A groundbreaking new National Geographic Channel series chronicling epic animal migration has been made possible with the expertise of a team of researchers from Swansea University led by Rory Wilson, Professor of Aquatic Biology.
The Great Migrations series, narrated by Stephen Fry, is currently airing on the National Geographic Channel and captures some of the planet’s most breathtaking species and their odysseys of survival.
Filming for the series involved using some of the Swansea Smart Tag Group’s revolutionary electronic logging tags, to track and analyse the behaviour of marine animals round the globe.
And the research revealed some surprising secrets about the way animals including elephant seals, penguins, cormorants, whales, and sharks live.
Professor Wilson, who was the lead consulting scientist for Great Migrations, said: “This is National Geographic Channel’s most ambitious television project to date and our team was pivotal in the science behind the work, which took us all over the world.
“We examined the behaviour of Sperm whales off the Azores, where they dive one kilometre down to the black, cold depths of the ocean in search of prey. The team attached devices to nesting Imperial cormorants and Magellanic penguins in windswept Patagonia and tracked them as they set forth to procure food for their brood.
“We also tagged and followed the movements of exotic sharks in the stunning, clear waters around Belize.”
Among the research they undertook, the Swansea team found that whale sharks, the largest fish on the planet, save energy during swimming by diving and rising in the water column in a series of waves, in much the same way as the many tiny song birds that grace our gardens.
They also documented how penguins use their natural buoyancy to shoot up from the depths to allow them to catch fast, elusive fish with little or no effort, and the extraordinary graceful underwater ballet of the world’s deepest diving pinnipeds, elephant seals, otherwise best known for their bloody fights, interspaced with lethargy on their breeding beaches.
“Understanding the movements and behaviour of marine animals that range widely is difficult but important,” added Professor Wilson.
“Mankind is bringing many changes to the planet and it is appropriate that we understand how our changes affect wildlife, even when it occurs in the depths of the oceans where it may be playing a pivotal role in structuring foodwebs.”
For more information about the National Geographic Channel series Great Migrations, visit http://natgeotv.com/uk/great-migrations/about.
For more information on the School of the Environment and Society at Swansea University, visit http://www.swansea.ac.uk/environment_society/.
