Having been on the production crew for some of the most recognised and popular documentaries of the past decade, including Planet Earth, Frozen Planet and now Planet Earth 2, Dr Chadden Hunter (Bachelor of Science (First Class Honours) ’95) has seen his share of the extraordinary wonders our world has to offer. Chadden talks about his latest work on Planet Earth 2 as an Episode Producer.
“We worked in the Okavango Delta in Botswana to film flooded grassland. I went down in a little boat with a local cowboy cameraman in this tiny metal dinghy," said Dr Hunter.
"Hours in, we got bogged in these thick reeds, surrounded by hippopotamuses. They’re really aggressive; they kill more people in Africa than any other large animal. As it got close to sunset, we had to start getting out of the boat because it kept getting wedged into this thick mat of swampy reeds.
"The local cowboy told me to take my shoes off because we wanted to be able to react as quickly as possible if we stepped on a crocodile. We’re pushing a boat through the Okavango, surrounded by deadly crocodiles and hippos, at night, barefoot, trying to feel for crocodiles and at that stage, I thought - I’m an idiot, I should have known better, what have I done?"
"Our legs got slashed to ribbons by swordgrass, and our faces were getting eaten alive by mosquitos. From head to toe, we were decimated, and our legs were just bleeding with thousands of cuts.
"Every single step you’re taking in this water you can’t see, you’re feeling for the texture of a crocodile back and getting ready to jump. That was the most hair-raising it got,” said Dr Hunter.
Whilst Hunter’s education at UQ, majoring in Zoology, might seem to have only half-prepared him for a career as a nature documentarian, he suggests communicating research to the masses, in a digestible way, is simply the next step for any scientist.
“If you ask wildlife filmmakers how they got their jobs, every single one of us has a different story,” said Dr Hunter.
“I’d never thought about a career in media until Sir David Attenborough and his film crews started turning up at my PhD field site in Ethiopia."
“As a scientist, I was interested in how we communicate our research to the wider world and how to turn the complexity and subtlety of nature into something that could reach a wider audience.”
Attenborough visited Dr Hunter’s field site for his Life of Mammals series, a visit Dr Hunter counts as a career highlight.
“For so many of us who’ve ended up with careers involving wildlife, he is an inspiration and hero, but I never expected to meet him let alone end up producing films that he’d narrate,” said Dr Hunter.
“It was humbling to introduce him to my baboon troop and have him ask endless questions.
“It was a key turning point in my career drift from academia to media.”
Dr Hunter has since worked with Attenborough on Planet Earth and Frozen Planet and has most recently been filming another Attenborough series, the sequel to Planet Earth.