Wolves vs. Bison: On Location | Hostile Planet

The stars of "Hostile Planet" are obviously the animals. But the unsung heroes are the crew that work so hard to bring you that footage.

[wolves howling]

PETE MCGOWAN: So my name's Pete McGowan. I'm here in the Canadian Arctic, trying to film wolves hunting bison. And hopefully, in a minute through the scrub over there, there might be a herd of bison being followed by a pack of 23 wolves, hopefully not straight at me. When we went to film the wolves and the bison, our aim was to film a hunt. My job was to go up every morning first thing, look for the wolves, and every day we'd find the bison but no wolves. It was a two-week shoot, and we spent seven days. And we didn't see a wolf, and no one knew where the wolves were.

And you know it's make or break. And we're just sat there in an airport just waiting day after day. And then you get that phone call-- [snaps fingers] --and it all changes. And you are in the helicopter, and you are headed straight out to it. And you know you've got one chance to nail it. And if you mess it up, that's it.

TOM HUGH-JONES: So the idea was we'd cover the hunt from the air whilst we left Pete on the ground so that he could capture shots of the chase panning out. It's really hard trying to predict where they're going to go. We dropped him off into the middle of nowhere at minus 40 degrees. And he was having to traipse around in his snow shoes pulling all his camera gear. I mean, it was hardcore.

For once we managed to guess right and predict where the wolves and the buffalo were going to come. And we placed Pete right in their path. As the wolves are chasing them past, Pete's capturing these shots of these bison. I was watching it from above, and he's got these one-ton beasts charging towards him. And you're thinking like, hold it, hold it, hold it. And I could see the moment where he's obviously looking through his long lens. And I think he just thought, are they going to run straight into me? [laughs]

Have they seen me? Just along here, the lead big bull, they started coming up along my track. They're just like a freight train running through everything, and kept me in this little bush. They came pretty close, a little bit too close, really, for my liking.

TOM HUGH-JONES: The main worry is that, you know, we're only going to see this a couple of times. And are the cameramen going to be able to nail it?

MARK MACEWAN: And I've got the camera controller. And I'm trying to keep that on one of 23 wolves I think might be about to take down a buffalo, or stay a bit wider and cover the event.

TOM HUGH-JONES: The skill of these cameramen to be able to keep the camera in focus as the helicopter's moving, the scene is changing, and predicting where they're going-- I've no idea how they do it. It was a lovely low sun. And the bison were kicking up the snow, so it was all, kind of, backlit. And we just think, wow, this is a spectacle. That's the high-five moment. That's going to make the promo.

[laughs]

[music playing]

[wolves howling]

[wolves snarling]