Revealing the hidden world of a maned wolf's den
By Luke Nelson, cameraman for Deserts and Grasslands
filming inside a maned wolf鈥檚 den had never been attempted before
It was a steamy, hot Tuesday in the Cerrado grasslands of Brazil, and we had been attempting to track Nhorinha, a mother maned wolf to her den all morning.
As the morning mist lifted and the heat began to swell, both she and the filming crew came to a grinding halt, retreating into our relative shelter. Nhorinha was resting in a thick mound of folded dried grass, and we the crew settled in a small (very hot) cotton filming hide. As we waited, I reflected on what we were trying to do – I was full of anticipation and couldn’t sit still – by working with pioneering scientists, we hoped to film inside Nhorinhas den. It would offer a glimpse into the early stages of a maned wolf’s life, but filming inside a maned wolf’s den had never been attempted before. After three years of planning with scientists we had a strategy that might work. A specially designed remote camera afforded us this prospect, but it wasn’t going to be easy, first we had to find the den and we needed Nhorinha to lead us there.
As the sun began to set Nhorinha finally started moving – with the help of tracking data from her radio collar (fitted by scientists studying maned wolves) we put the drone up and followed her movements in the long grass – was she going to take us to the den? My hand trembled with excitement as I carefully manoeuvred the drone. She went into the thickest patch of long grass and disappeared, I thought we had lost her, but I noticed some movement and she re-appeared, carrying a pup in her mouth! This was the den location and our first glimpse of her precious family - the first piece in the puzzle for our filming goal.
I found a small hollow in the grass
The next morning, we left before first light, ready to rig the den cameras. Once we were near the den location, we needed to check that Nhorinha wasn’t there. The scientists didn’t pick up her signal, Mum wasn’t at the den, and we could go in.
My heart pounding, I carefully crawled my way through a maze of thick, grass that stood over 1m high - the stems lacerating my face, it was disorientating but I kept calm and navigated the path the mother maned wolf had used the day before.
It was a huge responsibility as we had no prior knowledge of what the den even looked like and no documented footage to guide us. We wanted to tread as lightly as possible in their sensitive den area, to ensure we didn't disturb the puppies, and leave as quickly as possible to the safety of our hide.
I found a small hollow in the grass and it seemed likely that this could be the main den chamber, so I placed the small cameras in position whilst Barbara, the maned wolf scientist, continued to swivel the head of the telemetry mast - giving me comforting updates that the protective mother was not nearby. I had thought about this moment for so many days and now that I was here, it was like clockwork. We ran our cable, concealing it in the grass as best we could, getting back to the hide, now we just had to power the system up from 100m away and hope for the best. There could be no return trip to wipe the lens or move a blade of grass out of the way, it would have to be framed perfectly first time – no pressure! As I powered and plugged in all the devices, cable to cable, port to port, a live image appeared, we were looking into the den of a maned wolf and to my joy the frame looked good. My adrenaline and excitement levels were at an all-time high and we marvelled at the privileged intimate view of their world from our hide.
The team left me to film alone, with a sat phone, radio, coffee and snacks. I had just enough space to lie down on a yoga matt and peer sideways at my live den cam, waiting to hit record. The team went out of radio range, I went into wishful thinking mode.
Almost instantly the first pup wandered into the cameras view, inspected the area and plonked itself in the middle of the frame, I could barely believe my eyes – but it was short lived. Every day was the same, wake up at 4am, get into the hide before dawn, turn the camera on, wait for the mist to clear on the lens, sit back and wait. I remember staring at the frame so much that I actually imagined the scene unfolding. I was desperate to see the maned wolf family and I played it over and over again in my head. Delusional and hot, I sat back and drank more tea, finding it increasingly tough to concentrate in the heat but feeling happy and excited in my own den. It took hours and hours before I saw all three pups together, but what I desperately wanted was to film them with their Mum too.
I had been watching beautiful pups come in and out of the main den chamber for a couple of days. It was incredible to see, and it kept me feeling hopeful mum would return to her babies. Watching them was so entertaining, they would scuffle and bite each other’s ears, and bump the cameras, sometimes stare down the barrel, knock it about - I nervously hoped they wouldn’t hit it and change my frame.
I heard a tiny audible yelp, 鈥渟he鈥檚 here, she鈥檚 here鈥�
On day 3, Kiri and the team brought me lunch and I took a well needed break. We still hadn’t seen mum, presumably she had been in, but not in sight of the cameras, or perhaps visiting at night. After watching the screen for so long , I had square eyes, so Kiri the director took over for a few minutes as I scoffed down some lunch, sitting outside in the fresh air. Kiri had only hopped in to monitor the empty screen for a few minutes when I heard a tiny audible yelp, “she’s here, she’s here” ... I dived back into the hide. Mum was in the den in front of the camera, and we were recording - I couldn’t believe it - it happened whist I wasn’t there! We all huddled around as mum called in the pups and started to suckle, inside I was bursting! Barbara, the maned wolf scientist was in a trance, she had never seen this, no-one had! It was a huge moment. Nhorinha had sat exactly where I had envisioned and dreamed, for the past 3 scorching days. The team eventually dropped back and left me, they would pick me up later, so I was left filming the maned wolf family alone – it felt like such a privilege.
Under my breath I whooped and cheered, quietly every time Nhorinha moved and did something new, the action continued and the pups played, it was all going extremely well… Until one of the pups jumped onto the camera and spun the zoom barrel. It drastically altered the frame and pointed it in the wrong direction. As this happened the pups and mother moved slightly, and it gave me an entirely different frame. To my surprise it worked perfectly, it felt like a small collaboration between the pup and I!
Elated, and almost in tears with excitement, the day drew to a close, the sun dipped and the sky turned iridescent. I packed up for the day eager to show the others, my heart was full. The crew and scientists arrived and without saying too much, we all came together to look at the extraordinary footage. This experience had filled me with pride as a wildlife filmmaker, filming firsts are few and far between but most importantly, every minute of footage from the den could now be used to help the scientists understand more about this endangered species – something that will help protect them, and in all honesty nothing will ever beat sharing that footage with the scientists who are dedicated to this incredible animal!
