This brand new show narrated by David Attenborough reveals how mammals have conquered the earth!

If you are a fan of natural history shows then Mammals on Sony BBC Earth narrated by David Attenborough should be on your list of must-watches. Over six episodes Mammals reveals how this extraordinary group of animals have conquered the earth, uncovering the secrets to their success with their winning design, incredible adaptability, unrivalled intelligence and unique sociability. 66 million years ago, when the reign of the dinosaurs came to an end, mammals were set free to exploit every corner of the planet. Mammals reveals the strategies, behaviours and traits that lie behind the astonishing success of this remarkable group of animals. The series celebrates the amazing intelligence that enables mammals to learn, remember, problem-solve, parent and cooperate. We catch up with the series producer Stuart Armstrong to talk about the first episode, Dark, delving into the challenges faced by the production team in locating and filming the fennec fox in the politically unstable regions of the Sahara.

What challenges did you face?

To the layperson, mammals are the most appealing of animals because they are the family that we are part of. But that also comes with a great challenge. Even though they are some of the best-known animals, they are also some of the hardest to actually film. That really applies to my episode. Nocturnal mammals have mastered a time we avoid: the dark. 80 percent of mammals are active at night and more than two thirds are solely nocturnal. So, it’s the majority of mammals, but then you’ve got the problem of trying to film them at night. Technically, filming at night is the biggest challenge. In recent years, though, technology has moved on so much that we have a range of different nocturnal filming techniques at our disposal. One of the key ones for this series is the development of extremely sensitive cameras that enable us to film under moonlight. So, where I could, I use that technology to bring a different visual and reveal an animal that probably hasn’t been filmed much before outside of controlled conditions.

Did you capture any world firsts on camera?

Yes. The first main post-title sequence is a sequence of leopards hunting roosting yellow baboons as they slept 20 metres up in ebony trees at the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. We did two shoots and I was there for both. I have to say it is the most astonishing thing to witness. In complete darkness, all you can see is the screen of your camera and spotting scopes which we use to highlight to the cameraman what’s going on. The leopards only hunt on the darkest night. If the moon is half full, they wait for it to set, so they have the advantage. They can see in what to me is pitch black. But they’re not just seeing in pitch black; they are also running around in the canopy and jumping from branch to branch. They can judge distance in order to get their dinner. I was astonished at how skilful leopards are working at night. It is amazing how they can see in the dark. Leopards have got this thing called a tapetum that sits behind the retina. The light goes through the retina and sparks off a signal. But then it bounces back off this reflective layer and the animals get a double spark so they can make the most use of the limited light that’s there. It is quite astounding.

What other sequences from your episode are you very pleased with?

The sequence we filmed of the fennec foxes, because all along I knew how difficult this would be to achieve. Usually, we rely on amazing teams of researchers and scientists scattered around the world who’ve been putting their whole lives into this one particular animal. They know everything about them and can open the door to us and hopefully reveal them to the wider world. But because fennec foxes live in very politically unstable regions of the Sahel and across the Sahara, no one studies them. But I got in touch with a wildlife photographer, Bruno D’Amicis, an Italian who had spent the last 10 or 15 years with his own funding trying to tell the story of the fennec fox. He found a location in Tunisia that he was willing to share with us. We went to the most amazing landscape in the Sahara, the Grand Erg Oriental, which is one of the largest sand dune deserts in the world. It’s just this spectacular landscape of nothing. You occasionally find these footprints seemingly leading nowhere. You speak to the locals and they say, “I’ve seen one fennec fox in my life,” — and they live there. So locating the animal was an immense challenge.

Now live on Sony BBC Earth and streaming on SonyLIV.

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