When the BBC announced that they were about to release Dynasties, one of those epic nature series featuring David Attenborough, we were excited.

Two episodes have now aired over in the UK (rumour has it you can download them from torrent sites online), with the biggest talking point taking place in the second episode, which features a group of penguins in Antarctica.

The camera crew have come under fire for intervening to save a group of penguins that were trapped in a ravine, breaking the long-standing convention that you should always let nature take its course.

According to the Guardian, the penguins had been blown into the gully during a storm, and were trapped:

Nature film-makers are discouraged from intervening in the events they are attempting to capture on film. While the general principle is to avoid interfering with the natural course of events, the crew on the Dynasties series stepped in when they saw the birds’ predicament…

In what BBC Earth described as an “unprecedented move”, the crew dug a shallow ramp so some of the penguins would be able to use it to save themselves.

Here’s the clip that stirred up controversy:

Series like Dynasties are often criticised for manufacturing drama by splicing different scenes together, but this time it was the intervention that was hotly debated:

Veteran wildlife cameraman Doug Allan, whose work has been lauded by Attenborough, described the convention of not interfering as a “cardinal rule”. He said: “If [for example] you’re watching a predator and prey relationship, the key thing is your presence must not influence the outcome.”

But Allan said he saw no problem with the film crew’s intervention. “Interfering or not is a decision based on what you’re seeing at the time. To interfere on a predation event is definitely wrong but, in this situation, they didn’t spook the penguins. All they did was create an escape route for them,” he said. Allan explained it would have been a far more stressful situation for the penguins had the film crew decided to pick them up and move them.

He added: “I certainly think, in that case, what they did was entirely justifiable and entirely understandable. I would have done the same thing in their situation.”

Mike Gunton, the show’s executive producer, backed his crew:

“In the 30 years I’ve been doing this, it’s one of the very few occasions when we’ve ever done anything like this because it’s a very unusual situation. Normally, you don’t interfere, you can’t interfere, or you wouldn’t interfere because of all sorts of consequences.”

And now for the million dollar question – what does David himself think?

While it has previously been reported that Attenborough had opposed the move, saying that “tragedy is a part of life”, Gunton said that the presenter had told him he also would have rescued the penguins.

If it’s good enough for David, it’s good enough for me.

Oh, and a reminder that there’s another Attenborough series called Our Planet due to arrive next year.

[source:guardian]