This Is What Happens When You Give Animals A Camera | BBC Earth

We're meeting a family of 21, led by a dominant female whose mother to the pups. She wears a radio collar to help the scientists track the group's movements. Project manager Laura Meldrum and her team weigh each member of the group daily as part of their study. This is our subordinate female, our eldest subordinate female, Eve. And is she a good camera candidate? She is, yeah. You can see she loves water and is also very receptive. I think, Eve, I could have got a little camera on you before you knew it. Eve is the dominant female's eldest daughter. She's ideally placed to film the pups. We're also keen to get our cameras on a carefree teenager. But you, it's like a job interview. What are your qualifications? You're a meerkat. Are you nine months old? No. This one's six months old. The next in line. Come on, yum-yums. Thanks for coming. Sit down. Just relax. How old? Nine months. OK. We'll get back to you. Our cameras weigh less than a meerkat's radio collar, and it's over to the man who made them, Chris Watts, to get them on. First up is a lively teenager called Fatboy. I think it's incredibly exciting that we might just be able to get one of our cameras right at the heart of this family. That is the goal. That's the dream. Oh, well done, Chris. He's got it on. Next up is Eve. Unlike Fatboy, the camera slips on the first time. It's reassuring to see our film crew so relaxed, and the test footage gives us our first glimpse of what it's like to be a meerkat. I just love how crazily big we look. It's a tiny water bottle. It just looks huge. Immediately, the cameras reveal remarkable behaviour. Where is it? Where are they? That's kind of like a crab of some kind. Instead of wolfing it down, she generously gives it to one of the pups. That looked like quite a good meal. Yeah. Fatboy's camera has recorded his favourite pastime, play fighting. I think we do enter their world. You're getting a big idea of what it is like to be a meerkat. From her traumatic start in life, Kimbang has come a very long way. But before Mimi feels completely confident about releasing her into a family group, she wants to see if Kimbang can recognise and respond to danger. So we've come up with an experiment using a plastic predator. I've never seen her see a snake, so I hope that she doesn't get too close and that she lets us know that it's there. And we'll make a small noise like, ooh, ooh, so that we know that there's something that she shouldn't go near. OK. See, I'm really excited to find out exactly how she reacts to this. Good girl, Kimbang. What's that? Good girl. Can you figure out what she's actually doing? She's stopped, so she must have seen it. Is she looking at it? Yeah, she definitely knows something's not quite right. Yeah, she's moved right round. She hasn't gone actually near the snake, she's just checking it from every angle. This response is entirely based on instinct. There's a lot of snakes in this forest, so if she'd just gone and grabbed it, then it would be really worrying. See, she just touched the bush to see if it would move. Yeah, yeah. Which is great. Kimbang adopts a defensive strategy. She's even using the bush to make herself look even bigger. Good girl. She's improvising, using every tool at her disposal. Oh, that's good. She's trying to hit it with the camera. That's great. But will she make an alarm call to announce the danger? Yes, that is brilliant. It's great that she's let us know that it's there. That is good. So I think we should make an alarm call so she knows we've seen it, and then she'll leave with us. It's the perfect response. One that could have saved her in a real-life snake encounter. Scientists suspect their sense of smell might guide them to areas that are rich in prey. They fluff an insulating layer of air into their feathers before diving down to the chilly depths. Our parents will make up to 400 dives on a typical trip. The longer they search, the more energy they burn. And with hungry chicks waiting to be fed, the clock is ticking. So what our cameras film next is a real surprise. Oh, what? Oh, my goodness. Infection. Did you see that? Just had a look at it, said, no, not for me. After hours at sea, our hungry penguins are ignoring perfectly edible prey. Whoa, straight past the shrimps. Shrimps, squid, and lobster krill are all passed up. The penguins are taking a massive gamble. Their chicks will starve if they leave them for too long without a meal. But the penguin parents keep searching until they finally find what they're after. Oh, look at that. That is cool. Anchovies. These oil-rich fish are penguins' superfood. Our cameras first show the penguins dropping beneath the fish. The air in their feathers makes them so buoyant that they shoot up into the shoal. Anchovies are the highest quality food these parents can feed their chicks, and that can mean the difference between life and death. All the penguin activity attracts other seabirds. They spotted a herd of hemspock in a clearing. For young cheetahs, these are a very dangerous target. Three cats all together. They look like a force to be reckoned with. I don't quite know how this is going to play out. I have seen cheetahs hunt before, but out in the open plains, and I'm not sure how it's going to change their behavior somewhere as thick as this. It's very, very scrubby and bushy. OK, cheetah there, moving in. Right. OK, one's running. Second one running towards the game. They don't yet know that the cheetahs are gaining on them. They're actually just a full-on run from the front cheetah, full-on run. They're just scattering the herd. The hemspock panic. The cheetahs are after an easy target. OK, confusion, confusion. It's very hard trying to keep track of three cheetah. Wander's camera captures what I can't see. She's chasing one animal away from the group. In amongst the bushes, Wander's losing speed. Her sister Shiloh charges in on the left, but the hemspock is now so far ahead, it's safe. The thick vegetation has scuppered our cheetahs' chances. Wander skulks back to the clearing, where the tables have turned. Oh, just got charged by a big, big hemspock there. They're now at risk of being skewered by this large male. The prey knows that the predator is around. The cheetah have lost their advantage. Ah, now they're just getting chased away. They're being humiliated. Taking on such large prey was a real rookie mistake. The theory is that this spot is too shallow for sharks. It's the seal equivalent of a paddling pool, a safe and sheltered spot where pups can learn to swim. That is absolutely beautiful. It is probably one of the nicest things I've ever seen underwater. This cove is the only place I can observe these seals beneath the waves, but we want to understand their lives away from the sheltered shallows. And that's what the deployment of these cameras is all about. Our camera-testing seal has also been taking a dip. Time to see what the footage reveals. Heading down to sea. See how the way her shoulder blades are working. And she's about to jump in the water. Here she goes. Whoa! Oh, wow. Look at that. As soon as she dives, the camera captures unexpected behaviour. Oh, look at that. Look at that. She's rubbing against the rocks on that green stuff. Wow, yeah, you can see it very clearly there. She's rubbing the side of her face and neck. The other animals around her are doing the same thing. They're all doing it. And you've never seen this before? No, I wouldn't have known. You see them offshore at the surface playing. This is brand-new stuff. I've never seen this before. Wow. John thinks the seals could be using the seaweed to clean their fur, brushing up against it to remove parasites. As the new day dawns, we get our first glimpse into the lives of these secretive animals. They slept in the trees for safety. Now they're sunbathing to warm up. That's beautiful footage, yeah? She's having a good look at it, isn't she? So this is basically her eyes now. Whatever we see now is through their eyes. Considering this has only been on overnight, she's not bothered by it, is she? Not at all. So this one is grooming now. Grooming is where they socialise, so I think she might be a more dominant female. It's wonderful to finally see the baboon's world. But will this teach Leah and Reino how to keep them off the crops? Oh, the fence. Not even jumping over it, just going through it. Yeah, straight through. She pulled it down and she went through. It's like it's not even there. These fences, to be honest, I don't think you're going to stop them at all. Does anything put the baboons off? One of our cameras gives us a clue. And now they're running. Goes nuts up an area. Which suggests that they don't like being in it. That's definitely something that we can think about in terms of the crops. Leah thinks an empty space around the crops would be a better barrier than a fence. And soon we get more inside information. The baboons are digging for water. It's dry season, so the rivers have dried up. But there is an easier way to get a drink. Why bother digging when there's a water trough? Has the camera gone underwater? Yeah. Is it waterproof? It has to be. It gives Leah another idea. I'm just thinking about, you know, keeping water points away from the crops. Cos maybe having a water close to the crops is, you know, drawing them in. They've been just hovering and flying around the summit of the seamount. It really attracts them. But suddenly the rays start to head down. These rays can dive to 2,000 metres. One of the deepest diving of all animals. The descent is so fast it puts the camera in a spin. Whoa! It's flipping. Must be a huge speed. There's water. There's ocean floor there. George knew that the rays dive deep. Now for the first time he can see why. Amazing. This is amazing. That's what I wanted to see. Very different from what we've seen so far. By the amount of light here it looks like it's quite deep. Very close to the sea floor. These are unbelievably privileged views. Do you see how close that was? Yeah. That was like inches from the top of that rock. I never expected, just going through this canyon, why would they do this? We think of devil rays as oceanic animals that just bash the surface. And here we see that that is not always the case. Apparently they like to explore very close to the bottom at the deep sea. That's very, very interesting. And it's a very new look into their lives. Yeah. And soon we see one reason why the rays are gathering here. The camera shows hundreds of tiny floating animals. Plankton clouding the water. As the ray hits a patch of plankton, the long fins on its head unfurl and funnel food into its huge mouth. When it's finished feeding, the fins roll back up. Seamounts are rich in food because deep ocean currents full of nutrients swirl upwards when they hit the sides of the mountain driving huge blooms of plankton. Rays are one of the few animals able to take advantage of deep water prey. They'll even eat fish up to a few inches long. The presence of lots of caves is another reason why this is good bear habitat. After a quick rest, she steps back out into the night and straight into danger. Just right there. It's just up here somewhere. Yeah. So the road basically is the corner of an interstate highway and this traffic is very fast. Siha is walking down a dangerous road. And before long, we discover why. She's on the lookout for rubbish thrown from passing cars. This is worrying for Sian. If bears develop a taste for rubbish, they can become dependent on it. He says that's already happening at a place on the edge of the forest. So I've come to investigate at the local dump. Oh, we've got a bear right here with a cub. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop, stop, stop. Another bear with a cub. That is a big bear. Yes. To get a better look, I'm using a thermal camera which detects the bear's body heat. Oh, wow, look at that. My goodness. Brown bears are normally solitary. Yet here, they tolerate each other because there's so much food. It's quite something to see so many of them in one place. But it's not healthy for them to be feeding on our rubbish. A bear digging in rubbish that is still alight. It's raking through the coals. There are bears eating plastic, chewing on metal wires. This is not a pretty sight. I'm told that there are plans to close this dump down, but the scientists are worried that that could cause another problem. If they get rid of this dump overnight, that food source is gone, and what that's going to leave is a lot of hungry bears. These dump feeders will be pushed out into the forest. But is there room for any more bears out there? Too many bears could lead to conflict and stress. We're hoping that more footage will help us find out how much the forest bears are interacting. Jean-Marc thinks that these outlying dogs play a vital role as sentries. Barking alone can be enough to see off a single wolf attempting a sneaky attack. But what will happen if a whole pack of wolves attacks? It's three o'clock in the morning. Out on the hillside, the dogs in the centre of the flock look relaxed. While the others are pacing around the edge. They seem nervous. There's something out there. A group of wolves is heading straight for the flock. The alarm goes off. And the other dogs rise to the challenge. One from the middle charges out to help see off the attack. The leading wolf flees. Now all four wolves are in retreat. It's a great result for Jean-Marc. We have seen the dogs chasing the wolf off. So it's very successful and no sheep were killed. So I'm very happy again. Our collar cams have shown Jean-Marc the importance of selecting a good meal. We have different personalities in dogs. And this is just amazing, yeah. We have some dogs who are, you know, very strong. They are bold and they will go and they will run after the wolf. And you have other dogs who are very shy and they are afraid by everything, you know. So we are observing now a team of dogs, how they are working. And of course, if a dog is a little afraid, it will bark and maybe give the alarm. So in a pack of dogs now, you need different personalities, not only one. Yeah, she's made this sort of definite beeline for that anchor. I suppose it's such a really prominent feature there in the bottom. Oh my God. What's she doing? Is she feeding? Wow, she is. It's feeding on the seaweed on the anchor. That's unbelievable. And one of the really, really interesting element is that it's so soon after the nesting. I certainly did not expect that. It's the first time ever that we've seen this behaviour. Exquisite. This turtle is going to put me out of a job. Put every underwater camera person out of a job. This is the evidence we were looking for. It proves that these turtles do feed during their five-month breeding season. So this marine ecosystem needs more protection. And that can't come soon enough, based on what she films next. Is that a mesh? It's like a mesh, a net. Oh man. That's a massive fishing net. That's awful. It does reveal one of the many dangers they are exposed to. Now she's biting the net. She's trying to feed through the net. Imagine if she manages to break this up and then swallows the part. Who knows what's next then, whether she chokes on it. This huge abandoned ghost net is a stark reminder of why these waters need safeguarding. Thankfully, our turtle swims off and out into deeper water. And she feeds again. This time on a jelly-like sea squirt. I mean, this is sort of foraging, sort of constantly grazing that she's doing here. You can see pieces loading around, so she's definitely feeding on that. Feeding in this way, is that enough food for her in a day? She's constantly just browsing her way through the ocean. I want to say no. As you know and you've seen, nesting is really, really energy consuming. So I believe that it top up their reserve right now. Dive and feed complete, she heads towards the surface for a breath. Oh, another turtle there. It's a big barnacle on it. Yeah. That's an old one. Look how much stuff she has on the shell. She's biting her. She's biting the carapace. I'm pretty sure that our lar head is chewing off the seaweed and probably the barnacle of the other lar head. It's amazing to see so much life growing on that turtle but also following the turtle around, this sort of moving ecosystem. Totally. And when you actually protect the turtle, you also protect all the ecosystem around them, the fish, the entire habitat. You see, if we did not have the camera but only a tagging device like a GPS system, we would never know that that turtle spent so much time at the surface with another turtle. And after carefully analysing the footage, Mark can see exactly how the gannets are finding their food. So we're looking at one of my favourite sequences here. It's one where all of a sudden we start seeing common dolphins up at the surface and within seconds the gannets are going straight towards those dolphins and diving. It's really exciting to see them and I never thought we'd get footage that was of a resolution that we could identify the species. They're quite clearly common dolphins. Underwater, the camera's in-built microphone has even recorded their calls. Mark believes the birds are using the dolphins to help find their food. And he's found evidence that they're following other marine animals too. We had to go through essentially frame by frame here to see this, but you can quite clearly see two whales, at least whale blows. And we see that the gannet is immediately turning towards those and easily within 15 to 16 seconds that gannet is now diving right where those whales were at the surface. So it's indicating that those gannets are perhaps using the whales themselves there as a visual cue to say this is where other predators are, therefore this is probably where there's food. Fantastic to see these odd bits of behaviour that we would have ordinarily missed. The footage shows that gannets are using other species to effectively find small patches of food in a large open habitat. And this has big implications for how we can serve them. We want to preserve gannets, we need to preserve the visual cues that they're using, which means protecting our dolphin populations, it means protecting our whale populations. All of these populations are interconnected, so we need to take an ecosystems approach to our conservation objectives. In general, seabird populations are declining, partly because of a drop in fish stocks. But gannets don't seem to be affected. And our footage shows why. So there's this wonderful sequence where we can see just out on the horizon a fishing vessel and the gannet pretty much instantly starts to orient towards and fly towards that fishing vessel. There must be at least 100 other gannets around the fishing vessel here which might indicate that gannets have learnt to use fishing vessels as a foraging cue or as a cue that there is food to be had here. Importantly, there are very few other seabird species capitalising on this free meal. There's almost exclusively gannets around here and they're quite an aggressive species so they're managing to successfully out-compete other seabirds for that fisheries resource. By exploiting fishing vessels they get access to a steady supply of food even when their prey is in decline. The onboard cameras have been a success. They've shown us how these birds use other animals and even fishermen to find their next meal. This is pretty cool. Look at that, look at that. Oh, big barracuda. I love being able to see what they're seeing. But what the sharks have filmed is worrying. There's a lot, a lot, a lot of algae overgrowth on some of these reef patches that he's passed through. You can see some signs of improvement. There's certain hard corals growing but a lot of algae overgrowth in some of these areas. Too much algae can reduce the oxygen levels and block the sunlight killing the coral which then has a negative effect on everything in the food chain from wrasse to reef sharks. There's a lot of fishermen here so they could be putting a lot of pressure on some of those reef fishes that would be normally eating the algae and then maintaining the health of the system. You've got obviously pollution as well and then on top of that global warming. Overfishing, pollution and climate change could all contribute to this thick algae. They're global issues and will only get better if we continue to reduce our impact on the natural world. The cameras have provided a great insight into the health of some of the most remote corners of this reef. But they've also revealed some surprising shark behaviour. This is cool. Look at that, a tight little tunnel. Don't tell me it's going to go through there. It's amazing. Right underneath the cave. It's really amazing. I mean I don't know about you but I've never really seen one swimming this deep into the reef like down these little gullies. Makes you wonder if he's looking for food. That could be a strategy I guess. Stay close to the floor, search around the reef structure and basically ambush a reef fish. It can't be easy hunting reef fish on the reef. There are so many hiding places. Reef sharks can sniff out prey or use special electroreceptors to detect the heartbeat of their next meal. But it's hard to catch a fish before it escapes into the reef. So by weaving through the coral there's a chance this shark can sneak up on its next victim. It might also keep them hidden from bigger predators like tiger sharks who, as we know, patrol this area. Seeing this behaviour is something that only our cameras could reveal. As soon as a diver enters the water the sharks behave differently and there's no way a human could keep up with them through these tight coral corridors. Oh. Oh, that's where the tag came off. No matter how much scuba diving you do you're never going to be able to spend that much time with a shark. Exactly. And that's the big difference. That's the thing that these tags do for us is we get five hours of uninterrupted footage of where these animals are going and how they're using their habitats. The cameras have been a success showing us that these sharks can hunt among the coral in ways Tristan had never seen before. And the footage proves that this reef needs further protection from the global impact of mankind if it's to remain a shark mecca. Our footage begins with a dedicated hunt for a new tree. It is interesting seeing what she's seeing and seeing how she's moving and how she's behaving. You wonder if she's got a destination in mind. Female koala home ranges are usually smaller than the males. The amount of time Robin is spending on the ground is unexpected and dangerous. I thought she might have got up a tree much quicker. If there's any predators around, particularly dogs they can pick up her scent and chase her down. After stopping at eight different trees along the way Robin finally finds one she likes. Wow. Made a very quick jump in that tree. It's almost like I've made up my mind I'm going for it. Perhaps it's got a good eucalypt smell that maybe means there might be some good food up there. A lot of trees have different tannin levels. Yes. So she's sniffing those trees and deciding do I want to go up there and eat? Koalas choose trees for specific reasons. Some are chosen as dedicated food trees and others are selected for the shelter they offer. Within minutes Robin is in the very top of the tree she's been searching for. Oh wow. Look at that. And as dawn breaks she settles in for a snooze. That's a great shot. Yeah. She's sitting up with both paws this way. Yeah, yeah. It's a bit of an embrace. Holding her paws in her lap. Dozer's off. Oh wow. Aww. Oh look, the sun's really come up now. It has, hasn't it? Our koalas have revealed themselves to be anything but dozy at night. A stark contrast to the lazy layabouts they appear to be during the day. While it was known that koalas climbed down each night to pick a different tree from observing Tom, Robin and Hunter it's clear that koalas scale many trees over the course of an evening and are incredibly picky. They spend more time on the ground than anyone expected. It suggests that koalas need sizable reserves and many different types of trees to safeguard their future. Combined with Hidden Vale's tracking data our camera footage is key for reserve managers like Andrew. This sort of information I think is vital if we're going to manage koalas and koala populations better. In South East Queensland more than 2,000 koalas get brought into care every year often because of habitat clearing. Many of those koalas can be rehabilitated and released back into the wild but if they're going to survive if they're going to contribute to the wild population we have to find suitable habitat in which to release them. While our camera findings help Andrew better understand the needs of the population at Hidden Vale they can also help identify other suitable habitats in Australia and ensure relocated koalas get exactly what they need to survive. Any head start is good for the youngsters here as our camera shows us just how poor this habitat is. The headland may look like a well-kept lawn but there's little on offer here. With over 200 roos in such a small area this grass has been grazed to the ground. The density of animals also means where there is food there's faeces. A lot of the areas where they're grazing are contaminated but you know there's a little piece of faecal matter right there where she's grazing and that fits with what we're seeing in terms of the high levels of intestinal parasites. Poor feeding grounds lead to poorly conditioned animals and grazing here risks spreading disease and infection amongst the population. But then we get the footage Cathy has been hoping for. One of our camera kangaroos hops onto the beach. Oh they're right out on the sand. Oh wow. So this is those hopping marks that we can see where they're moving on the beach. At first she nibbles on dune grass something Cathy has observed before. Not a lot to eat there though is there? Yeah. But then she moves further down the beach and begins to forage. Oh yes, yeah there's a lot. It's slim pickings amongst the pebbles and shells but it's food nonetheless. And our cameras give Cathy the all-important opportunity to see what they're eating. I'm not a kangaroo you may have noticed but that vegetation doesn't seem particularly nutritious it's kind of wispy and dry. There's just a little bit of grass coming up in between the shells and the stones that have washed up from the ocean and maybe that's because the grass is a little bit longer there there's not a lot of it but animals other animals aren't there grazing with this animal so maybe there's less competition. This footage shows how these marginalised marsupials really are doing everything they can to survive. But grass and weeds on the shoreline is not enough food to sustain them long term. It all comes down to the way humans have modified the environment they can't move the way they normally would move in the environment. I think for us to have a future and for these animals to have a future it's about co-existence it's about people and kangaroos sharing that same space. And hopefully through this footage and the other research that we're doing that we can really try and figure out how best to manage the landscape. After watching the footage Cathy wants to see changes in urban planning to ensure new roads and suburbs consider the needs of kangaroos and enable them to move freely across the landscape. This will not only help the kangaroos here at Coffs Harbour but many others living up and down this busy coastline. After a short flight a new tree is selected and the flying fox announces its arrival. So this is really interesting it looks like they're going from just in a few minutes they've gone for three or four different feeding sites which is nothing that we've ever seen before we just think they're going to one area and probably stay in a tree for a period of time but it looks like they're flying around every minute or two to find some food. And it's off again and this time we're in a different tree species. It is technically a fruit tree a Port Jackson fig but this is not a food crop. It's an ornamental tree commonly found in gardens and civic centres. A short flight later it's back in a native blue gum. This is a surprising thing I think just you know how quickly they're moving and eating blossom to blossom but they're clearly eating it really quickly and moving on. And even though they can fly tens of kilometres a night this flying fox has chosen to stay close to the city and has a back mounted camera provides a great aerial perspective. So he's going over the he's going over the road isn't that amazing? This is extraordinary. So that's a car park I'm sure like you said but I'd be really interested to know where it is. With ornamental trees to feed on in the heart of the city this flying fox doesn't need to go far. By first light our filming flying foxes are back in the roost hanging alongside their neighbours. So what do Wayne and Terry make of their first foray into the flying foxes night time world? I don't know whether I really had any full idea of what we might actually see. You know this is incredible. We're seeing flying foxes flying around and seeing what they're doing like we've never seen it before. Importantly our cameras have revealed that our flying foxes at least aren't targeting commercial fruit. It suggests that grey headed flying foxes have simply relocated to Adelaide not because of its outlying crops but because of the many other food resources on offer in the city. The footage has also revealed unexpected insights for Wayne and Terry. You know it's certainly given us a great deal to work with. You watch these animals from the ground and you try and imagine what it's like and you see them feeding in trees but yeah I wouldn't have imagined you would ever see that you know from a bats point of view it's just remarkable technology. Our cameras have not only changed our understanding of Adelaide's population but of grey headed flying foxes Their ability to relocate and adapt to new foods are invaluable survival strategies.