For many years now, drones have been used by vloggers and people in film and TV production to better capture location footage. In productions and videos that especially need scenic shots, drones are indeed a big help. And for the first time, drones are now being used to capture and show off the wonders of planet Earth.
BBC’s top-rated show Seven Worlds, One Planet is an acclaimed seven-part documentary series produced and broadcast by the BBC Natural History Unit. The show features all the seven continents, with each episode focusing on one continent.
BBC Show ‘Seven Worlds, One Planet’ Reveals Earth’s Wonders Using Drones
It’s certainly not the first time that there were shows like this; however, this could possibly be the first time that drones were used to shoot and capture essential footage in a TV show broadcast on a national network to a public audience. Whereas before helicopters were relied on to get decent aerial footage, producers and TV crew nowadays are lucky that they get to take advantage of drone technology. Modern drones offer a lot of sophisticated features and also have a long-lasting battery, which makes them a low-cost but efficient alternative to using helicopters. Another advantage they have is that they’re also environmentally friendly. The team behind Seven Worlds, One Planet took note of the particular advantages drones offer when they took them to our planet’s seven continents to capture the unique, epic beauty of each.
Episode 1: Antarctica
The series started off with the continent that’s widely known as the coldest and most hostile one: Antarctica. Drones were instrumental in capturing sights unique to Antarctica like the Weddell seals that would grind the ice around them with their teeth or the massive elephant seals fighting against each other for their own territory.
Episode 2: Asia
The next stop in the series was the largest continent, Asia. The BBC team also used drones to show off the majestic and extreme diverse beauty of the continent. They featured creatures like the brown bears of Russia roaming the remote volcanoes of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the orangutans cavorting among tree branches in the rich Indonesian rainforests.
Episode 3: South America
The third episode was dedicated to the South American continent, considered the most species-rich continent on the planet. From the Andes volcanoes to the Amazon rainforests, drones were there to capture every exotic scene, whether it was that of a puma attempting to catch prey in Patagonia or Andean bears clambering about in a forest to search for fruit.
Episode 4: Australia
Episode 4 was all about the Land Down Under, the isolated continent—Australia. Cast adrift during the age of the dinosaurs and having been isolated for millions of years, the continent became home to so many marooned animals like the cassowaries, kangaroos, wombats, and Tasmanian devils.
Episode 5: Europe
Europe is a crowded continent, but it still boasts some of the most unconventional animals in small, random areas of wilderness. The Apennine Mountains of Italy, for instance, are where rare breeds of wolves hunt, while the forests of Spain harbor the Iberian lynx, a rare wild cat species.
Episode 6: North America
The North American continent is known for its extreme seasonal changes. For this reason, only the hardiest of animal species thrive here: from the burrowing owls and prairie dogs of spring to the Canada lynx during winter.
Episode 7: Africa
Africa—the land that has been blessed with the greatest and most diverse gatherings of wildlife species on the planet. Even with such a rich environment, the wildlife here still encounter challenges that are unique to the continent.
