Have you ever imagined what it would be like to see the world through an animal's eyes? For example, what a chimpanzee sees as it sits at the top of a tree, or a penguin;s view as it dives into the sea to catch its dinner?
These questions are answered in the nature documentary Animals with Cameras, produced by the BBC. The three-part series was first aired in the UK last month. To explore animal stories "told” by the animals themselves, the documentary's filmmakers worked with scientists to develop cameras that wild animals could wear.
"Never before have we seen such high-quality footage （连续镜头）directly from the animal's point of view, ” BBC Nature executive producer Fred Kaufman told PBS. “ This miniseries greatly expands our comprehension of animal behavior and this camera technology opens up new possibilities for discovering so much more."
Indeed, the groundbreaking technology provides a new viewpoint of the animal kingdom. New cameras with enough battery life to shoot for hours at a time were designed to be comfortable enough for animals to wear, according to the documentary's camera designer Chris Watts.
The technical challenges didn't stop there. Some animals were very curious about the equipment, with some even fighting each other for the chance to wear a camera. In the case of chimpanzees, "we had to create dummy （仿造的）cameras, so that every chimpanzee could get one" , the miniseries' wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan told Live Science.
For animals that were comfortable enough to be with human beings, the cameras could be fitted and removed by hand. But for others, the cameras came off automatically using a timed release and were collected afterward. This meant that the cameras needed to be as tough as possible.
To avoid disturbing the animals, scientists who were good at dealing with wildlife came to help by putting the cameras on the animals. " The last thing we want to do is cause them distress." the documentary's producer Dan Rees told the BBC. “To follow an animal in the first place, there had to be a clear benefit in terms of knowledge about it that might be useful to protecting a species in the future.
Their efforts certainly paid off. “ Footage that captures （捕 捉）these rare and exciting glimpses of animals bidden habits is important to scientists, but documentaries like Animals with Cameras also resonate with （引 起共鸣）audiences, connecting them with the beauty - and danger - of wildlife in their natural environments," Live Science noted.
【小题1】According to the text, Animals with Cameras .| A．is a documentary made by wildlife experts |
| B．presents high-quality footage of animals for the first time |
| C．shows wildlife from the unique viewpoint of animals |
| D．mainly records the life of chimpanzees and penguins |
| A．reflect the weakness of the camera technology |
| B．present how filmmakers put cameras on chimpanzees |
| C．explain why chimpanzees were attracted by the equipment |
| D．show how filmmakers dealt with the challenges in shooting |
| A．set up a protected area for them to live in |
| B．invited scientists to help equip them with cameras |
| C．made the cameras look like animals in disguise |
| D．fitted and removed the cameras by hand |
| A．changing | B．supportive |
| C．cautious | D．pessimistic |
