Lost Land of the Jaguar

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Has anyone else been watching this on the BBC?

It's been fascinating, and kinda bushcrafty too with elements of tracking, identifying animal sign, hammock/tarp camping etc.

I missed the last episode yesterday but managed to catch it on iPlayer just now. The tepui (sp?) climb was gripping stuff (excuse the pun ).

I thought it was one of the best nature type programmes I've seen for a long time. Not very informative but enthusiastically presented and quite different from the voice-over style Attenborough shows which tend to leave me feeling a little detatched from what's going on.


It's well worth looking up if you missed it.

 

[Twoflower]

A year or so back there was a similar thing on the beeb with the same team (sans Gordon B) in Borneo. It was on in the early hours, so I was happy to see the same format on at a reasonable hour.

It's good to see programs about parts of the world that are not normally brought to our attention, and also it would seem the expidition itself had a purpose (namely surveying an untouched part of rainforest and telling the government that owns it what animals are there).

 

[Jedadiah]

I watched it an loved it! As you say, not the most informative about certain things but the enthusiasm of the presenters was infectious. Highlights for me were the giant otters and the Eagle, though i have to say i smiled when i saw the giant anteater. Gordon Buchanan is really coming along well as a presenter to say he's originally a camera man; none of this screaming and shouting when he get's excited, just a respectful enthusiasm. Mind you, wildlife camera people are like snipers; any over exuberance can compromise their position and therefore their task.

Yes, i hope they find another place to do this type of thing again. It's nicely filled a gap between Spring Watch, Autumn Watch, Big Cat Diary and anything else with Simon King and Kate Humble in!

 

[Humpback]

I must be a minority as I felt it concentrated too much on the film-makers/presenters for my liking and so stoppped watching after episode 2.
Alan

 

[Lurch]

I must be a minority as I felt it concentrated too much on the film-makers/presenters for my liking and so stoppped watching after episode 2.
Alan

Agreed.
Though I kept watching it.

 

[firecrest]

I started a thread on this yesterday but my computer crashed before I finished it!
I enjoyed the programe, especially the discovery of new species, however, I found the climb a bit too bear grylls for my liking, and if the filming was broke down, we saw far more of the presenters antics than the animals. I felt that some of the shots were suspect and set up - we saw a boulder fall from the climb just as the camera was pointing down to show a wiley coyote fall to the bottom of the ravine, and anyway, the helecopter was flying over the damn mountain why did they need to spend 3 days climbing it, which took over 3 quaters of the airtime? If it were a proper scientific study then they aught to have spent as much time surveying as possible and as less time as possible with the heroics.

That said, it has been a fascinating watch. I loved the crawl through the hollow tree, moths and bugs get me all excited in a way no jaguar ever can.

 

[Twoflower]

and anyway, the helecopter was flying over the damn mountain why did they need to spend 3 days climbing it, which took over 3 quaters of the airtime? If it were a proper scientific study then they aught to have spent as much time surveying as possible and as less time as possible with the heroics.

I've only ever done one first accent of a climb and it was nothing along the lines of a 3 dayer (more like a 10 minute job) and can safely say that there is a certain feeling you get when you do a first accent e.g. Everest .. why did they climb it? "Because it's there". It's a climbers mentality

 

[firecrest]

I've only ever done one first accent of a climb and it was nothing along the lines of a 3 dayer (more like a 10 minute job) and can safely say that there is a certain feeling you get when you do a first accent e.g. Everest .. why did they climb it? "Because it's there". It's a climbers mentality

I understand if they were going climbing ( I dabbled a tiny bit indoors at it myself some years back!) But they were supposed to be on a scientific expedition. Then at the top plateu, which was possibly never visited they had the cheek to keep complaining "gosh there is so little time to see anything!" It would have been much more beneficial to both the survey and the programe if a helecopter had dropped them. Instead they could only stay one day on the plateu after 3 days of time wasted.

 

[crazydave]

bushcrafty and too bear grylls what the heck are you lot on - it was a nature program following a bunch of experts up the jungle to see what they could find and thats what the program did.. pretty well considering as it could have been extremely boring. Instead we had git big spiders, soldier ants and scorpion hunts - I never knew you could find them with a UV light.

 

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...and scorpion hunts - I never knew you could find them with a UV light.

I'm fairly sure that's true of all scorpions. I think I remember reading somewhere that it's to do with the calcium present in the exoskeleton. Did they mention the reason in the show? My memory's terrible.

Originally Posted by firecrest
...the helecopter was flying over the damn mountain why did they need to spend 3 days climbing it, which took over 3 quaters of the airtime? If it were a proper scientific study then they aught to have spent as much time surveying as possible and as less time as possible with the heroics.

That said, it has been a fascinating watch. I loved the crawl through the hollow tree, moths and bugs get me all excited in a way no jaguar ever can.

Good point about the time spent climbing the mountain. I'm not too sure it was all that easy to land up there though - didn't they say something about a previous attempt to land that had to be aborted because the conditions weren't right?
However, if they could have landed then you're right, that was an odd waste of time when they were on such a tight schedule, no matter how interesting it was to watch.

I forgot about the hollow tree crawl, that was great I wouldn't have felt comfortable going in there and I think a good deal of people would feel the same for various reasons so it's good that there are people who aren't bothered by it and can go in and show us what's going on.
The whip spiders were fascinating.

 

[Twoflower]

I forgot about the hollow tree crawl, that was great I wouldn't have felt comfortable going in there and I think a good deal of people would feel the same for various reasons so it's good that there are people who aren't bothered by it and can go in and show us what's going on.

How could he not have been bothered by all them bites?!?!

I think the bit that stands out most in my mind was the size of the moths at the top of the tepiu .. amazing to see, but I wouldn't want one of them flying into my lightbulb at night

 

[Lurch]

didn't they say something about a previous attempt to land that had to be aborted because the conditions weren't right?

Not quite. The expedition landed but thought the conditions underfoot were too hazardous, so left.

 

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Not quite. The expedition landed but thought the conditions underfoot were too hazardous, so left.

Oh right, I really should pay more attention

In that case then yes, they did waste an awful lot of time climbing when they could've been helicoptered in and used the time researching and gathering valuable information.
I suppose it doesn't matter too much as they got the result they were after anyway when they presented their findings to the Guyanan President (his name escapes me, sorry).

Still, as exciting as the climb was it would've been more interesting to see more of the wildlife at the top of the tepui.