BBC filmmaker transforms himself into boxed lunch for a polar bear

[hecep]

“To get to understand them. To see them up close” [while smiling stupidly].

I wonder if they had someone standing by to shoot this already endangered animal if the bear box didn’t work out and things got out of hand.

[Mangochin]

I feel that someone should invent a game:
Brian Blessed or Paul Bunyan?

[dontpanicbobby]

I like the part where he remembers he didn’t lock the cage. You’d think that would be the first thing you’d do.

[petzl]

So, there’s a guy in another box 100’ away, just to be the lookout? He could have a lookout. But it’s much more likely that he’s alone. So many of these documentaries involve 1 guy alone with his camera(s). I could go either way on this.

[il.luminator]

Either way if you ask me it makes the humans look silly.

[PPK]

@petzl

So, there’s a guy in another box 100’ away, just to be the lookout?

At 1:31 you can see his support ship in the background - fair way off. I’m wondering if they might have mounted anything on the base of the module to try and scare off the bear - some kind of noise maker, blank shells or similar.

@dontpanicbobby

I like the part where he remembers he didn’t lock the cage.

Yeah, that was definitely real This is the BBC, elf ‘n’ safety is waaaay up their list of priorities. It’s like some Discovery series (Railroad Alaska and Alaskan Bush People, I’m looking at you) that manufacture fake ‘oh no if the train doesn’t come through on time Little Timmy will die of tuberculosis!’ kind of drama. And each time the ‘situation’ is resolved just after the next commercial break… argh. The stories of people living those lifestyles are fascinating enough without that kind of BS.

[Bernel]

@hecep

I wonder if they had someone standing by to shoot this already endangered animal if the bear box didn’t work out and things got out of hand.

I imagine they had firecrackers and pepper spray ready. Shooting is a bad idea anyway at that distance since the bear has time to kill you if you don’t hit it exactly right.

Also polar bears are threatened not because there are few of them right now, but because their environment is shrinking. Shooting a bear won’t make a difference.

[petzl]

Yeah, I agree. This wasn’t simply a “let’s get a polar bear shot.” This was a “let’s get a polar bear shot while we’re taunting a polar bear shot.” They certainly had a whole team on this. Plus, they had to have someone with a gun at the ready (to get a shot) while this contraption was being assembled.