I’d like to start by telling you about
this place this is the west coast of
Vancouver Island in British Columbia
Canada and I was lucky enough to first
visit this place back in 2011 and whilst
I was there I fell in love with this
animal she is a female
coastal gray wolf I don’t know about you
but when I think of wolves I think of
snow-covered mountains I think of
Yellowstone National Park of Ronan
Donovan legendary wolf photographer but
these guys are completely different they
live off the ocean up to 90% of their
diet comes from the ocean they fish
barnacles mussels clams even washed-up
whales they live this incredible
existence and this particular day will
stay with me forever because it was the
first time I’d ever got close to a
coastal wolf up to this point every time
I tried to sneak up on them or get close
in my little rubber boat
they’d slink off into the forest they
really were the ghosts of this coast but
for some reason on this particular day
she was confident enough to hang out
with me and because it was the first
time I got close to her I was shaking
with adrenaline wasn’t cuz I was scared
there’s no reason to be scared of wolves
it was because I was so excited luckily
she was very relaxed she relaxed she
yawned she stuck her tongue out and it
meant I could stop taking very shaky
pictures now I could take sharp pictures
the only problem was towards the end of
her yawn she did this and my blood got
pumping again and I went back to taking
blurry pictures now this female is the
leader of her pack she’s the alpha
female issues with the alpha male and
you can see the the coastal you know
home that they live in and in this pack
there were nine individuals including
four very very cute pups three of them
are pictured here whether with the alpha
female bear they’re just beautifully
camouflaged now it was such an honor you
know so special to have this secret
window into the you know the hidden
lives of coastal wolves it’s something
that very few people on the planet have
experienced so I felt incredibly
grateful that that that happened now
about six months after I returned home I
received one of the most horrible
messages I’ve ever received
kids attached to that message was this
picture that wolf and one of her pups
had been shot and thrown in a local
fishing village dumpster
now if she’d been called Cecil if she’d
been a lion there would have been outcry
across the world but because she’s a
coastal wolf not many people know about
coastal wolves so who cares
and so absolutely nothing happened and
this happens far too often with wildlife
we’ve got to find more ways to live
alongside it particularly with these big
predators and I think the first step
towards doing that is valuing them more
so ever since then ever since I got that
message I knew I had to return to
Vancouver Island firstly to show how
awesome these coastal wolves are but
also use them as flagships to to
celebrate the amazing west coast
ecosystem within which they live so I
had a grant from the scientific
exploration Society in the UK and I had
a young explorers grant from the
National graphic society here I pitched
to National Geographic a series and this
now has become NatGeo world’s first
digital series so where is Vancouver
Island let’s zoom in so it’s just off
Main Line Canada near the US border and
I was about halfway up on the west coast
and it’s an amazing amazing ecosystem
in the winter it’s absolutely hammered
by waves it’s one of the best places in
the world for storm watching and that
you can see you’ve got this wave vatted
Pacific West Coast and then there’s
rainforest coated mountains that drop
straight down to the shoreline it’s not
tropical rainforest it’s temperate
rainforest and you know it’s incredibly
green incredibly luscious and behind
that wave battered front line is this
never-ending network of sheltered see
inlets and that’s one of the best places
to find animals now crazy landscape by
itself but to then be packed full of you
know big sexy charismatic animals from
you know gray whales to humpback whales
these are 45 tons 50 feet long they’re
absolute Giants – bald eagles and these
guys are a master fisherman and they’re
also huge they’ve got a massive wingspan
6 feet wingspan and then there’s the key
to stuff now I think if sea otters is
like the Derek Zoolander’s of the the
animal kingdom they’re always pulling
opposed this guy hasn’t quite mastered
blue steel but he’s getting there so
it’s a bit of a pout and this guy’s this
guy think of he’s stretching out a bit
of a calf cramp yeah they’re awesome but
if you think sea otters are cute or
raccoons the bandits the mass bandits
they’re on another level now I have a
bit of a crazy theory about raccoons I
believe they are plotting the end of the
world
now they were pretty shocked to hear
that I discovered their plan and the
only thing they could really do after
they discovered I’d foiled their plan
was to go and get a drink at the bar
so as I said it’s is temperate
rainforest this place so it’s pretty
much impenetrable to go walking
especially with you know big cameras and
tripods so I was searching for the
Wolves in my little 12 zodiac it was
called striker
I was filming mainly from the boat from
the water but where possible I did get
out on land and I spent a lot of time in
blinds and having had those amazing
experiences with coastal wolves in the
past I went into this pretty confident
that I could find coastal wolves but
they were just giving me the runaround I
was getting absolutely nothing they were
you know ghosts now this Coast receives
a huge amount of rainfall and often it’s
difficult to stay out when the weather
is miserable but I had this um you know
this idea that I needed to stay out in
all conditions because you know that
could be when when you get lucky so this
is a myself in a little hail storm this
is really nice
it wasn’t it was miserable now this
particular area of shoreline is really
cool because it’s a sanctuary for about
eight females and of course females
means Cubs and the best part about these
particular bears was that the only thing
that they’re scared of is a bigger bear
or a pack of wolves and the only place
that comes from is the forest so if
you’re on a boat on the water they
completely ignore you and that’s awesome
because you can get really really close
and film natural behavior and you can
get really really close this is a
juvenile bear that was actually got a
little bit curious came over to check me
out where possible I did get out on land
to walk with the Bears now when a bear
comes really close it’s important to
stay calm and with black bears I should
say and just have a chat with it because
if you have a chat with it it’s relaxed
you’re relaxed everyone’s safe okay
we’re here we’re here okay that’s a good
bear go around
okay go around
go around good and then everyone’s happy
when I first went to Vancouver Island I
wanted to get my camera even closer than
this so whilst I was a high school I
built this
it’s called bear box and it’s basically
an indestructible housing for my camera
and this is me Anna my design and
technology teacher mr. Sullivan and this
was the first shot taken inside bear box
we didn’t really know how the Bears were
going to react it turns out they kind of
liked it but it did mean that I could
get the camera really really close to
them with a wide-angle lens so they’re
big in the frame with their habitat
behind and you can see here that they’re
walking on on the shoreline like
clockwork these bears would come out of
the forest every day at low tide when
the water in the inlets goes out to
forage they were foraging in a pretty
cool way so I’m just going to let a
little clip from from episode 2 explain
what they were doing come out nice and
early this morning to look for bears
it’s nice and clear so I can see a long
long way yeah we got a bat on the
shoreline just a
awesome right we’re gonna approach
slowly and hopefully it hangs out
yeah really excited
you might be wondering why a bear would
hang out on the shoreline or why it’s
flipping rocks so many rocks I just
found out this is a young male bear
because he has a big set of balls
what he’s on the hunt for his next meal
craps
lots and lots of crap
so I was having great luck with the
Bears you know filling them on the rocky
shore but still the Wolves were giving
me the runaround wildlife is weird when
you try and film or photograph it
because had I said you know I want to
make a film about black bears well I
would have seen no black bears and loads
of coastal wolves that’s just you know
how it works and all the other animals
were putting on an amazing show you have
really cool encounters with Orca kill
whales Yorker in this particular area
are transient and one of their favorite
foods are these guys stellar sea lions
now these sea lions are pretty
formidable predators in their own right
the males are not very pretty they can
be 2,000 pounds 11 feet long they’re
absolute monsters and when they’re on
land they’re pretty ugly there’s just
these big fat blobs of blubber and I
wanted to make an episode about them but
I didn’t think it was fair to only film
them when they were hauled out on the
rocky shore so I decided to get in the
water with them and I wasn’t really sure
how they were going to react to the
camera and the lights and things um
turns out they kind of liked me now this
doesn’t look like a brilliant situation
to be in
so I’m going to let a little clip
explain what exactly is going on
that was amazing we we sat right down on
the bottom on the sand and their massive
iron of 15-20 of them all around us at
one point I had one over either shoulder
and then one gripped me on the head and
squeezed and squeezed up okay that’s a
little bit hard but the whole time it
doesn’t feel like they’re being
aggressive it feels like I mean they
don’t have arms is they want to know
what a new song key object feels like it
can’t use the hands didn’t have any they
gotta just have a little bite and so
it’s very much a loving tender bite
rather than an aggressive I want to eat
you bite now ironically it was actually
one of the smallest sea lions on this
rocky haul out that came closest to
killing me I was suspicious of this
particular sea lion because all the
others went around in groups whereas
this one always went by it you know went
around by itself and it learned that
grabbing on my regulator hose my
breathing hose and pulling out of my
mouth was really fun because it made
bubbles that it could then play in now
of course this was scary the first time
but once I kind of worked out what he
was doing I flipped the camera around so
I could see him coming in the reflection
of my underwater housing I could see him
coming over my shoulder and yeah I tried
to catch him in the act
little rascals so I wasn’t having much
luck with the wolf so decided to mix
things up and travelled further up the
coast and went to this really remote
island the only way really of getting in
there at this time of year was was by
floatplane
this was my badass pilot Doug and he
could basically get us into to anywhere
he dropped us off on this incredibly
beautiful section of coastline this
great bit of Beach so we set up camp and
we were miles and miles from from
civilization so we often left the tent
doors open at night so that we could you
know see the Milky Way and yeah it was
really really cool this is a time-lapse
and this isn’t actually the Sun rising
that’s the moon rising in the middle of
the night and which was kind of cool
nice surprise so I set up a blind the
weather wasn’t great to start with set
up a blind basically to break up my
human outline animals including wolves
are evolutionary programmed to be scared
of our head and shoulder shape so you
set up a blind break up that outline and
the idea is they don’t know that that
you’re there so this was in the hide
everything was lovely
well twelve days later things weren’t
going great
I saw absolutely nothing so many
beautiful sunrises beautiful sunsets
bald eagles flying paths black bears
kingfishers everything apart from
coastal wolves and we decided to pull
the plug and move to her to a new
location and just as we were doing so we
realized why we might not have seen any
coastal wolves now if you look up in the
top of that picture it’s big big section
of logging now I knew that there was
logging on Vancouver Island but I didn’t
really expect to see it and to actually
be waiting for wolves and to be able to
put your fingers in your ears and look
out over this beautiful coast take your
fingers at your is and you can hear
chainsaws and trees and machinery so we
walked up to see what the logging was
like and
don’t want to point the finger at you no
loggers um I guess that the one thing
that you know it’s yeah we’re all part
of this problem we all use paper we all
use wood I guess the one thing I would
say is that when I was in high school we
were taught that you know the cutting
down of rainforests happened in the
Amazon you know in a faraway place and
it was a problem that was difficult to
deal with well you know this is the
logging of temperate rainforest that
tree that I’m sitting on was cut down
maybe that day a few days earlier could
be 500 years old other trees there are a
thousand years old and I think in the
21st century there’s got to be an
alternative to cutting down you know
these old-growth temperate rainforests
on this you know this coastline this is
on the developed world’s doorstep if we
can’t look after this place what hope
does does anywhere else have so this was
was pretty upsetting so I went back to
my tent I got in my happy place I
snuggled with my cameras and regrouped
and two days later this happened now I’m
not actually allowed to tell you what
happened next if you’d like to find out
you’re going to have to follow the rest
of the series I’d just like to thank you
all for coming that’s all I’ve got to
say I hope you have a great rest of your
evening
you
this place this is the west coast of
Vancouver Island in British Columbia
Canada and I was lucky enough to first
visit this place back in 2011 and whilst
I was there I fell in love with this
animal she is a female
coastal gray wolf I don’t know about you
but when I think of wolves I think of
snow-covered mountains I think of
Yellowstone National Park of Ronan
Donovan legendary wolf photographer but
these guys are completely different they
live off the ocean up to 90% of their
diet comes from the ocean they fish
barnacles mussels clams even washed-up
whales they live this incredible
existence and this particular day will
stay with me forever because it was the
first time I’d ever got close to a
coastal wolf up to this point every time
I tried to sneak up on them or get close
in my little rubber boat
they’d slink off into the forest they
really were the ghosts of this coast but
for some reason on this particular day
she was confident enough to hang out
with me and because it was the first
time I got close to her I was shaking
with adrenaline wasn’t cuz I was scared
there’s no reason to be scared of wolves
it was because I was so excited luckily
she was very relaxed she relaxed she
yawned she stuck her tongue out and it
meant I could stop taking very shaky
pictures now I could take sharp pictures
the only problem was towards the end of
her yawn she did this and my blood got
pumping again and I went back to taking
blurry pictures now this female is the
leader of her pack she’s the alpha
female issues with the alpha male and
you can see the the coastal you know
home that they live in and in this pack
there were nine individuals including
four very very cute pups three of them
are pictured here whether with the alpha
female bear they’re just beautifully
camouflaged now it was such an honor you
know so special to have this secret
window into the you know the hidden
lives of coastal wolves it’s something
that very few people on the planet have
experienced so I felt incredibly
grateful that that that happened now
about six months after I returned home I
received one of the most horrible
messages I’ve ever received
kids attached to that message was this
picture that wolf and one of her pups
had been shot and thrown in a local
fishing village dumpster
now if she’d been called Cecil if she’d
been a lion there would have been outcry
across the world but because she’s a
coastal wolf not many people know about
coastal wolves so who cares
and so absolutely nothing happened and
this happens far too often with wildlife
we’ve got to find more ways to live
alongside it particularly with these big
predators and I think the first step
towards doing that is valuing them more
so ever since then ever since I got that
message I knew I had to return to
Vancouver Island firstly to show how
awesome these coastal wolves are but
also use them as flagships to to
celebrate the amazing west coast
ecosystem within which they live so I
had a grant from the scientific
exploration Society in the UK and I had
a young explorers grant from the
National graphic society here I pitched
to National Geographic a series and this
now has become NatGeo world’s first
digital series so where is Vancouver
Island let’s zoom in so it’s just off
Main Line Canada near the US border and
I was about halfway up on the west coast
and it’s an amazing amazing ecosystem
in the winter it’s absolutely hammered
by waves it’s one of the best places in
the world for storm watching and that
you can see you’ve got this wave vatted
Pacific West Coast and then there’s
rainforest coated mountains that drop
straight down to the shoreline it’s not
tropical rainforest it’s temperate
rainforest and you know it’s incredibly
green incredibly luscious and behind
that wave battered front line is this
never-ending network of sheltered see
inlets and that’s one of the best places
to find animals now crazy landscape by
itself but to then be packed full of you
know big sexy charismatic animals from
you know gray whales to humpback whales
these are 45 tons 50 feet long they’re
absolute Giants – bald eagles and these
guys are a master fisherman and they’re
also huge they’ve got a massive wingspan
6 feet wingspan and then there’s the key
to stuff now I think if sea otters is
like the Derek Zoolander’s of the the
animal kingdom they’re always pulling
opposed this guy hasn’t quite mastered
blue steel but he’s getting there so
it’s a bit of a pout and this guy’s this
guy think of he’s stretching out a bit
of a calf cramp yeah they’re awesome but
if you think sea otters are cute or
raccoons the bandits the mass bandits
they’re on another level now I have a
bit of a crazy theory about raccoons I
believe they are plotting the end of the
world
now they were pretty shocked to hear
that I discovered their plan and the
only thing they could really do after
they discovered I’d foiled their plan
was to go and get a drink at the bar
so as I said it’s is temperate
rainforest this place so it’s pretty
much impenetrable to go walking
especially with you know big cameras and
tripods so I was searching for the
Wolves in my little 12 zodiac it was
called striker
I was filming mainly from the boat from
the water but where possible I did get
out on land and I spent a lot of time in
blinds and having had those amazing
experiences with coastal wolves in the
past I went into this pretty confident
that I could find coastal wolves but
they were just giving me the runaround I
was getting absolutely nothing they were
you know ghosts now this Coast receives
a huge amount of rainfall and often it’s
difficult to stay out when the weather
is miserable but I had this um you know
this idea that I needed to stay out in
all conditions because you know that
could be when when you get lucky so this
is a myself in a little hail storm this
is really nice
it wasn’t it was miserable now this
particular area of shoreline is really
cool because it’s a sanctuary for about
eight females and of course females
means Cubs and the best part about these
particular bears was that the only thing
that they’re scared of is a bigger bear
or a pack of wolves and the only place
that comes from is the forest so if
you’re on a boat on the water they
completely ignore you and that’s awesome
because you can get really really close
and film natural behavior and you can
get really really close this is a
juvenile bear that was actually got a
little bit curious came over to check me
out where possible I did get out on land
to walk with the Bears now when a bear
comes really close it’s important to
stay calm and with black bears I should
say and just have a chat with it because
if you have a chat with it it’s relaxed
you’re relaxed everyone’s safe okay
we’re here we’re here okay that’s a good
bear go around
okay go around
go around good and then everyone’s happy
when I first went to Vancouver Island I
wanted to get my camera even closer than
this so whilst I was a high school I
built this
it’s called bear box and it’s basically
an indestructible housing for my camera
and this is me Anna my design and
technology teacher mr. Sullivan and this
was the first shot taken inside bear box
we didn’t really know how the Bears were
going to react it turns out they kind of
liked it but it did mean that I could
get the camera really really close to
them with a wide-angle lens so they’re
big in the frame with their habitat
behind and you can see here that they’re
walking on on the shoreline like
clockwork these bears would come out of
the forest every day at low tide when
the water in the inlets goes out to
forage they were foraging in a pretty
cool way so I’m just going to let a
little clip from from episode 2 explain
what they were doing come out nice and
early this morning to look for bears
it’s nice and clear so I can see a long
long way yeah we got a bat on the
shoreline just a
awesome right we’re gonna approach
slowly and hopefully it hangs out
yeah really excited
you might be wondering why a bear would
hang out on the shoreline or why it’s
flipping rocks so many rocks I just
found out this is a young male bear
because he has a big set of balls
what he’s on the hunt for his next meal
craps
lots and lots of crap
so I was having great luck with the
Bears you know filling them on the rocky
shore but still the Wolves were giving
me the runaround wildlife is weird when
you try and film or photograph it
because had I said you know I want to
make a film about black bears well I
would have seen no black bears and loads
of coastal wolves that’s just you know
how it works and all the other animals
were putting on an amazing show you have
really cool encounters with Orca kill
whales Yorker in this particular area
are transient and one of their favorite
foods are these guys stellar sea lions
now these sea lions are pretty
formidable predators in their own right
the males are not very pretty they can
be 2,000 pounds 11 feet long they’re
absolute monsters and when they’re on
land they’re pretty ugly there’s just
these big fat blobs of blubber and I
wanted to make an episode about them but
I didn’t think it was fair to only film
them when they were hauled out on the
rocky shore so I decided to get in the
water with them and I wasn’t really sure
how they were going to react to the
camera and the lights and things um
turns out they kind of liked me now this
doesn’t look like a brilliant situation
to be in
so I’m going to let a little clip
explain what exactly is going on
that was amazing we we sat right down on
the bottom on the sand and their massive
iron of 15-20 of them all around us at
one point I had one over either shoulder
and then one gripped me on the head and
squeezed and squeezed up okay that’s a
little bit hard but the whole time it
doesn’t feel like they’re being
aggressive it feels like I mean they
don’t have arms is they want to know
what a new song key object feels like it
can’t use the hands didn’t have any they
gotta just have a little bite and so
it’s very much a loving tender bite
rather than an aggressive I want to eat
you bite now ironically it was actually
one of the smallest sea lions on this
rocky haul out that came closest to
killing me I was suspicious of this
particular sea lion because all the
others went around in groups whereas
this one always went by it you know went
around by itself and it learned that
grabbing on my regulator hose my
breathing hose and pulling out of my
mouth was really fun because it made
bubbles that it could then play in now
of course this was scary the first time
but once I kind of worked out what he
was doing I flipped the camera around so
I could see him coming in the reflection
of my underwater housing I could see him
coming over my shoulder and yeah I tried
to catch him in the act
little rascals so I wasn’t having much
luck with the wolf so decided to mix
things up and travelled further up the
coast and went to this really remote
island the only way really of getting in
there at this time of year was was by
floatplane
this was my badass pilot Doug and he
could basically get us into to anywhere
he dropped us off on this incredibly
beautiful section of coastline this
great bit of Beach so we set up camp and
we were miles and miles from from
civilization so we often left the tent
doors open at night so that we could you
know see the Milky Way and yeah it was
really really cool this is a time-lapse
and this isn’t actually the Sun rising
that’s the moon rising in the middle of
the night and which was kind of cool
nice surprise so I set up a blind the
weather wasn’t great to start with set
up a blind basically to break up my
human outline animals including wolves
are evolutionary programmed to be scared
of our head and shoulder shape so you
set up a blind break up that outline and
the idea is they don’t know that that
you’re there so this was in the hide
everything was lovely
well twelve days later things weren’t
going great
I saw absolutely nothing so many
beautiful sunrises beautiful sunsets
bald eagles flying paths black bears
kingfishers everything apart from
coastal wolves and we decided to pull
the plug and move to her to a new
location and just as we were doing so we
realized why we might not have seen any
coastal wolves now if you look up in the
top of that picture it’s big big section
of logging now I knew that there was
logging on Vancouver Island but I didn’t
really expect to see it and to actually
be waiting for wolves and to be able to
put your fingers in your ears and look
out over this beautiful coast take your
fingers at your is and you can hear
chainsaws and trees and machinery so we
walked up to see what the logging was
like and
don’t want to point the finger at you no
loggers um I guess that the one thing
that you know it’s yeah we’re all part
of this problem we all use paper we all
use wood I guess the one thing I would
say is that when I was in high school we
were taught that you know the cutting
down of rainforests happened in the
Amazon you know in a faraway place and
it was a problem that was difficult to
deal with well you know this is the
logging of temperate rainforest that
tree that I’m sitting on was cut down
maybe that day a few days earlier could
be 500 years old other trees there are a
thousand years old and I think in the
21st century there’s got to be an
alternative to cutting down you know
these old-growth temperate rainforests
on this you know this coastline this is
on the developed world’s doorstep if we
can’t look after this place what hope
does does anywhere else have so this was
was pretty upsetting so I went back to
my tent I got in my happy place I
snuggled with my cameras and regrouped
and two days later this happened now I’m
not actually allowed to tell you what
happened next if you’d like to find out
you’re going to have to follow the rest
of the series I’d just like to thank you
all for coming that’s all I’ve got to
say I hope you have a great rest of your
evening
you
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