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This week BBC Studios Africa hosted a South African media contingent at the IMAX Mall of Africa in Johannesburg for an exclusive screening of Chimpanzee, the first of five episodes in the landmark Dynasties series.
Narrated by the one of the most trusted voices in television, Sir David Attenborough, and filmed by the BBC Studios award winning Natural History Unit, Dynasties highlights five endangered species – lion, chimpanzees, wild dogs, the tiger and Emperor Penguin – in what has been hailed as some of the most exceptional wildlife filming that has ever been seen.
Shot over four years in iconic locations with state-of-the-art lenses, new stabilised camera technology, equipment and tech, the footage is emotive and riveting with a dramatic soundscape, giving viewers rare insight into the incredible realities of these creature communities.
Unlike previous nature programmes that typically cover multiple stories per show, each Dynasties episode tells a single story with an in-depth focus on a particular animal, except in the case of the penguin programme.
Chimpanzee, produced and directed by Rosie Thomas and filmed brilliantly by John Brown, follows David, the alpha male of a habituated community of Fongoli Chimps in an extreme environment known as the Kedougou Region of South East Senegal on the edge of the Sahara.
The small crew traipsed after the apes daily for two years (13 trips), a total of 309 days, enduring countless vehicle breakdowns, sweat, bees and snakes, lugging 80 kilograms of gear in 40 degree temperatures as they trekked across 92 square kilometres of chimp territory.
“It was tough going, with long days on foot (we walked 2400km altogether) and high heats, but the group took us on an incredible journey of power struggles, friendships and politics, all shot against one of the most unusual landscapes I have ever seen chimps in,” Thomas said.
She added that none of this could have been achieved without the team of Senegalese experts on the ground and American anthropologist Jill Preutz, who has spent the past 20 years observing the troop and was instrumental in the unit’s choice of this particular chimp group at a critical turning point in their society.
The challenge faced by all wildlife and chimpanzees, on the critically endangered list since 2017, is habitat loss, human conflict and rampant consumer consumption.
Last month the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reported that earth is losing biodiversity at a rate seen only during mass extinctions, with a 60% loss in vertebrate species alone. Eco collapse and population is a bleak reality, and programmes like these challenge global complacency, corporate ethics and are a call to action.
Dynasties presents these charismatic animals and their families in ways they’ve never been seen before and is one of the most extraordinary passages of drama, seldom seen in wildlife documentary making.
- Dynasties begins on Sunday, November 18 on BBC Brit (DStv 120) and BBC Lifestyle (DStv 174), at 4pm.
- Follow @allisonfoat
