Mother Nature can be absolutely beautiful, that’s just an undeniable fact. There are so many amazing places and things to witness on Earth, and while we can’t possibly see them all in person, we can always count on nature documentaries to show us a glimpse of some very special things.
Seeing how baby penguins walk around and live in Antarctica is a perfect example, and that’s exactly what this documentary film crew was taping.
There’s actually an unofficial and unwritten rule among documentary makers involving animals: observe, but don’t interfere or participate.
After all, the aim of a documentary is to accurately portray what’s going on in real life, and interference by a crew member would disturb that reflection of real-life and add unnecessary bias. That’s why the unwritten rule was born: it’s absolutely essential for modern documentaries.
However, this crew made an exception to the ‘no interference’ rule, simply because it was a matter of life or death.
The film crew was capturing footage for an episode of “Dynasties”, a relatively recent British documentary series hosted by Sir David Attenborough for the BBC. When the film crew saw a bunch of penguins that were seemingly trapped in a very deep chasm, they couldn’t just stand by and watch.
These documentary makers have definitely witnessed some troubling and sometimes heartbreaking situations in the wild before, but they still figured that they could offer a helping hand in this case.
Because of their intervention, they saved the lives of more than 50 penguins, most of them were still babies.
They gave it a lot of thought because the ‘no interference’ rule is usually respected, but their hearts just wouldn’t let them stand by and do nothing. Nonetheless, the rule-breaking rescue has been the topic of controversy and debate.
BBC Earth’s YouTube channel posted some of the documentary footage with the following video description:
“When the emperor penguins from Dynasties find themselves trapped, the crew faces a tough choice: save them by helping them climb or leave them to die.”
When the crew meets these entrapped penguins, they’re clearly emotional. One of them is even crying because they’d surely perish without any help.
“There are birds down there with chicks!” one of the crew members shouted.
“I know it’s natural but it’s bloody hard to watch. I think we’re just going to have to observe them for a bit just to see exactly what’s happening,” another added.
One of the firm believers of the “no interference”‘ rule is Sir David Attenborough himself.
He believes that nature should just be left alone, even if it’s tragic and very sad. However, in this case, Attenborough thinks that his crew absolutely did the right thing, and mentions that their intervention wasn’t too extreme.
The crew was finishing for the day and were going to discuss what they’d do next when they first encountered the animals. Suddenly, they spotted one of the penguins who was actually making it out of the gully along with one of her babies.
“We’ve come back to the top because the weather’s coming in again, and we were just about to pack up, when an adult with a chick on its feet managed to make its way up,” a crew member says. “It’s amazing, it’s using its beak – then when it got to this last little lip, it’s using its wings. If only the other fifty in there could do the same.”
They left for the night and hoped that they could actually help out these helpless animals in the morning. Because of the weather, they couldn’t just intervene right away. In fact, the weather was so bad that they had to wait for an additional 24 hours.
The next morning, they noticed that there were already casualties, and they didn’t hesitate any further.
They started digging a tiny ramp that the penguins could use to get out of their predicament.
Luckily, the baby penguins got the message and were able to climb their way out of the gully via the man-made ramp.
“We were just about to leave, but the first birds are definitely beginning to make their way out, which is brilliant,” a crew member says. “So hopefully they’ll just make their way back to the colony, and them and their chicks will have a better chance of survival. There’s no chance that they were going to survive down there at all.”
As previously mentioned, there are some people who believe that the crew should’ve just let nature run its course, but most comments are absolutely positive and recognize that sometimes, animals just need a helping hand. The majority believes that the crew absolutely did the right thing.
Be sure to watch the controversial rescue in the video below.
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