How do nature documentaries avoid disrupting the animals?
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They use telescopic lenses, so they can film from far away.
If they are showing you up close action it is probably staged.
I did a snake-handling course a while back and the guy said one of his biggest incomes was doing nature documentaries.
He had a huge collection of poisons snakes to milk for the production of anti-venom.
He explained how he would let the snake slither through a pipe so the head came out the other end so they could stage the snakes’ movement for documentaries. Just move the pipe around and keep the dangerous end away from people.
It then all comes down to angles and editing.
We have a lion park just around the corner from us with some almost tame lions. Only killed a few tourists who they didn’t know. These big cats have also been hired out to shoot documentaries. They will drive them to a location that looks good and put down a horse carcase film the lions eating it.
Then again mounted cameras, clearly placed cameras, clever editing and camera angles you have some footage of lions on a kill.
Not all documentaries are shot like this but if it is close up overly likely they are using captive animals who are used to being handled. As stated elsewhere, animals also have routines that are easy to follow.
In the national parks here in South Africa, the game rangers also know how to track and locate animals. They do this for a living, it can take them a few hours to track down a target.
As the animals become used to vehicles they no longer take notice and it becomes easier to use vehicle-mounted cameras to film them.
I have been on game drives where I could reach out with my hand and touch rhino, elephant. and other antelope. We were that close. These animals are so conditioned to the vehicles the game rangers use its easy to drive right into the middle of the herd. Yet if you climb out of the vehicle or move too much the animals become disturbed. They can become aggressive and attack. We have been chased by lion, rhino, elephant and buffelo before.
It is easy to get really good shots if you film in situations like this. Not hard at all.
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