chase off a lion. I have see this personally. It was very early morning at Slough Creek and three wolves found a lion at a carcass. They chased the lion and it raced off and up into a tree. I know of another case of wolves killing a litter of four lion kittens that were four or five months old and one case of a lion killing a wolf. I don’t know all the details of the latter but I bet it was a lone wolf at a carcass. I think the latest count on the cougar population is about 60 individuals and some of those range outside the park.

Join us Sunday, January 10 starting at 9pm ET for a live chat with Ann Prum.

When the event is live, click the “play” button to join the conversation. Then, enter your name and your question for Ann.

Filmmaker Ginger Kathrens

On October 25, 2009, NATURE hosted a live discussion with filmmaker Ginger Kathrens to allow viewers to ask questions about Cloud and the making of the film.

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Linda H. says:

What can kids do to help Cloud and his family and all the other wild horses so they always run free?

Ginger says:

Linda: thank you – Kids are crucial and can save the wild horses again- they did in the late 1960’s with Wild Horse Annie (you can read more about wild horse Annie on the web). Kids should write President Obama, their Senators and Congress-people — and most importantly: teach your families and school mates. Kids can share what is happening to wild horses with their clubs. There is a sample letter and more ideas on our website, http://www.thecloudfoundation.org — if 100,000s Kids write Obama maybe we can stop these ongoing roundups.

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Shelley Sawhook says:

Can you tell us which of the horses in the video are no longer free to roam with their herds? Also, in light of the proposed BLM gather schedule of over 12,000 additional horses in FY 2010 can you tell us what efforts are underway to stop these gathers or what we as average citizens can do to protect our herds? What plans do you, as an activist and a film maker, have to ensure the genetic viability of not only Cloud’s range, but all wild horse and burro ranges? Lastly, has anyone determined if the mare Baccardi and her foal, who were left on the range without herd protection during the gather, are safe and unharmed from the gather “activities”?

Thanks for all you do and my whole family LOVES Cloud, his herd and you for showing us their unique qualities. My 10 yo daughter wants to be just like you when she grows up!

Ginger says:

Shelly: In the September 2009 roundup in the Pryors, 57 horses were removed. Among those are many that you meet in Cloud: Challenge of the Stallions- the following were removed. They are in good homes but they have lost what they value most: their families and their freedom. Cloud’s daughter: Rain is now in VA; Cloud’s granddaughter, Arrow (the bay filly with a big star) is now in Colorado; Ember and Image are in Ohio together; Cloud’s dun mare (who he gets in this show) was removed, as was his brother, Sax — who I adopted and now is part of the band at my ranch with Cloud’s sisters and Trace. The massive roundup of this herd was unnecessary and costly: $150,000 to remove 57 horses. Among those were the entire bands belonging to stallions Conquistador, Bo, Trigger and Shane. These horses, along with blue roan bachelor who was traumatized in the processing chutes, are now on a ranch in Montana. The Cloud Foundation, due to an incredible amount of support, was able to rescue these horses, and keep the bands together. It is our hope that this sub-population can be returned to their home in the wild. Summer, Shaman’s granddaughter who was with Bolder, and Bolder’s only daughter over a year old, were removed as well. The black bachelor, Stiles, who you see chasing Sitka and Flint at the beginning of the film, was also removed. He has since been gelded but was rescued by a sanctuary in New Mexico. Millions of people know Cloud’s band and herd so well but the 12,000 other horses and burros being removed now are equally important and we must stop these massive roundups.

We saw Bacardi and her foal, (who were left behind while the rest of their band was driven down the mountain – the foal could not keep up) on September 25th. The foal was very footsore but he and Bacardi are back with Baja’s band now. Many foals who were just a month old or less were driven by helicopter over 12 miles down the mountain. With other great organizations such as yours
(www.saveourwildhorses.org) we are working to create a grassroots effort that demands the immediate moratorium of all roundups. The more people learn about wild horses the less they understand why these roundups are taking place. If we all and take a few minutes to call and write their Senators, Congresspeople, local media and President Obama I think we can create enough of a stir to save our horses. Right now our government is not listening as an increasingly educated and aware public demands a stop to this mismanagement.

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Katie Schultz says:

After a mare gives birth, does she make any noises to the foal? And what is her behavior to the foal?

Ginger says:

They do, as you’ll see in this show, mares often vocalize to their foals. They nicker to them and vocalizations are an important means of communication for horses. I was especially lucky to hear vocalizations to a newborn foal in the wild — and I’m glad I can share this with you in this new show!

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Here are some ideas on what you can do — I hope that Cloud and the horses of Montana have inspired you to save them all. Thank you, Ginger

1.     Send your letter demanding an immediate moratorium on all roundups to President Obama and Secretary Salazar (a copy will be cc’d to your Congress people and Senators).

2.     Follow up with faxes, letters and calls to call both your Senators and Congresspeople. Ask that your Senators support the ROAM Act (§1579) to return wild horses to lands stolen from them & end the mismanagement of America’s Wild Horses & Burros.

3.     Sign the Save Our Wild Horses Resolution petition & join the Cloud Foundation mailing list to stay informed (join us on Facebook & Twitter & check our Blog for frequent updates too).

4.     Please watch the most recent report from CBS’s George Knapp, this short news story outlines how BLM has moved from over-management to the clear destruction of our wild herds. Click here to watch his one-hour report “Stampede to Oblivion“

5.     Last but not least, contact media—this story of mismanagement of our mustangs and burros, truly living history, needs to be explored & shared. Find local media contacts here. Write letters to the editor and ask National outlets for better coverage.

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Ginger says:

Many of you have asked what is really going on with the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro program – and I’m sorry to report that the mismanagement is only getting worse. The BLM has proposed, and is currently in the process of removing, 35% of the wild horses and burros left in the wild. Please join me in calling for an immediate moratorium on all roundups before the BLM is successful in completely managing our wild horses on our public land to extinction. Take some time to call and write your senators and President Obama – the loss of our wild horses in imminent if we don’t demand a stop to these roundups. We will have a sample letter and more information on http://www.thecloudfoundation.org. There you can also sign our petition to stop these roundups. Wild horses were saved in the early 70’s by an outcry from America’s children and many adults – we need to do this again. Over 80% of our wild horse herds are now below genetically viable numbers – Cloud’s herd is now among those after last months cruel and unnecessary roundup.

Through the Cloud programs I hope that we have expressed to you how vital it is to you to keep wild horses in the wild – their freedom and families are of the utmost importance to them – as they should be to us as well. Secretary of Interior Salazar has proposed moving 26,000 wild horses to the east in preserves. Non-reproducing herds of horses are not wild horses- this $96 million plan is not acceptable.

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Alison says:

I give money to Frontline Range Equine Rescue and sign petitions to president Obama. What more can I do to keep these horses free?

Ginger says:

Alison – please write your Senators and ask them to support the ROAM act now in the senate. Ask them to stop the roundups until an independent census can be done and further investigation of the mismanagement. Tell your friends and family about the wild horses – and please write letters to the editor and ask your favorite media outlets to investigate this further. The BLM relies on few people knowing what they are doing. But these are our horses on our public lands and I do hope the American public will not sit by while all our horses are removed. Herd by herd we are losing them. Please keep writing and calling. Thank you.

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Steven Long says:

Ginger, will there be another Cloud film?

Ginger says:

Absolutely – there is nothing I love more than watching and filming the Pryor horses. I have been lucky to make this fabulous area a second home over the past 15 years – starting when Cloud’s father, Raven, allowed me to film them without running away. I will continue to document Cloud’s herd and I hope that there might be another program about Cloud in the future. The more I know about wild horses the more I am surprised by their intricate family dynamics. In my wildest dreams I never imagined a story this dramatic.

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Frank says:

Why do the BLM feel a need to keep horse numbers down in the first place? What harm do they see more horses doing to the land or their interests?

Where all the horses in the area rounded up by them?

Ginger says:

Frank — The BLM is acting not on science but on their disregard for wild horses. There mismanagement of our american wild horse and burros is becoming almost as legendary as the horses themselves. There is an excellent report out from Las Vegas CBS — there are interviews and quotes that will explain more. The BLM needs to be stopped and the situation reevaluated. We are losing our horses at a cost of millions to taxpayers who are not aware that we are losing them. It is not understandable, Frank, but we need to bring transparency to this now and demand that science and logic play a role in the management of all of our western herds.

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Emily Murdoch says:

Ginger Kathrens, you are a hero to wild mustangs everywhere. Thank you for all you do, and for your mustang heart. My question is, is there a way, presently, that land could be bought for the Pryor mustangs so that those rounded up could be “adopted” from the BLM and put back on the land to live wild and free? While I appreciate their adoption by concerned citizens, and in that, the horses avoiding slaughter and the slaughter pipeline, it saddens me that these mustangs are no longer “free”. If there were a fund to donate to for this land/sanctuary, I’d be first in line. Thank you again, Ginger, for being on the front lines of such an important issue as the Pryor Mt. mustangs.

Ginger says:

Hi Emily – Today I was with our 15 horses that were rescued at the Pryor auction of the wild horses. We were able with the help of friends in Billings, MT to reunite these wild horses families. What a wonderful experience! We hope to release them again back in their home in the Pryor Mountains or in the Bighorn Mountains across the canyon. Conquistador and the other band stallions are doing great and are with their mares. Band stallion, BO, and his little daugher are so close. It is our hope that these little bands can help the main herd survive genetically.
Ginger

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Nini says:

Please update viewers on what has happened to Cloud’s herd — and what is happening to their wild horse relatives all over the West right now. Thank you!

Ginger says:

Nini – Cloud’s herd is getting back on their feet after the roundup.  Cloud was lame upon his return to the wild, so were Bolder’s mother (now with Cloud again!) and Firestorm.  Velvet and Cloud’s 2009 daughter, Jasmine, was extremely footsore and could barely walk. 12,000 more wild horses are being removed this year — the BLM called this roundup “a model roundup”- but that only tells you how bad the others are.

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Christina L says:

Hi. My question is about Cloud. At the end of the show, you talked about what happened to a number of the horses, but didn’t mention what happened to Cloud. Is Cloud still alive? Has he been adopted or was he set free a second time? I the BLM is starting to euthanize the wild horses because they don’t have the space or resources to take care of them. I really hope Cloud is alive and well!

Ginger says:

Christina, Cloud is alive and well – I last saw him before the auction, where he and his family walked slowly to the water hole – without their usual exuberance. They released Cloud and his much smaller family band two days after they were rounded up and ran 10-15 miles down the mountain in 90+ degree heat. There is a write-up and photos of his capture and release on the Cloud Foundation blog. Cloud actually turned and faced the helicopter during the roundup – he’s been rounded up twice before and knows what is coming.

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Annette says:

I want to know what has happen to Diamond and Red Raven.

Ginger says:
Annette, during the bait-trapping operation, Diamond was injured while fighting with another stallion (Stiles – who was removed last month at age 11) and we thought he might die – he lost his entire band. However, he has since made a full recovery and has his band back. Red Raven and Blue Sioux are still together and have their 2007 daughter, Halcyon with them. Another blue roan mare, Adona, is also with them. Adona is 9 and has never foaled – she was darted with a contraceptive drug that the BLM uses to keep the population down– the same drug that caused Shadow’s out of season birth. The drug (PZP) seems to have caused the three out of season births from last year too. I oppose the use of these experimental infertility drugs because they don’t always work as designed (causing out of season births, sterile mares, mares constantly cycling etc). The Pryors can be managed naturally by nature! The mountain lions, if not hunted to such extremes, they manage the herd perfectly.

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Jocie says:

well how will (in the new film) it be a problem for clouds son and flint will they spread apart?? you’ll probably tell me to watch the movie but just tell me has anything happened to raven?? and do you think Obama will help protect the wolves or wild/endangered animals like the mustangs??

Ginger says:
Hi Jocie and Cheyenne,
Thousands have written the President to protect our mustangs but we have seen no improvement with this administration yet; in fact it has only gotten worse. This is not a reason to give up — rather: keep writing and calling the President. If he hears from tens of thousands of people than we can make these roundups stop now. The worsening situation is due not to new presidential policy but to a lack of oversight while the same people mismanage our wild horses. It would seem that the BLM is trying to manage our wild horses to extinction before any change reaches this rogue agency.

Raven, Cloud’s father, died in his mountain home sometime in the late winter of 2008. He did have one very fine day in June of 2007 when he had a band again for a few hours! Raven was an amazing horse and I will always be grateful to him. Shaman, too, has passed away. He died just a few weeks before the roundup at the age of 24.

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Brian says:

Have you ever been to Theodore Roosevelt National Park? They have a lot of Wild Horses in Theodore Roosevelt National Park!

Ginger says:
Hi Brian – I haven’t been to Teddy Roosevelt but alway wanted to go. Now, I am hearing all the horses are going to be removed. What a shame!!!
Ginger

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Maggie Hall says:

I admire your work and you continue to inspire! How do you feel about the government’s current plan for the wild horses, and how would you feel if Cloud and his herd were removed from their own land? What about Madeleine Pickens plan – does it need improving?
thank you, Maggie Hall

Ginger says:

Hi Maggie – Madeleine is trying to do her best to protect our mustangs held in holding facilities. But, we need to focus on the horsesstill in their homes in the West with their families. 1/3 are schelduled to be rounded up in the next year. Please let your Senators know that they need to have hearings on reining in the BLM; to put an immediate moratorium on round ups and to hold hearings on the behavior of the BLM. Our horses in the wild need our help!
Ginger

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Dennis Manske says:

What does thisd mean for the BLM adoption program? On one hand I feel that this encourages the BLM to increase the gather, on the other hand, I am concerned that if the horses they have captured aren’t placed, they will suffer and or meet an untimely demise.

Ginger says:
Hi Dennis – As you know I am a wild horse adopter and am a new adopter of Cloud’s half brother, Sax, captured and removed last month. Unfortunately, only about 3,000 mustangs are adopted each year in recent years yet the BLM is removing 12,000 this year (unless we can stop them)—far too many for the adoption program. The BLM program must be revamped and Congress must call for a moritorium on round ups now, before it is too late.
Ginger

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Suze says:

Ginger, Can you let us know how badly Cloud and his mare are injured? With winter already settled upon the Pryors, I am so concerned for their welfare. They need to be perfect to survive. Thank you for what you are doing for OUR mustangs!

Ginger says:

I think Cloud will be fine, and I am hopeful his lameness will go away. People who have seen him since I have reported that he is fine as are his mares. I look forward to being up there with them soon.

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Michael says:

Ginger, Are there any large influential groups working on this issue who can get to the administration & congress? I am working as creatively as I can nationally & locally, tried to contact someone at AWHPC but got no response. There must be some large organization such as Sierra club who is willing to take this on. Please let me know if I can assist any actions your group is taking besides the letter, editorial activities. Thanks,

Mike

Ginger says:

Hi Michael – You can find out more at The Cloud Foundation. Hope you will sign up on our email list so you can get all our updates and learn what to do. Thanks so much for your concern.
Ginger

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Pam says:

The horse’s herds seem to be a pretty complex social structure. Doesn’t it stress the horses to separate the herds, like it would stress people to be pulled out of a family unit? Why can’t the BLM keep the herds together when they thin them? Thank you for the wonderful film/story telling work you are doing.

Ginger says:

Pam, you are absolutely right, the horses have an amazing and complex social structure that is literally shattered when the helicopters arrive. The individual bands are torn apart during roundups but it is advisable to only remove younger horses if a herd does really need to reduced in population size. The Cloud Foundation recommended that no more than 20 young horses (aged 2 and younger) be removed from Cloud’s herd this year if a roundup was to take place. When the BLM failed to listen to the public and even to their own science, and when our temporary restraining order was denied in DC district court, the helicopter took to the air.  On the first day of the roundup we were informed that the BLM planned to remove whole family bands off the Pryors. Bands like the one led by 19-year-old stallion Conquistador, who Cloud challenged in the fog nearly 10 years ago; the family led by 13-year-old Trigger, who I’ve been filming since he was just a few days old; and the band belonging to the stallion Shane, who we rescued after he rolled under a barbed wire fence as a foal.  Even 21-year-old Grumpy Grulla (Raven’s first mare) was removed. In the end, BLM stopped the roundup early. With so many of us watching, I think they feared a horse would die in the extreme heat during their long run down from the mountaintop.

Two weeks later a total of 57 horses were auctioned off, including four of Cloud’s grandchildren, his daughter, Rain, and his brother, Sax.  With an amazing crew of volunteers we trailered Shane, Bo, Trigger and Conquistador with most of their mares, as well as the traumatized blue roan bachelor stallion, Floyd, to their new home north of the Pryors. Watching Conquistador and Cavalitta walk calming off the trailer together brought tears to our eyes. Seeing the greeting that Bo gave to his mare, Chalupa, and their filly foal made this entire effort worthwhile.

Only with the help of our many supporters and immediate action on behalf of volunteers were we able to mobilize and adopt these horses and keep them together in their family bands. It is our hope that our lawsuit against the BLM will be successful and these four bands, along with the bachelor, can return home. Until then they are under our care although they remain as close to wild as possible. With the BLM planning on rounding up a staggering 12,000 wild horses and burros this year we can’t stop fighting for the freedom of all.  We so
appreciate your support and ask for your continued work on behalf of all our wild horses and burros. The BLM is rounding up a 1000 horses in Wyoming this month and next month. Half of Nevada’s horses (over 25% of the total number left in the west) are to be removed in the coming months. The BLM is acting illegally and if they are not stopped we won’t have any horses left in the wild. In 1974 there were some 54,000 wild horses in the wild- by next September there will be only 22,000 or so. And over 40,000 in costly government holding pens, pastures and “preserves.” This is not the way to manage an icon of the American west.

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Larry says:

While watching your program, it looked like there were acres and acres of open land. What is BLM’s problem with these horses?

Ginger says:

Larry, Cloud’s herd lives on a nearly 40,000 acre designated range and in addition to that, they “illegally” live and move in and out of another huge area in the Custer National Forest (where they have lived for centuries). The BLM has determined that only 120 horses over one year of age can live on this 40,000 acre area – despite the fact that anything less than 150 is not genetically viable. We’ve been working to get the range legally expanded to allow for a 200-300 horse herd that would preserve these unique Spanish genetics into the future. The BLM could have managed this herd at 170-200 horses if they had spent money on range improvements rather than rounding up 146 horses and removing 57 of them at a cost of over $150,000.

Further investigations into the BLM’s Wild Horse & Burro program are called for. Secretary Salazar’s recent plan to move 26,000 wild horses to expensive eastern preserves in sterilized and segregated herds is not the answer. The west is the home of the wild horse and 54 million acres of public lands were set aside primarily for their use as free roaming wild animals in 1971. Nearly 25 million acres have since been taken away from them and it is time lands were returned. Less than 33,000 wild horses remain on our public lands, down from an estimated 54,000 in 1974. Meanwhile, over 3 million head of livestock graze on public lands – many owned by huge companies, not by family ranchers. Federal public lands grazing is estimated to be a $123 million/year net loss and the true cost to our environment is much higher (estimated upwards of $500 million to $1 billion per year in damages). We would save money and wild horses by simply paying legitimate ranchers not to graze. Wild horses are outnumbered on the range and yet are blamed for any damage. If there is no damage they are removed. I would encourage you and all interested to watch the recent investigative report “Stampede to Oblivion” which is now online.

Wildlife filmmakers often go to great lengths to get that perfect shot. But not many end up installing a picture window in a ripe fig the size of a grape, just to watch what’s going on inside. That’s just one of the creative — and painstaking — steps that filmmakers Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble took to film the almost microscopic fig wasps that are the stars of NATURE’s The Queen of Trees. Using specialized, custom-built equipment, the pair spent two years in the Kenyan bush waiting for just the right moments to film these minuscule insects.

For viewers, it was worth the wait: Deeble and Stone present a remarkably detailed portrait of the fig wasp’s complex relationship with the sycomore fig, a tree that is a billion times bigger. Yet wasp and fig are forever entwined, dependent on each other for survival.

“It is an amazing relationship,” says Stone, who credits Climbing Mount Improbable, a 1997 book by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, with sparking the idea for the film. But the couple, who have been making award-winning documentaries for several decades, knew it wouldn’t be an easy story to tell. The wasps are so small they can fly through the eye of a needle. Much of their most interesting behavior takes place inside a fig tree’s small fruit, hidden from view. And to top it all off, it can be hard to predict when key moments in the wasp-fig life cycle will occur, meaning the filmmakers would literally have to camp out near a tree and wait.

“We knew there’d be massive complications,” recalls Stone. “The most basic challenge was to film the behavior of the wasps inside the fig [without ending up with blurry or out-of-focus images]. And it couldn’t just look okay. It had to be beautiful and enticing.”

Deeble says technological advances — and a bit of ingenuity and patience — made it possible to overcome the complications. One key advance was the arrival of high-definition cameras that capture sharp, crisp images with a good depth of field at low light levels. Another was the team’s construction of a specialized, vibration-free work table that could be taken out into the field and used to film extreme close-ups of very small actors. “We’d set it up on a concrete platform in our camp, bolt down the camera, and then go get a fig from the tree,” recalls Deeble, who studied marine biology before becoming a filmmaker. To capture a particular scene of female wasps collecting pollen from tiny “gardens” inside the figs, the team even cut tiny windows into the fruit and covered them with strips of glass. When all went well, the wasps carried on, unaware of the peeping camera. “That was probably one of the most difficult 10-second scenes to get,” Deeble reveals. “It took weeks to get everything just right.”

Other weeks were spent erecting and moving around specialized towers and platforms that allowed the filmmakers to get up into the treetops, where showy birds called hornbills built their distinctive, prisonlike nests, and monkeys and birds feasted on fresh fruit. “Using towers takes a long time,” explains Deeble. “Even if you want to move just a few feet to get a new angle, you’ve got take the whole thing down again… ropes, pegs, everything. You can be lucky to get one or two shots a day.” The filmmakers had to be careful not to damage the trees as they worked, Stone adds.

Overall, the couple, their two young children, and a small team spent two years camped out near the magnificent, gnarled sycomore fig that is featured in the film. The filmmakers had discovered during a previous project on hippos that things could be slow at times; when there was nothing to film at the home tree, the team searched far and wide for other fig trees where interesting things were happening. It took them another six months to sift through all the film and assemble it into a compelling story.

The team is now working to make sure that The Queen of Trees is seen in Kenya. “One thing we do is translate our films into Swahili, so that they can become resources for educating [Kenyans] about their environment,” says Stone. “Not everyone knows the story of the wasp and the fig, or understands that the trees are such a rich source of habitat. It’s a keystone species that has a huge impact on the entire ecosystem.”

NATURE goes behind the scenes of Silence of the Bees with an interview with producer Doug Shultz.

What is the story you tell in Silence of the Bees?

The film actually encompasses three parallel stories. The first is the overall mystery of why the bees are disappearing, and the scientific investigations that are under way to try to understand this. The second is the surprising reliance that we have on this completely unnatural system of trucking bees around the country to pollinate our crops. This is something that I think has taken everyone by surprise. Third, maybe most fascinating of all, is the story of the honeybee itself. To understand the magnitude of the problem and what we’re losing, it’s important to appreciate how extraordinary these animals are, and the value of what they contribute to the planet. And to our plates!

Theories about the cause of CCD changed and expanded while you were in production and they continue to evolve now. How did that create challenges in the filmmaking process?

From the beginning we knew we were along for an uncertain ride — would we have an answer by the time production wrapped? But it was such a great detective story that we just stayed on top of the latest developments and maintained contact with all the key players to find out which theories they had crossed off the list and which they were still exploring. The biggest challenge, actually, was the research embargo. We knew our scientists had found something, but they couldn’t tell us what it was until the research was published. We were nearly finished with our edit by the time they were allowed to talk. So much of the time we were planning shoots based on our own hypotheses of what was going on.

Filmmaker Doug Shultz

Bee population decline has been recorded all over the world. How did you select the locations where you shot and the stories that you told in the program?

It’s true that bee populations are declining nearly everywhere, and not just from CCD. So we tried to target locations that served a purpose in the overall story. France stood in as a case study for pesticide use and its effects on bees. They have had some very intense clashes over this issue, and in fact have banned chemicals that we now use in the United States. We went to Spain because they have the highest number of commercial beekeepers in Europe, and last year they suffered massive bee losses. England was an example of controversy, where beekeepers claim they’ve lost up to two thirds of their bees, but the government still insists they don’t have a problem. We also went to China because in the south, there’s a region that sort of stands as a grim omen of what a world without bees could be like.

What are some of the practical and technical challenges of filming bees versus getting footage of larger animals?

Well, they sting. But the main thing is that they are very small and very fast. So because you’re focused on such a small area, you don’t have much latitude to move with them. It requires a great deal of patience. You set up your shot over a flower, for example, and you hope that eventually a bee will stop by and will stay within your focal range for a reasonable amount of time. When you’re shooting inside the hive, you really can only shoot for a short amount of time, because once the bees are stirred up, there’s really no calming them down. Bees also flap their wings at a speed faster than the known laws of physics can explain. We used the new Phantom HD high-speed camera to capture this at up to 1,500 frames per second.

What went into getting shots inside the hive?

The hive is really like one big organism, and we poked and prodded into it with a variety of borescopes and macroscopic lenses. The real challenge is that many of the most interesting behaviors happen on such a small scale that they can be incredibly difficult to capture. Olympus America generously brought out a new HD endoscopic camera normally used for examining the inside of a human esophagus — they wheeled it right out into a pumpkin patch in Pennsylvania for us and we stuck it in a hive. We also had the help of several very knowledgeable and patient beekeepers who were able to quickly find certain behaviors in the hives.

When shooting the hive scenes, your on-camera experts are all in protective gear and masks. Did the crew wear something too? Did people get stung?

We all wore bee suits, and learned very quickly to make sure we were completely zipped up. On our first shoot in Maine, it was pretty chilly, and the bees were looking for some warmth…inside our suits. We all got stung. The bees even attacked the windjammer on the mic because they thought it was a bear. Spanish bees are particularly aggressive, and in Andalucia we were wearing extremely thick, double-layered bee suits in 110-degree weather. No one got stung, but I think we all lost weight.

Once we became accustomed to being around the bees, we let our guard down a bit. I got stung again a few times in France and ended up with a temporarily deformed head. But we all still love bees.

For this production, did you put yourself through some kind of “Bee Boot Camp” to become familiar with the natural history of bees?

I started by reading as much as I could about honeybees and beekeeping in general, and there was much more to learn than I had anticipated. Bees and bee societies are incredibly complex. In the case of this film, all that information was just base knowledge, because the film was an investigation into CCD, not just the natural history of the bee. The real boot camp came on our first shoot with commercial beekeepers, actually seeing how the whole business works.

David Hackenberg unloading his beehives in Maine for blueberry pollination.

Do you have a favorite sequence in the film?

That’s tough, but I really like the scenes in Maine, where they’re distributing the hives in the blueberry fields, dealing with bear damage, etc. Every time people see this, they are blown away because very few people know this goes on. I also like the China sequence because what’s happening there is pretty hard to believe as well.

Did something end up on the “cutting room floor” that you wish made it into the film?

I wish we had more time in the film to spend with all the different beekeepers. They’re a special breed of people and their enthusiasm for the bees is infectious — by the end, we were all considering starting hives, ourselves. Unfortunately, because of the amount of information we had to wrangle into an hour-long film, many of these characters had to be cut for time.

What appealed to you about working for NATURE?

Well, I’ve always been a fan of NATURE, and as far as natural history programming goes, they are the best. This is something a little different for NATURE because it incorporates natural history into a more investigative, topical story. It was an appealing challenge to find a way to make that work, both thematically and stylistically.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I think it’s important to note that the CCD scare has brought some overdue attention to the importance of bees, but bees and other pollinating animals have been disappearing for at least 20 or 30 years. This is just the latest example of a worldwide crisis that until now really hasn’t received the kind of attention that something like global warming gets. But pollinator decline is just as important — and just as worrisome.

To watch an interview with Doug on the The Alcove with Mark Molaro, click here.

NATURE spoke with Victoria Falls producer and cameraman Jamie McPherson in April 2009. Here’s what he had to say about the making of the film.

Q: What inspired you to do a film on Victoria Falls and the Zambezi River?

A: Victoria Falls is such an iconic place. I had been there as a tourist, and knew it’d be an amazing place to do a film on wildlife – the falls and the Zambezi.

Can you tell us about research for the film, and how much time you spent on it?

We did our initial research by talking to people, and reading books. Once I made contact with a few people, through friends and through lodges, I headed out there for two weeks. I drove around and met as many people as I could and checked out as many locations as possible — to see what the wildlife was like out there. We needed to work things out ahead of time — looking in books for when the rainy season is, talking to local bird experts, etc. We timed everything out.

Books say there are lions and buffalo out there, but not whether it’s always possible to see them. It’s not a place many have filmed in before. We had to get a lot of permissions from different officials to film. We contacted the national parks authorities, tourism authorities and other conservation commissions in advance.

Altogether, Charlie (co-cameraman, Charlie Hamilton James) and I filmed for four months. We went back and forth. I went in March for a shoot at the end of the rainy season, then June; then Charlie went in July. I went back in September when the water level is lowest.

We rented a house in Livingstone, the closest big town. And we had a boat that we moored there.

How did you find Mr. White? Can you tell me more about him?

Initially, I met a few different fishermen out there, but the hardest thing to find is someone who is truly a knowledgeable fisherman. Mr. White was the only name that kept coming up. A Norwegian rafting guide told me, “You have to talk with him!” He thought Mr. White lived in a cave because most of the time he was by the falls and he often slept by the river.

Then I spoke to guys in the village who also recommended Mr. White. We wanted to do something different, and he was a perfect voice – a perfect story to tell, with wisdom and knowledge.

In an email you wrote a very moving account about Mr. White and the last days of your shoot. If you don’t mind, I’d like to include that here.

Sure.

Everyone said I should go and see this old guy at rapid number nine. He was the oldest fisherman in the area and the most respected. And sure enough, when I went to rapid number nine, there he was. His English wasn’t great, but he was very excited about a film being made about his river and he was happy to be involved.

He was born in Zimbabwe in 1934. He is known as Mr. White, but White is his first name. His family name is Matukanyuni. (He showed me his ID card.) His mother was Zambian and his father Zimbabwean. His mother took him to Zambia when he was four years old. He lived in the village of Songwe, near Livingstone. He worked as a gardener for a local hotel when he was young, but had always been a fisherman. He described himself as a fisherman. He was very well respected in his village and around Livingstone. Most people in the area knew who he was. He taught the kids in the village how to fish and had fished the same rapids in the gorge since 1947.

We had planned to film two more sequences with him in the last week of our shoot, but days before he asked me if I could take him to the hospital because he wasn’t feeling well. He was diagnosed with cancer in the hospital in Livingstone.

The shots of him on the cliff above the gorge at the start and end of the film show the last time he saw the gorge. I was visiting him in the hospital in Livingstone and he said he wanted to get out of the hospital and see his river again as he was waiting for an appointment in Lusaka for further tests. He knew that we had wanted to film him looking down at the river and insisted we at least film that last shot. So with the nurse’s permission we went to the gorge for the last time.

I then sent him and his family to a specialist in Lusaka. The cancer was too far advanced for the treatment to work. He passed away in December 2008. He had three wives, eight daughters and seven sons.

He was a great man and I am very proud to have met him.

Victoria Falls is gorgeously filmed, just stunning. I know you filmed the falls and the Zambezi along with Charlie Hamilton James and Simon Werry. Can you tell us a bit more about how you got such dramatic visuals – your approach? Equipment?

We were trying to find new views of Victoria Falls and new ways of looking at it — from sunset to sunrise. We used local knowledge on the best places to film, and spent four months out there picking locations.

We used long lenses, high definition, and had a high-speed digital camera called a Photron, which films 5,000 frames a second. We used the Photron for the pied kingfisher and fish eagle footage. The camera is a lot of work; it’s not a camera you can pick up and run around with, it’s very complicated. We had to hook it up to a computer and a generator, and bring it by the river.

Simon Werry shot the aerials with a Cineflex. It’s great to see the falls from that perspective; it gives a sense of scale. A falls that is a mile wide is hard to comprehend but if you see it from the air, from above…

Can you tell us about filming the lunar rainbows?

Well, there are lunar rainbow tours, and the rainbows are visible to the naked eye, but with long exposure photography they really stand out. We used SLR still cameras to capture series of long exposure shots which are then stitched together to create the time-lapse shots.

How did you feel about safety?

We felt completely safe, the only thing was the hippos. The bull hippos are protecting their territory, and when the water drops they have to move. A local boat guy helped us negotiate around hippo bull territory. We just made sure to be careful.

In the film you show two different worlds – the one above the falls and the one below. Can you elaborate?

The world below is Mr. White’s world — very bleak, not many trees, but good fishing. And no hippos or crocodiles, so it’s safer. The world above is full of life because of the geography and shallows and sandy islands. They’re very different worlds, and in the film it’s more of Mr. White’s perspective. The Zambezi provides for him, even though it can be harsh.

There are so many lovely songs in the show. Can you tell us more about the music? Do the lyrics match picture in any way?

All our films have a musical style, something that suits the film. We avoided western songs, and chose music/musicians from Africa, like Rokia Traore. And we tried to avoid clichés.

I have to admit we didn’t choose music based on lyrics, but rather for the mood that the songs conveyed.