Experts on television nature shows admit they often try to help stricken animals they are filming

... and once even saved a baby penguin from a melted ice hole

• Experts on nature shows say they agonise over whether to help animals
• Some admit helping stricken creatures if it does not interfere with nature 
• Cameraman Doug Allan said he once saved a penguin from melted ice hole

By Steph Cockroft for MailOnline

Published: 27 September 2015

BBC filmmakers have admitted coming to the rescue of stricken animals while filming some of the most heartbreaking scenes in nature documentaries.

Experts working on Springwatch and Autumnwatch say they constantly agonise over whether to save animals from perilous situations - and often decide to do so if it does not interfere with nature's intended path.

Doug Allan, David Attenborough's favourite cameraman, said he once saved a baby penguin by picking it out of a melted ice hole and putting it back on its feet.

BBC filmmakers such as Doug Allan, who filmed these emperor penguins for the Blue Planet, have admitted helping animals while filming nature shows

And Martin Hughes-Games, who presents Springwatch, said his team had once caused 'absolute uproar' after intervening while a bird's nest was being flooded.

Martin Hughes-Games, who presents Springwatch, said his team had once caused 'absolute uproar' after intervening with a bird's nest being flooded.

Speaking at the Radio Times Festival at Hampton Court, he said: 'Half the people said, "why didn't you intervene", and others then said, "you shouldn't have intervened."

'We're respectful of nature. But it's incredibly hard not to intervene.

'We probably spend more time debating that than anything else on the Watches.'

Allan, who is behind some of the most famed polar scenes, admitted tending to some animals, provided it did not upset the natural balance.

'For me, at least, my job is to look and not interfere,' The Telegraph reported him as saying.

'If I feel my presence is tilting the balance of the predator or the prey, then I'm doing something wrong.' 

Steve Leonard, a television vet, also told the audience that letting nature takes its course was one of the 'hardest things to face'.

'We have to recognise that these injured animals are somebody else's lunch, I'm afraid,' he said.

Meanwhile Alistair Fothergrill, the producer of nature series including Planet Earth, said his next show The Hunt, due to air on the BBC in November, would shine the spotlight on predators to allow viewers to sympathise with both the hunter and hunted.


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