Wild Isles Episode 3 Grassland wildlife stories, filming locations and behind the scenes secrets

European hares (Lepus europaeus) boxing, U.K (Image: BBC/Silverback Films/Andy Rouse /naturepl.com)When I was a boy, back in the 1930s, growing up in Leicester, I spent days on my bicycle exploring the local countryside. Back then, it was easy to find hay meadows rich with wildflowers and swarming with butterflies and insects of all kinds. But since then, we have lost more than 95% of these wonderful habitats. In this episode, we will show why our wildlife needs rich wild grasslands, and take you on a journey from the rare coastal flower meadows of the Scottish Hebrides right up to the heather moorlands in the high mountains.— Sir David Attenborough

Sir David Attenborough explores our grasslands, some of Britain and Ireland’s most beautiful places. From the coastal flower meadows in the Scottish Outer Hebrides to the rich open landscapes in the mountains of south-west Ireland, we enter surprising and dramatic worlds inhabited by creatures great and small.

Whether it’s rough and untamed, flower-rich, or farmed, rooted in chalk or scree, our varied grasslands set the stage for spell-binding spectacles. In Dorset, an enchanting bee rides through a meadow on a tiny broomstick, and on a sheltered slope in Northumbria, adders perform a surprisingly delicate courtship routine, rising up and entwining before using their extraordinary male anatomy to mate. As darkness descends, thermal cameras reveal new footage of rabbits evading the foxes that hunt them at night.

Over in Gloucestershire, we uncover a remarkable conservation success story. Once extinct in our isles, our shores are now believed to be home to one of the largest concentrations of large blue butterflies anywhere in the world. But these winged wonders are the product of an extraordinarily sinister lifecycle; their survival relies on a game of deception with a red ant, which is tricked into adopting the butterfly’s unassuming but predatory caterpillars into its nest. The ants soon pay the price, as the caterpillar begins a six-month gorge on their larvae.

In County Kerry, spectacular battles are captured between red deer stags, the largest wild animals to walk our isles, whilst in Cambridgeshire, we reveal how feisty herds of free-ranging horses are restoring our lost wild grasslands.

As modern agriculture replaces these precious habitats, the grasslands of the British Isles are under threat. This episode shows just how important our different types of grassland are to the species which call these islands home.

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Key StoriesA pair of male adders ‘dancing’, which is in fact a battle to subdue their opponent. Northumberland, England. (Image: BBC/Silverback Films/Harry Yates)

New/Remarkable Behaviour

Adders mating – the males are dragged around by their penises by the females, staying bound together by dozens of penis barbs that have evolved for this purpose. Filmed in Northumberland, this is the first time this behaviour has been shot in such detail.

The crew set up three different camera channels and observed more than 50 adders to capture this behaviour. They also aimed to demonstrate how male adders can be quite sensitive, contrary to popular perception, and are quite gentle during the courting process.

Camerawoman Katie Mayhew says: “To get the super low angle shots at the same level as the snakes, we underslung the rig so the camera and lens could slide almost touching the floor – at some points I even had snakes on the equipment and on my boots! Once I was set up, I could then operate the slider a few meters away so I could give the snakes some space to behave naturally. As soon as the mating behaviour started, I jumped quickly onto another camera set up, which was a tripod and a long lens, so I could follow a mating pair easier and help capture some of the more intimate behaviours, like the male head tapping the female. These truly are stunning creatures and I really enjoyed spending so much time filming and getting to know and understand the species better.”

Large blue butterfly (Phengaris arion), a re-introduced species from Scandinavian stock, Green Down Somerset Wildlife Trust Reserve, England, U.K (Image: Large blue butterfly (Phengaris arion), a re-introduced species from Scandinavian stock, Green Down Somerset Wildlife Trust Reserve, England, UK)

Filming First

Large blue butterfly – first time this species’ lifecycle has ever been filmed in full. Since extinction in 1979, thanks to pioneering reintroductions, our shores are now believed to be home to one of the largest concentrations of large blue butterflies anywhere in the world*.

Filmed over three years, the team were in Gloucestershire and Somerset trying to capture this footage with only a narrow window available, as the adult butterflies hatch and breed over a period of just a few weeks each year.

New/Remarkable Behaviour

Mason bee (aka the “witch bee”) – filmed in Dorset, this bee nests in old snail shells and collects dried grass for her nest, making it appear like she’s riding a broomstick as she flies with the grass. First time this behaviour has been filmed in such detail.

The team used a macro lens to film the bee’s behaviour inside the shell as she collected up to 100 sticks for her nest. They used the expertise of an entomologist to help them follow her on her journey.

New/Remarkable Behaviour

Boxing hares -  filmed in Suffolk, the females  rebuff the advances of over-amorous suitors and often win the bout. The males need to prove they are tough enough to be a suitable mate without hurting the female.

New/Remarkable Behaviour

Field voles – they are Britain’s most populous mammal, numbering about 75 million*, but most people have never seen one. This is the first time we’ve been able to show just how field voles reshape the grassland underground.

Interview with producer Nicholas GatesA caterpillar of the Large Blue Butterfly surrounded by a red ants that have ‘adopted’ it into their colony (Image: BBC/Silverback Films/Alastair MacEwen)

What would you hope that the audience will take away from watching the series?

A sense of how remarkable, how important and how threatened the nature that we have here in Britain and Ireland is and a desire to help ensure that it is allowed to recover. We want the audience to see the extraordinary side of some of our most familiar creatures.

Why are Britain and Ireland globally important for nature?

Our unique geographical placement in Europe, being situated both in the global north but also surrounded by seas, keeps our climate warmer than places of equivalent latitude around the world. This makes it extremely attractive to migratory species, particularly summer migrating insects and birds arriving to breed from the south, and winter migrating birds arriving to feed from the north.

How was it travelling around the British Isles for this series?

I am a lifelong British naturalist, so for me personally it was hugely eye opening to visit some of our most remote and important wilder places. Travelling to so many of these over the course of three years filming allowed me to see the different approaches to conservation being taken throughout our isles and meet the exceptional people dedicating their lives to protecting some of our rarest species. As all our locations on Grassland could be driven to, we spent many, many hours on the road, which highlighted just how many places in Britain and Ireland could be improved for nature in the future.

This episode includes the first time the lifecycle of the large blue butterfly has ever been filmed in full, can you tell us about how you filmed this?

The lifecycle of the large blue butterfly is extremely complex, with many intricate steps required for the egg to successfully make it through to an adult butterfly. Filming each of these steps was only possible by working closely with a team of three expert scientists (Professor Jeremy Thomas, David Simcox and Sarah Meredith) who were responsible for reintroducing the large blue butterfly at a number of locations throughout Somerset and Gloucestershire. We split the filming into many different shoots and just worked on one stage of the butterflies’ lifecycle at a time. The hardest step of all to film was the exact moment when the caterpillar successfully tricked a worker ant into picking it up and carrying it back to the nest.

And you filmed the “witch bee”, a species which nests in old snail shells and looks like she’s riding on a tiny broomstick as she carries sticks for the nest?

There are more than 250 different species of bee in Britain and Ireland*, which live in a wide mix of places, from woodworm holes in deadwood for our smallest species, the tiny scissor bee, to old vole nests for our largest bumblebees. But of all these species, we felt there was one which really stood out for her persistence in finding just the right nest for her youngsters. The two-coloured mason bee, our “witch bee”, whizzes around chalk grasslands looking for empty snail shells of the exact right size. Like Goldilocks with her porridge testing, the female two-coloured mason bee will check lots of empty shells in the grassland, some are too big, some are too small or damaged, until she finds just the right one within which to lay her egg. She is nicknamed the “witch bee” as after laying each egg she seals up the shell and then hides it under a pile of tiny sticks. She collects each stick individually and carries it, as she flies under her body and looks like she is riding a tiny broom!

Can you tell us more about filming the adders mating? Is this a filming first or a new behaviour captured?

Filming this number of adders mating has never been filmed before; in some of our mating balls we filmed six adders, a behaviour that is exceptionally rare to see, let alone to film. Across the three weeks filming for this sequence, we found at least 52 different individual adders, guided by the expert identification skills of herpetologist Nigel Hand. By closely and carefully following the individuals as they emerged from hibernation, and particularly by following the males which sometimes moved hundreds of metres following the scent of a female, we were able to pinpoint the exact locations where mating was taking place to capture the extraordinary footage of this moment. We had a camera team of three people, and an additional field team of four people, who were all assigned spotting duties to follow individual adders that we expected to mate or battle. Everyone was in radio communication ensuring that as soon as any behaviour looked likely, the nearest member of the camera team could be called in to quickly relocate and film the action.

Filming Locations and Species FilmedGolden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) (Image: BBC/Silverback Films/Pete Cairns/naturepl.com)

Interview with Cameraman Alastair MacEwenA female Two-Coloured Mason Bee carries a dried grass stalk back to her snail-shell nest (Image: BBC/Silverback Films/John Walters)

Scenes Alastair was involved in filming

What was the most interesting macro sequence that you filmed?

Filming the large blue butterfly was the most interesting for many reasons. Its life history and its relationship with the ant is totally fascinating and we felt it had to be recorded to be shared with a television audience. This butterfly went extinct in the UK because of changes to its habitat, a familiar and sad tale of our times. However, the making of Wild Isles has coincided with remarkable conservation success. Through careful scientific management, the butterfly has been brought back and can be seen once more in British meadows, giving us a glimmer of hope for the future. The filming was a challenge in so many ways. It is always necessary to film specific key moments of behaviour to tell any story about animal behaviour – miss just one of them and you have failed. With this project every one of these moments involved behaviour so complex and so sensitive to disturbance that the task frequently seemed beyond reach.

Can you tell us about the kit you needed to film this type of animal behaviour?

We filmed in two different meadows using the sloping terrain and short camera supports to get the lens as low as possible. To show the details of the ant behaviour as clearly as possible, it was necessary to get lenses low enough and into hidden places to see what was happening. It was practically the last minute of the last hour of filming when, finally, we got the last essential moment – when an ant brought the caterpillar into the nest.

Why did you want to be involved in a series about wildlife in the British Isles?

I have been involved in many shoots and one or two programmes made in Britain and Ireland. We have stories here equal to some of the strangest found in the tropics, but our climate is a perennial problem. It’s hard to predict how long field work will take especially if sun is needed for behaviour or beauty. When Wild Isles was planned it seemed a great opportunity to try and do the nature of Britain and Ireland justice.

Can you tell us more about how you filmed the “witch bee” nesting inside old snail shells?

This engaging and entertaining little bee, its broomstick behaviour and its quest for snail shells led us to try and tell its story as fully as possible. We worked closely with a field biologist who could help us find our subjects and knew the timings of the different behaviours we needed to film. To film inside the shell, the first and most obvious thing to do was to film through the front aperture to get shots where the bee or jaws of the bee were visible. I also cut a window in an old shell to allow camera access to the back. The shell was just translucent enough for lighting and I placed it, attached to the front of the scope, in the meadow in a place the bee was looking for shells and camouflaged the scope with grass. By great fortune the bee checked my shell and entered it. At the right time I carefully cut a window in a shell with egg and pollen inside, sealed the window with a coverslip to keep the egg at the right humidity and filmed close-ups of the egg and larva.

Credits

Series Producers

Alastair Fothergill

Hilary Jeffkins

Episode Three Producer

Nicholas Gates

Notes To Editors

*Our shores are now believed to be home to one of the largest concentrations of large blue butterflies anywhere in the world 

[Source: Wildlife Trusts & Butterfly Conservation]  

*There are more than 250 different species of bee in Britain and Ireland 

[Source: Wildlife Trusts] 

*Field voles – they are Britain’s most populous mammal, numbering about 75 million 

[Source: Wildlife Trusts]