Bertie Gregory has followed one wolf pack for seven years. In National Geographic‘s new arctic wolves documentary, Wolves Up Close With Bertie Gregory, the British wildlife filmmaker and photographer travels to Hudson Bay, Canada, to film wolves in the Arctic. He spoke with PetaPixel about the project and what it taught him.
The wolves are the centerpiece, but the show covers much more of the Arctic. Polar bears, red foxes, and moose all appear, each filmed in close and careful detail.
Nature rarely follows a plan, Gregory says. He arrives with a script he has written, and the animals ignore it from the first day. “It doesn’t read the script,” he says with a laugh. That frustrates him, but it also means anything can happen on camera.
Working near large predators
In one sequence, a pair of polar bears comes close enough to Gregory and his small crew to make viewers uneasy. Gregory is less concerned. He credits the local guides, Mike Reimer and Albert “Butch” Saunders, with keeping the team safe.
Gregory’s polar bear encounters pair well with Audun Rikardsen’s Award-Winning Polar Bear Under Arctic Ice, a prize-winning image of the same animal in its frozen habitat.
Gregory says he never felt nervous around the wolves during the arctic wolves documentary shoot. They often walked up to the crew to take a look. The polar bears and moose were a different matter, he concedes. “They’re potentially dangerous animals,” he says.
He then makes a sharper point. People are the greater risk, he argues, and statistically more dangerous than a polar bear or a moose. Reading body language is the key to staying safe, and he says the guides were essential to that.
The cold may have crowded out fear. “Any time during the episode, I was cold,” Gregory says. “I was feeling cold.”
As a trained professional, Gregory experienced more than physical proximity to his subjects. He also developed an emotional connection, particularly with the wolves. Over seven years with the same pack, he says, that bond became impossible to avoid.
Breaking with the detached approach
Older wildlife documentaries generally required filmmakers to keep their distance, both physically and emotionally. Gregory does not accept that rule.
“We’re trained not to,” he says. “We’re told not to get attached because you can’t get involved, but I think that’s BS.” In his view, following an animal family for seven years without caring about it is not possible. “I think if you don’t care about them, you’re pretty weird.”
Gregory does not try to build a relationship with the wolves. He knows the feeling is one-sided, since the animals have no stake in the crew. “I care about them,” he says.
Gregory sees two ways to film wildlife. A filmmaker can hide so the animals never learn of their presence. Or the animals can know the crew is there and tolerate it. With this pack, the second option worked. “They see us as kind of a part of the landscape.”
Viewers can sense his affection in this arctic wolves documentary. That affection shapes how he films the animals, and the result is better for it.
He compares this to handmade gifts. A bowl thrown by someone who cares, or a drawing from a child, carries a quality you can feel. Work made with love, he says, is easy to recognize.
Gregory believes any wildlife documentary made with “real immense care and admiration for the animal” has a special quality. He adds that such feeling does not need to be forced onto the screen.
“I don’t think you need to try too hard to illustrate that. It just comes through naturally.”
A policy fight over wolves
Gregory wonders why animals so close to pet dogs are treated so poorly. The federal government is weighing a proposal to delist gray wolves and Mexican wolves from the Endangered Species Act. If it goes ahead, the change would remove the protections that helped wolves recover across the United States.
“That’s just so dumb on so many levels,” Gregory says. He urges viewers who care about wolves to contact politicians and people with influence. Wolves matter for wild places, he says, and they reflect something about humanity too.
He also points out a contradiction. People welcome the domestic dog, the wolf’s closest living relative, into their homes and beds. Yet they treat the wild wolf harshly.
Rare drone footage in the arctic wolves documentary
One sequence in the arctic wolves documentary gave Gregory and his crew a rare moment. A drone captured a pack of wolves chasing down a moose. National Geographic shared a clip of the footage with PetaPixel.
Gregory believes no person in that area had ever seen such a scene. Mike Reimer, he says, has watched wolves for 30 years and had never seen anything like it. “We combined amazing traditional knowledge with new technology,” Gregory says. “Old school with new school, working together.”
Encounters this unexpected are rare, and the animal kingdom keeps surprising observers. For another striking moment, see Octopus Riding a Dolphin Off the UK Coast, an odd partnership recorded in the wild.
The wolf in the drone footage is Kona, a pack leader Gregory has watched mature over the years. Butch Saunders gave him the name. Kona latched onto one of the moose’s rear legs during the attempt to bring it down.
Gregory initially thought the footage would be hard to believe. Then he worried Kona might not survive the strain on his body. “It just goes to show how tough these animals are,” he says.
Kona did survive. Later in the show, Gregory looks at the aging wolf and considers how quickly the years have passed. Arctic winters are long and hard, and they arrive again before anyone expects.
Time will soon take the leadership role from Kona. Yet in the footage, he still moves with the force that made him the pack’s leader. Wolves Up Close With Bertie Gregory, this arctic wolves documentary, premieres November 6 on National Geographic and streams the next day on Hulu and Disney+.
Source: petapixel.com
Frequently asked questions
Where was the Wolves Up Close With Bertie Gregory documentary filmed?
The documentary was filmed in Hudson Bay, Canada, where Gregory traveled to film wolves in the Arctic. Polar bears, red foxes, and moose also appear in the show.
Does Bertie Gregory think filmmakers should stay emotionally detached from animals?
No, Gregory rejects the detached approach that wildlife filmmakers are often trained to follow. He says that after seven years with the same wolf pack, he could not avoid caring about them.
Who helped keep Bertie Gregory’s team safe around polar bears?
Local guides Mike Reimer and Albert “Butch” Saunders helped keep the team safe. Gregory says the guides were essential for reading animal body language.
What wolf protection change is the federal government considering?
The federal government is weighing a proposal to delist gray wolves and Mexican wolves from the Endangered Species Act. If it goes ahead, the change would remove protections that helped wolves recover across the United States.
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