Earth Tales Interview

Wildlife director - Daniel Hunter

Welcome to EARTH TALES! A series of interviews and ‘Tales from the Earth’ from inspirational people whom are making a stance in the travel, sports and animal kingdom. We’ll be interviewing poignant people from travel & wildlife photographers, film and documentary makers, explorers, conservationists, biologists and adventurers.

In our 5th EARTH TALES Interview - we are delighted to be speaking to wildlife director - Daniel Hunter.

Daniel, not only a cameraman and wildlife director but combined with his company ‘The Natural History Unit’, based in Victoria, Australia he has worked on and filmed some of the most outstanding wildlife documentaries ever seen.

His work includes David Attenborough’s/BBC ‘Seven Worlds One Planet’, Nat Geo’s - Hostile Planet (Bats vs Crocodiles and Red Kangaroos), Nat Geo’s - Dino Bird, BBC’s - Cities: Natures New Wild, ABC/France 5 - Wonder of Marsupials and Nat Geo’s - Over Australia.

Awards include the Australian Cinematography Society Gold Award (VIC) - Bats and crocodiles (Hostile Planet).

Delve into Dan’s world and read more about his fascinating Tales from the Earth…..

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The Cassowary Bird (Photo: Camille Couvez)

BW: Dan, it's great to be talking to you in the midst of Seven Worlds One Planet! Such a poignant and incredible series. Which animals and episode did you concentrate on?

Daniel: Thank you for having me! Along with my business partner and friend Edward Saltau, we were the principal camera operators on the Australia episode of 7WOP (Seven Worlds One Planet). Ed and I work as a team and together we filmed the cassowary sequence, Tasmanian devils, wombats and kangaroos in snow, drone and some long lens of the dingoes hunting kangaroos sequences as well as some long lens in the budgerigar sequence. We also filmed the rock art sequence at the end of the program. It was a massive job over a couple of years but it was one of the greatest experiences of my life to be able to travel all over Australia and help to create a wonderful program such as this.

BW: Tell us about that. How long does it take to film each segment on each animal story?

Daniel: There’s an enormous amount of variation in the time required to film an individual sequence. As you can imagine, some animals are much easier to film than others, sometimes the story demands more weeks in the field and, of course, things go wrong unexpectedly which can force a shoot to extend much longer than intended. For example, the cassowary sequence too about 6 weeks all up to film all up. About half way through we had massive rains in the Daintree and we were forced to temporarily abandon the filming until the rains stopped. Once we were able to get back into the rainforest we realised that one of the cassowary chicks we were filming had died. It was probably killed in the floods. This seemed to have affected the father and he went into hiding. We had to then use camera traps to learn where he was and what his new habits were. Basically, each shoot is really different and this is what makes each shoot very interesting. They are often like a a puzzle with a series of problems which need to be solved in order to finish the sequence and sometimes we have to come up with novel solutions and ideas to figure how we’re going to capture the footage we need.

BW: What has been you favorite and most touching moment in filming any wild animal?

Daniel: For me, I think filming dingoes for Seven Worlds has been the standout. For the Seven Worlds sequence I was able to spend a few weeks filming the mother’s den waiting for her pups to emerge. It was a wonderful opportunity to spend lots of time in the hide waiting for the pups begin to emerge and explore their world. Dingoes are heavily persecuted animals because they do attack livestock, just like wolves in North America and Europe. So any opportunity to see them behaving naturally in the wild up close and personal is rare and something very special. I was fortunate enough to be able to study the effects of dingoes as part of my PhD. Ironically, I didn’t spend a great deal of time actually observing dingoes themselves but rather looking at their effects on and in the ecosystem on plants and animals. To finally spend a great deal of time with these animals was just so satisfying.

BW: For all our readers who would like to get into filming documentaries, tell us your story! What made you get into film?

The Cassowary Bird (Photo: Gilles Rolland-Monnet)

Daniel: My story is probably quite cliche so apologies if it induces any yawns! I spent a lot of time at my grandma’s house as a little fella and she loved birds. We would watch David Attenborough films and read Australian Geographic magazines for hours on end. Thirty years on, I’ve been lucky enough to help make the very same films I grew up loving. My path into wildlife cinematography specifically is a little bit convoluted. I did a zoology degree and a few years later went to Otago Uni in New Zealand to study the Masters of Science Communication (natural history filmmaking). That course gave me a basic understanding of story, camera techniques, etc. I dilly-dallied as a freelance camera operator and then the lure of research pulled me back in. I moved to Sydney and did my PhD on the role of dingoes in forest ecosystems in Australia which I loved. While I was finishing this, my mate and now colleague and I wrote a film script about cassowaries which was eventually picked up by National Geographic (Dino Bird) and then I progressed from there. I now run a business with Ed Saltau called the Natural History Unit and our speciality is Australian wildlife and we shoot for international broadcasters like BBC, Nat Geo, Netflix, etc.

BW: Tell us about the world's oldest rainforest and what it was like filming the Cassowary Bird? They are known as the worlds most dangerous bird, is this true and what was it like being in such close proximity to them?

Daniel: Cassowary are not as dangerous as they’re hyped up to be. That said, I would not want to get between a male cassowary and his chick! He’d happily remove your stomach for you, haha. They’re incredible animals. To see them behaving naturally in the world’s oldest continuous surviving area of rainforest is honestly one of my most precious experiences. They’re incredibly elusive and it takes weeks for them to allow you to see them in their rainforest. They have an enormous presence both spiritually and physically - one which is very hard to describe in words.

BW: If you could film anywhere or anything in the world, what would it be and why?

Daniel: I’ve always loved Nepal. After visiting the Royal Chitwan National Park I was blown away by the diversity of the megafauna. It is a stunning area. However, the thing that grabs me the most about Chitwan is the fact that when you enter that National Park (on foot) you become part of the food chain. You become a weak and vulnerable human. Without a car, a gun, a knife - you’re just a meal for a tiger, a hinderance for a rhino and a play toy for a sloth bear. For me to be able to potentially see tigers, rhinos, elephants, crocodiles, leopards, monkeys, etc, in one place is simply remarkable. The landscape reminded me of the Jungle Book and one day I’d love to go back there with a camera and a shot list!

BW: As so many animals are critically endangered, which animal do you think needs our support the most?

Daniel: It’s very hard for me to speak on a global scale as I haven’t worked or researched in many other countries. Additionally, it’s also quite difficult to have to pick a particular animal to save or focus on whilst ignoring others. However, I realise that sometimes triage is important and I don’t think conservation efforts are exempt from this. For me, (i’m biased) the dingo is the one in most need of our help. It is persecuted because of the fact that they attack livestock from time to time. Regardless of this fact, they are also Australia’s largest predator and they are a keystone species. Like wolves for instance, their effects are far reaching and when we remove dingoes through poisoning, shooting, trapping, etc we also destabilise the ecosystem completely and allow herbivore populations to explode and decimate the vegetation and habitat. Research shows that in areas where dingoes have been removed the ecosystem degraded and has a less diverse mammal assemblage. What’s more, dingoes are at risk of hybridisation with domestic dogs gone wild. This threatens their genetic integrity. The dingo is Australia’s most divisive native species but it is also one of our most beautiful and iconic, one worthy of our very best conservation efforts I think.

BW: If you could change one world problem, what would it be and why?

Daniel: I think it’d have to be the changing climate. It is the elephant in the room. The stalling and debating has gone on for long enough. This issue is so massive that it effects any and every other issue I could have chosen. In Australia we’ve got a terrible Prime Minister and his government is doing next to nothing about the changing climate while half of our country is burning with wildfires out of control. We should be leading the charge with renewable energy production and it’s technologies in Australia but we’re hell bent on propping up the coal industry. This needs to change.

BW: We love off the beaten path travel here and would love to know where you would recommend us to travel to next, that has rarely been traveled to?

Daniel: Come to Australia and embrace 60000 years of Indigenous history. Check out our deserts, rainforests, reefs and enjoy the incredible biodiversity we have while it still lasts. For me, coming home to Australia is the best part of going away!