Lights, Camera... Animals!
Michaela Strachan enjoying spending time with elephants.
How did filming the ‘Elephant Diaries’ compare with filming other wildlife programmes?
So much of the other wildlife stuff I’ve filmed has been magazine type shows so it’s a very different pace. For a start you spend a lot of time in one place with Elephant Diaries and some days you don’t film anything as nothing particularly exciting happens. Other days you’re filming all day as it’s all exciting as on a move day (moving the orphans to their next rehab site).
On magazine shows like ‘The Really Wild Show’ for instance, you’re constantly on the move filming something different every day. On Elephant Diaries it was nice to be able to unpack the back pack! It’s also so nice to really get to know the animals and follow their progress and to get close to the people involved. I feel I have a very strong bond with both the orphans and the keepers because we were there for a while and kept returning. On magazine shows you tend to be in and out in a day so it’s all a bit rushed.
How many wildlife programmes have you been involved with now?
Gosh that’s quite a tricky one! Well it started with OWL TV for ITV about 18 years ago!! That was a children’s wildlife magazine show, followed by The Really wild Show for BBC1 which I did for 15 years and had a ball I might add! There’s been ‘Postcards From The Wild’ for Animal Planet and ‘Big 5 Little 5’, both with Chris Packham, and ‘Animal Zone’, ‘Shark Encounters’, Orangutan Rescue’, and ‘Really Wild Guide To Britain’ all for the BBC. More recently of course, ‘Elephant Diaries’ and ‘Orangutan Diaries’ for the BBC. ‘Michaela’s Wild Challenge’ for Channel Five, which was also a children’s magazine show and a lot of fun and which I’m proud to say won two children’s BAFTAS! Also numerous RWS specials such as ‘China Bears’, Tiger crisis’, ‘The State of The South China Sea’, ‘The Antarctica Special’. I’m sure I’ve missed some!
What have been the highlights?
Oh my goodness there have been so many! Working with orphaned orangutans has been a definite highlight. Seeing Gorillas in the wild for ‘Michaela’s Wild Challenge’, handfeeding Caribbean reef sharks dressed in chain mail (me not the sharks!), working so closely with elephants of course! Going to Antarctica which was incredible, diving in Sipidan for the South China Sea special, bringing attention to the bear bile industry, distressing as it was! Gosh there have been so many and I’m sure I could go on and on and on…
What does your job involve from day-to-day?
These days I don’t travel as much as I did because I’ve got a toddler so I’ve calmed down a bit. Day to day at the moment I change nappies, make meals, play cars, go to the park! You see it’s not all glamourous! If I’m filming it usually involves a lot of early mornings as animals get up so flippin’ early! At the moment I’m on a two-week film trip, which has involved flying to Florida and filming a different item every day. One day manatees, the next dolphins, pelicans, big cats. You usually start early and finish late with a lot of writing scripts and travelling and grabbing lunches and dinners. It’s great fun. There’s also quite a lot of office work at home and a lot of e-mails to answer.
Of course I love the wildlife and all the amazing experiences I’ve had with animals. I love the travel and meeting so many different people and cultures. I love the team work. I love the challenge and I get paid to do it! How lucky am I?!
I’ve always has an interest especially with animal welfare but when I was younger my real passion was dancing and the theatre. It wasn’t really until I was older that I got really into wildlife and became passionate. My passion grew with my presenting really. I fell into wildlife presenting and obviously over the years have learned so much. As with so many things, the more you know, the more you understand, the more you have a respect and love for something.
What qualities do you need to work as a wildlife presenter?
Well for a start you need to like animals!! Patience is also a must. Making wildlife telly needs a lot of patience. Sometimes it can be really exciting but at times it can be surprisingly tedious! There’s always a lot of hanging around to do. It helps to have a good short term memory. Sometimes you have to do long pieces to camera and it helps if you can get it right in one take as the animal might push off for the second take. Sometimes you have to do numerous takes because of the animal. You need to like working as a team and you need to know that the animals will take the limelight and not you! You need to be enthusiastic and passionate about the subject. If you think of all the really good wildlife presenters all have passion – David Attenborough, Bill Oddie, Chris Packham, Nick Baker, Jonathan Scott, Simon King, Saba Douglas Hamilton... They’re all mad about animals.
What is the best way to gain experience in this area of work?
I don’t really know! I was so lucky and fell into wildife presenting. I guess if you were starting out it would be useful to either have an animal type degree or experience with wildlife in the field. Again if you think of other wildlife presenters most of them have experience in the field , Steve Leanord is a vet, Nick Baker is a zoologist and naturalist, Bill Oddie is a mad keen birder. I was just lucky!
Which animals have been most memorable to work with?
I guess it’s the ones I’ve spent the most time with. Definitely elephants and orangutans. Doing the diaries you really get to know the animals and because you spend a lot of time with them you end up with a lot of memories. A random memorable animal was a humming bird. For ‘Michaela’s Wild Challenge’ I had to try and get a kiss from a humming bird so armed with sugar coated lips and poised next to a bird feeder I waited for my delicate kiss. I was incredibly patient and eventually got my reward! It was memorable just because it was so silly! There have been so many moments like that.
How demanding is your job? Does it involve early starts? Is it physically demanding? Is it mentally challenging?
Well “yes” to all the above really! My job involves a lot of early starts. On ‘Elephant Diaries’ we usually got up around 4.30am so we could be at the orphanage when the orphans got up. We would then film until they went to bed when it got dark! You’re generally ruled by light so you tend to start filming when the sun comes up and continue till you lose the light at sunset! Winter months mean shorter days! Generally animals get up early though, especially wild ones, so you do too.
Sometimes it’s very physically demanding. Especially a programme like ‘Michaela’s Wild Challenge’. One minute you’re swimming with whale sharks, then canoeing with killer whales, racing ostriches, and climbing to see spiders!! Other times you spend most of the day sitting in a car or aeroplane!!
It can of course be mentally challenging. Telly can be quite complicated to put together at times. Making sure things will edit together, remembering pieces to camera, knowing the subject matter. There are of course much more mentally and physically challenging jobs but I think you need all round stamina.
It can also be quite emotionally demanding. We all know that the state of the planet is not great and it can be hard at times to keep optimistic. I’ve also seen such awful and cruel things. You can feel quite emotionally drained.
I love it all! Of course I love the wildlife and all the amazing experiences I’ve had with animals. I love the travel and meeting so many different people and cultures. I love the team work. I love the challenge and I get paid to do it! How lucky am I?!
What are the most common problems/challenges you encounter?
That you turn up to film and the animal has disappeared and you’ve got to make six minutes of interesting television! That’s when you need to get really creative! It’s also so frustrating when people say “Oh you should have been here yesterday. There were 100 dolphins here yesterday,” and you’d be happy to see just one! It’s also been hard for me to get a work/life balance. It’s very hard when you love what you do to sometimes say “no”! Travelling round the world filming wildlife is amazing but it doesn’t sit well with having a family. I now have a toddler and a family and I feel I have achieved some sort of balance, but it’s taken a while!
What would you advise someone interested in working as a wildlife presenter?
I would say it really is one of the best jobs in the world! It has become competitive though. Don’t just try and do it because you want to be famous and on telly; do it because you love wildlife and love making telly. It really isn’t always glamorous! I’ve stayed in accommodation so grim that I was covered in bed bug and flea bites the next day, I’ve gone to the loo in the most horrendous drop toilets, one was so bad it looked like a scene from ‘Raiders Of The Lost Ark’. The whole loo was a seething mass of cockroaches. I’ve lost my luggage in Russia and had to do a whole trip without my bag in temperatures of minus 27, been up to my waist in bat poo, there have been so many, but I tell you what... I’ve loved every minute!
Birmingham Dogs Home has issued an urgent winter appeal as it faces more challenges over the Christmas period.
