Wildlife Specials — Season 1, Episode 14: Elephants: Spy in the Herd

Episode synopsis

Elephants: Spy In The Herd provides the most intimate portrayal of the everyday life of an elephant herd. Narrated by David Attenborough and filmed over a year, throughout the program the elephant herd exhibits many human similarities: their life span, social structure, wisdom of age and emotional bonds. The idea of using "character-cameras" is developed even further and the spy-cams help unravel the elephants' intimate story. Three different types of cameras were created: "Dungcam", "Poopcam" and "Plopcam"! By using radical techniques, the disguised cameras capture each dramatic moment of elephant life from extraordinary proximity. Witness two males clashing over territory, the birth and slow development of a calf and jealous rivalries between herd members. A real sense of these animals' incredible flexibility and intimacy is shown as they bathe in mineral salts, mud and dust, while their astonishing sensory perceptions are also revealed.

About Wildlife Specials

The BBC Wildlife Specials are a series of nature documentary programmes commissioned by BBC Television. The Wildlife Specials began with a pilot episode in 1995. 20 programmes have been made to date, with three of the recent ones being in multi parts. The earlier programmes were produced in-house by the BBC's specialist Natural History Unit, but the more recent Spy in the... titles were made by the independent John Downer Productions. The first 18 programmes, up to 2008, were narrated by David Attenborough. The most recent two were narrated by David Tennant. "The world's leading natural history filmmakers meet the world's most charismatic animals" — BBC tagline

More episodes from Season 1

• E1Great White Shark: The True Story of Jaws
• E2Polar Bear: The Arctic Warrior
• E3Crocodile: The Smiling Predator
• E4Leopard: The Agent of Darkness
• E5Eagle: The Master of the Skies
• E6Humpback Whale: The Giant of the Oceans
• E7Wolf: The Legendary Outlaw
• E8Tiger: The Elusive Princess
• E9Lions: Spy in the Den
• E10Grizzly: Face to Face
• E11Gorillas: On the Trail of King Kong
• E12Serpent: Through the Eyes of the Snake