Courtesy of Ardee Music:
While watching nature documentaries I have always had the prevailing feeling that no matter how fascinating they are, the mantra of not interfering with nature is wrong, and that letting animals that could have been saved, to die is grossly unfair. I strongly disagree with the assumption that we have the right to make vast sums of money from the documentaries, the accompanying books, talks, and merchandise but give nothing in return to the animals that have provided our bounty.
Additionally, we humans will go to any lengths to prolong our own lives, be it by transplants, all manner of medical treatments and research, vaccinations, but we insist that the rule of not intervening in the case of wild animals in need is unbreakable.
I write about this now because I read a book ‘My Penguin Year’ by Lindsay McCrae. The author is without a doubt an exceptional man; intelligent, focused, gifted, friendly, thoughtful, eager to help and please others, in short, every mother would want to take him home to meet her daughter. Becky, his wife, is indeed a lucky woman. Let me elaborate here and explain how I have formed such an opinion.
At the age of twelve, Lindsay was the happiest spending all his spare time and evenings watching the wildlife almost on his doorstep; the badgers, the fox cubs, the birds in the trees, the swaying in the wind bluebells, and even a snail climbing a fallen log.
He grew up in Cumbria on the edge of the Lake District National Park, surrounded by a beautiful landscape – mountains just a stone’s thrown away, woods and a lake. At fourteen he wrote to the BBC’s British wildlife programme Springwatch and gave them all the details of the wildlife he saw every day. He included a map of the location of all the wildlife he discovered and suggested that they could film the next series in Cumbria.
The Springwatch team, impressed by his passion for nature, decided to make a short film with Lindsay included in the programme. He was filmed in his camouflage, an old army scrim net draped around, and was shown with three badger cubs and their mother playing within just a few yards. The filming and the many complimentary messages from viewers strengthened Lindsay’s decision to be a nature filmmaker. His mother lent him the money to buy a second-hand camera and he was on his way to achieve his dream. As he kept his contacts with the Springwatch team and sent them his films, impressed by his enthusiasm, they offered him the job of a runner when he finished school. It wasn’t long before he was given a camera-assisting job and this gave him a break into the industry.
A few years later he was offered a dream job, to film a colony of emperor penguins in Antarctica for a whole year. By then, Lindsay was living in Cumbria, with his girlfriend Becky in the house they had just bought together, and with their two dogs, Willow and Ivy. The offer was of particular interest to him because since watching David Attenborough’s Planet Earth in 2006, he had been dreaming of going to see and film those magnificent creatures. When he had met Becky six years previously, he told her that this was his greatest wish, and she remembered this, which also says something about her selfless character because she agreed to him going for such a long time. As always, Lindsay made the right decision; he proposed, they got married and from then on it took a whole year of intense preparations for his stay in Antarctica, a place at the end of the world.
Courtesy of Explore Enigma:
In preparation for his journey to Antarctica, the gruelling medical procedures included removing his appendix and his wisdom teeth, plus endless blood tests and X-rays, ultrasounds, scans, dental checks, a visit to the optician, and even more tests, to ensure that it wouldn’t be necessary for him to be operated on during his long stay, although there was a surgeon present at the station. The BBC team included two more people who would be supportive of each other during the filming. Lindsay also discovered that it would be easier to evacuate someone from the International Space Station than from Antarctica. In case of a serious medical emergency, the likelihood of actually getting anyone out was almost nil as there were no planes. Wisely he kept this information to himself and said nothing to Becky. As Lindsay and Becky always wanted to have children, they made the decision not to wait for at least two years, before his return and were overjoyed when Becky become pregnant. It meant though Becky and the dogs relocating to the Midlands to live with her parents.
Below two photos of the spectacular Aurora at Antarctica:
The BBC team departed for Antarctica in December 2016 and after complex travelling, they arrived at the Novo airbase and Neumayer III research station where they were going to stay during the filming of the emperor penguin colonies, The research station is positioned on the Queen Maud Land region of Antarctica. The 2.7-million-square-kilometre area was claimed by the Norwegians in 1939 after they first set foot on it in 1930. The whole area is covered by a thick ice sheet with a few bare rocks protruding from the snow. The flat expanses of a never-ending sheet of white ice allowed one to see as far as the curvature of the Earth on the horizon. The air was pure but the blinding glow of the snow required wearing heavily tinted sunglasses that in the UK were illegal to wear for driving. The station was a state of the art model of a research centre. It incorporated 60 people of various skills and was run like clockwork.
On the first day of their stay, Lindsay and his colleague, Will, were given a tour of the area and some time away from the station they were shown a black line on the horizon – the penguins. Desperate to see the birds, Lindsay got off the snowmobile but before he could move forward on foot, the penguins spotted him. What followed next is quite incredible to read – two emperors began to rush over. In Lindsay’s words: ‘I’d never had a wild animal come speeding towards me like this and it felt an honour to be trusted. I dropped to my knees and sat back on my ankles, letting the two birds come as close as they felt comfortable. I didn’t dare to move in case I surprised them but as they approached almost to touching distance of their bellies, I felt maybe I should move out of their way. But just before I did, they both rose to their feet, bowed and with their signature trumpet call, introduced themselves. On my knees, I was the same height as they were at well over a metre tall, and I could see straight into their eyes. The pair were so close I could see every fibre on every feather. They seemed so relaxed standing just a few feet away and I could feel their charming and peaceful personas.’ The time of this first encounter with penguins was summer, the period of just over two months of twenty-four-hours daylight when the sun skims the horizon at midnight without disappearing below. At that moment it was difficult to think of the approaching horror of never-ending winter, with blizzards, darkness, snowdrifts, and temperatures of at most -40 degrees C. This was the time when emperor penguins were raising their chicks.
Courtesy of Nature on PBS:
I have to digress here and mention again why I think so highly of Lindsay. At the research station, he volunteered to help with whatever needed doing, like carrying inside boxes of delivered food supplies. He felt that the time between filming could not be seen as a time of doing nothing, reading or writing, while others at the station had to work.
The following months Lindsay filmed every aspect of emperor penguins’ lives. From courtship of those who were single to the appearance of an egg, never filmed before, the exchange of the egg between the female and male, the incubating of the egg by keeping it inside a pouch above the father’s feet, and well covered for protection by feathers, the departure of females to feed somewhere unknown far away, to finally the emergence from an egg of the cutest baby. But there were times when filming in atrocious weather conditions was dangerous for Lindsay and difficult to survive for the penguins.
After months of winter, finally, spring arrived. The females came back to meet their offspring. Lindsay and his colleagues started planning their lives back home and continued filming the young chicks being introduced to the outside world. And then disaster struck. Parallel to the ice shelf, a vast narrow crack opened up. Looking down into its depths, Lindsay could see chicks desperately trying to scramble out, attempting to climb the near-vertical walls of ice. Directly below him, about five metres down Lindsay could see that one adult lifted his head and looked him straight in the eye. On its feet was its chick. In his own words: ‘I couldn’t bear it. I had spent so long with the penguins and gone through almost every moment of their breeding season with them, and they felt like family’. After the interruption of very bad weather, Lindsay and Will went back to the gully. From the bottom of the gully, they started to dig into the slope, moving upwards. They formed a narrow but much shallower ramp that would potentially allow the adults to shuffle up with their chicks. Within minutes the first adult scrambled up. Others followed suit. Lindsay knew that without his help the penguins would have died a long and painful death from starvation and hypothermia. He just couldn’t just let it happen. Seeing them climbing to freedom gave Lindsay ‘an incredible feeling of joy and relief’. He thought that his actions would be seen as controversial, that some people would claim the averted tragedy was part of the ‘natural process’. In an article about his book, Lindsay apologised for breaking the rule. His book should be read by everyone interested in nature, and it is wonderfully well written, a riveting account of a year spent in the company of enchanting creatures – the emperor penguins.
Courtesy of BBC Earth:
This is the reason I wrote about my feelings of dismay about this cruel and stupid rule. My message to Lindsay would be: please don’t apologise for being a truly decent human being. On behalf of penguins that you have saved and those of us like-minded humans, thank you.
It is good news that now the rules have changed, and you can help any animal in need such as seals wrapped in fishermen’s discarded nets, and any others. In my view, anyone who sees someone in need of help but does nothing cannot think of himself as being a human being!
Below are some of the other creatures who live at Antarctica.
Courtesy of Luke Maximo Bell:
naturetails 
I’m with you, Joanna! Our hero definitely did the right thing, and it’s appalling that he felt he had to apologize. All the videos and photos are superb, but the one of the moving huddle will, I believe, remain with me. Thank you for your fine work! Cheers, Annie
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Wonderful post, Joanna! I had never thought of Antarctica as a desert before, but I can understand that designation.
I am glad to hear that the thinking about helping animals in distress is changing, especially since it is human activity that often puts them at risk…seabirds coated in oil from an oil spill or animals choking in plastic waste, for example.
I know that many of the deer in Shenandoah National Park, near where I used to live, would not have survived the winter without the food provided by the park service.
The story of Lindsay and his family is inspiring, and I very much enjoyed the videos of the penguins!
Thank you, Joanna. ❤️
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Thank you so much, dear Cheryl, for your thoughtful comments which are greatly appreciated!
Joanna xx
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Thank you, Annie, for your wonderful comments which are deeply appreciated!
Joanna x
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Lindsay is an incredible human being and that was an incredible post Joanna. I have always loved to watch the penguins and had the good fortune of seeing them in the wild in New Zealand and Australia. Thanks for sharing the story. Allan
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He absolutely did the right thing.
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Thank you, Neil, for your wonderful comment which is much appreciated!
Joanna
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Thank you, Allan, for your beautiful comments which are greatly appreciated!
Joanna
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I remember you writing about Lindsay before Joanna and I also remember saying to you that I totally agreed with you about helping an animal in distress. That said, I don’t remember all the details as they are in this latest post, but whether they’re the same or been amended, it’s still a fantastic post and I’ve loved reading every word – but then, I always do.
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Thank you, Malc, for your wonderful comments which are as always, much appreciated!
Joanna
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Dear Joanna,
Hope you are doing good 😊
I always love the way you bring nature and its creatures to life through your words! Your post on Wildlife of the Desert Penguin is not just informative but magical, making readers feel like they’re right there witnessing it. The beautiful blend of pictures, videos, and details steals the heart every time. I also admire how you add books and authors to your posts, making them even more enriching and insightful. Your passion for nature, animals, and birds shines through, making each post a delight to read. Keep sharing these amazing stories. 🤗❤️
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Thank you, dear Suma, for your wonderfully analytical comments! Your kind words of praise are deeply appreciated!
Joanna x
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Remarkable Nature!
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A good and thoughtful article.
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Thank you, Steve, for your lovely comments! Your kind words are much appreciated!
Joanna
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I agree with you, Joanna. Our species has caused so much devastation to the planet, we should offer assistance to other creatures whenever we can. I remember reading about this film crew helping those penguins. I would not have been able to turn away either. Those birds are incredible. We didn’t go to where they are but were privileged see many other types of penguins on the Antarctic Peninsula as well as in the Falklands. To walk among them was so special. Many years ago I read a book by Apsley Cherry-Garrard called The Worst Journey in the World in which he told the story of going in search of the Emperor Penguins. Hair-raising and fascinating! It was so lovely to read this and to see those beautiful creatures. Thank heaven for people like Sir David and this young man. And thank you, too Joanna for your posts.
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Thank you, Carolyn, for the readers like you, and your wonderful comments! I agree with your thoughts that we should understand that we have a duty to protect the nature of our planet, the only one we have.
Thank you again, Carolyn, for your thoughts which are much appreciated!
Joanna x
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This is soo, so beautiful, Joanna! And of course Lindsay was right to save them. What wonderful photography and heart warming stories 🤗💕
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Thank you, Harini, for your beautiful comments which are deeply appreciated!
Joanna xx
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Everything is so beautiful and thoughtful! Thank you Joanna.
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Thank you so much, Dorothy, for your wonderful comments which are greatly appreciated!
Joanna x
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It is so sad. Humans haven’t done enough for these poor animals!
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Thank you, Joanna, for sharing such a thoughtful and compassionate post. I completely agree with your opening remarks. While anyone may earn money by creating videos, films, and documentaries, a portion of those earnings should be dedicated to the welfare of the animals who are the subjects of their work.
This reminds me of photographers and filmmakers who build their careers by portraying drought, famine, poverty, and human suffering around the world, yet often do little to improve the lives of those they capture. One cannot forget the tragic story of Kevin Carter, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his haunting photograph of a starving Sudanese girl watched by a vulture, only to later take his own life, weighed down by guilt and remorse.
Your praise for Lindsay and his book is therefore well deserved. You’ve beautifully described how his passion for wildlife began early in life. When, after his short film with the Springwatch team, he was offered the dream opportunity to film a colony of emperor penguins in Antarctica, his joy was boundless as he prepared for the journey with Will.
His efforts to capture every aspect of the penguins’ lives are truly commendable, but even more admirable is the compassion and humanity he showed — qualities that define us as human beings. It’s heartening to know that good samaritans like him no longer need to apologise for doing what’s right.
Thank you once again, Joanna, for this wonderful post, enriched with engaging videos and beautiful images.
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Thank you so much, Kaushal, for your wonderfully analytical comments which made my day! Your philosophical thoughts always add to my delight when reading your words, and I know and appreciate the uniqueness that you represent as a rare human being! I wish I could clone you as the world needs more people like you!
Joanna
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Thank you, Chen Song Ping, for your lovely and kind comments which are much appreciated!
Joanna x
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No need to clone me, I’m not that special, Joanna! You’re a marvellous human being who has a gift to read and write such exceptional articles that naturally inspire responses, including mine. You’re doing a wonderful job, keep it up! Wishing you all the best, and you’re always welcome.
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You are special, Kaushal, because you were created by the teachings of your beloved mother. Thank you for your kind words of praise, and I will do my best not to disappoint you.
Joanna
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You are welcome, Joanna!
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Thank you, GP, for your kind comment which is much appreciated.
Joanna
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🐧❤️
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Thank you, Filipa, for your wonderful comment which is much appreciated!
Joanna x
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It’s your graciousness, Joanna. Thank you so much for your most generous words!
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Thank you, Kaushal, and you are welcome, as always!
Joanna
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This story is so heartwarming. I’m so glad he was able to help them escape the ice. Wonderful share Joanna, as always.
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Great post, Joanna! I enjoyed every word of it, as well as the superb photos and videos. I found Lindsay and his family’s story so inspiring
I had never thought of Antarctica as a desert before either, but now I can understand this definition.
I’m happy to know that the way of thinking about helping animals in need is changing, especially since it’s human activities that often put them at risk
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Thank you, dear Luisa, for your wonderful comments which are much appreciated!
Joanna x
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You’re more than welcome, my dear friend ❣️
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Thank you, dear Luisa!
Joanna x
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Brilliant hope-affirming post, Joanna. I love how the penguins bowed to Lindsay and he returned the honor. I have seen March of the Penguins numerous times and thought about the unknown videographers and what they must have gone through to capture those shots. This may be one of my favorites of your posts.
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Thank you so much, Pat, for your wonderfully thoughtful comments! I thought you would like this post, although many interesting posts will follow.
Joanna
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Would expect nothing less, Joanna. Sounds like you are back home now. Hope everything is to your exacting standards.
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I leave the judgment to my readers, Pat!
Joanna
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A wonderful, thoughtful post. I am happy that the penguins were helped. Humans have impacted the world in a very negative way with regard to “nature.” It is only right that we help the creatures and habitat that we have harmed.
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Thank you, Diana, for your wonderfully analytical comments! Your thoughts resonate with me and are much appreciated!
Joanna
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Thanks Joanna for your yet another outstanding post describing about the Wildlife of the Cold Desert & how well the Penguins adapt in the extreme climatic conditions!Your depiction of the cold desert life through mesmerising images & videos is amazing & par excellence !I completely agree with your observation that everyone should dedicate a portion of ones earnings to the welfare of the animals !Thanks for sharing such a nice post!Namastey !
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Thank you so much, Dhirendra, for your wonderfully thoughtful comments! Your kind words are deeply appreciated! Namaste!
Joanna
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Namastey, Joanna 🙏
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Thank you, Dhirendra, you are very kind!
Joanna
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I just love this post of the penguins, Joanna. I finally had a chance to fully enjoy it. Their gifts are so many and you certainly gave them the justice they so deserve and compiled and incredible documentary of their existence. My friends project, the Arctic Ice just folded sadly. We need to help however we can. Thank you for this wonderful post! 💓
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Thank you, Cindy, for your wonderful comments which are much appreciated! There is a new documentary by Sir David Attenborough specially dedicated to oceans and how to reverse harmful human activity in all kinds of marine habitats. It is well worth to see as he creates masterpieces!
Joanna
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