[Music]
Crittercam was an animal born imaging
device it’s basically a camera plus a
bunch of sensors for collecting
scientific data as well as point-of-view
imagery this was the first HD critter
cam we actually made we built that
camera in like three months and had to
try to put cameras on the great white
sharks the process to put a camera on a
shark is you have one guy threw out a
tuna on a rope and he tries to lure the
shark to go past the boat at a certain
distance at a certain speed and then the
other guy uses this thing called a shark
pole it’s a apparatus for actually
cinching a the camera and fin clamp
system onto the shark’s dorsal fin the
challenge was we had to get the shark to
actually go after the tuna because when
they do charge after that bait they they
close their eyes for a brief instant and
that’s the perfect time to put a camera
on that that charge is actually bigger
I’ve got this line and the dead tuna
head tied to it but the tuna will fall
off the line if you just like pull it
over the side of the boat so I was
reaching over to get the tuna and the
shark bit the outboard because I hadn’t
actually left so I fell in and Eric fell
where I was he swam like Michael Phelps
like like it only took a few seconds for
him to get back and cross the distance
but it would seem like an eternity I
remember you told me at right right when
you you got to the boat you were like oh
my like my torso is above the water so
now that’s part Crittercam is a video
tape recorder enclosed in underwater
housing and it allows us to get film
from the seals point of view it’s almost
like the seals our cameraman for the day
very very first critic it was in the
late 80s to early 90s and it was of it
was this type of Crittercam
and so it was an eight millimeter tape
Greg Marshall started the remote imaging
department back then at National
Geographic and he put the whole eight
millimeter camcorder in this fibreglass
waterproof housing that he had made and
then after that the remote imaging
department at National Geographic
started up and we started to make the
the main thing about putting cameras
with animals is just getting the
equipment with them for a period of time
until they get used to it
so they took I think about four or five
days with this and after a while the
pride would just kind of occasionally
tap on it
but was nice about a vehicle like this
is that they very quickly realize I
can’t eat it it’s not gonna hurt me it’s
really slow it’s basically a rock so
they kind of just give up you could
drive this right up to a sleeping
lioness and get a photo of her or Cubs
in the past it was typically you’d have
your big long lines you’d sit way over
there way away from the animals and you
get that photo which give me a great
photo but you can tell you’re far away
and here at National Geographic we like
to put the animals on a pedestal if you
will
making the animal feel big to you the
viewer which makes them seem important
to us you and so maybe will care a little more about them
Crittercam was an animal born imaging
device it’s basically a camera plus a
bunch of sensors for collecting
scientific data as well as point-of-view
imagery this was the first HD critter
cam we actually made we built that
camera in like three months and had to
try to put cameras on the great white
sharks the process to put a camera on a
shark is you have one guy threw out a
tuna on a rope and he tries to lure the
shark to go past the boat at a certain
distance at a certain speed and then the
other guy uses this thing called a shark
pole it’s a apparatus for actually
cinching a the camera and fin clamp
system onto the shark’s dorsal fin the
challenge was we had to get the shark to
actually go after the tuna because when
they do charge after that bait they they
close their eyes for a brief instant and
that’s the perfect time to put a camera
on that that charge is actually bigger
I’ve got this line and the dead tuna
head tied to it but the tuna will fall
off the line if you just like pull it
over the side of the boat so I was
reaching over to get the tuna and the
shark bit the outboard because I hadn’t
actually left so I fell in and Eric fell
where I was he swam like Michael Phelps
like like it only took a few seconds for
him to get back and cross the distance
but it would seem like an eternity I
remember you told me at right right when
you you got to the boat you were like oh
my like my torso is above the water so
now that’s part Crittercam is a video
tape recorder enclosed in underwater
housing and it allows us to get film
from the seals point of view it’s almost
like the seals our cameraman for the day
very very first critic it was in the
late 80s to early 90s and it was of it
was this type of Crittercam
and so it was an eight millimeter tape
Greg Marshall started the remote imaging
department back then at National
Geographic and he put the whole eight
millimeter camcorder in this fibreglass
waterproof housing that he had made and
then after that the remote imaging
department at National Geographic
started up and we started to make the
the main thing about putting cameras
with animals is just getting the
equipment with them for a period of time
until they get used to it
so they took I think about four or five
days with this and after a while the
pride would just kind of occasionally
tap on it
but was nice about a vehicle like this
is that they very quickly realize I
can’t eat it it’s not gonna hurt me it’s
really slow it’s basically a rock so
they kind of just give up you could
drive this right up to a sleeping
lioness and get a photo of her or Cubs
in the past it was typically you’d have
your big long lines you’d sit way over
there way away from the animals and you
get that photo which give me a great
photo but you can tell you’re far away
and here at National Geographic we like
to put the animals on a pedestal if you
will
making the animal feel big to you the
viewer which makes them seem important
to us you and so maybe will care a little more about them
Please follow and like us: