Planet Earth III heartbreak as adorable wolf and two pups drowned after filming

05 November 2023 , 19:18

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The mother wolf and two of her three puppies drowned in drainage ditches on neighbouring farmland

The mother maned wolf and two of the three pups featured in tonight's Planet Earth III were found dead shortly after filming ended.

The tragic discovery came after film-makers and scientific researchers had tracked the shy, fruit-eating mammals in Brazil’s Cerrado grassland, and were delighted to achieve a record first by filming inside a den.

But once the BBC crew had left, following a three-year collaboration with local scientists, the mother wolf Nhorinha and two pups were discovered drowned in one of the drainage ditches on neighbouring farmland.

The maned wolf puppies which featured in Planet Earth (BBC Studios)

In the story sequence, which also featured in the Making Of… section at the end of last night’s Deserts & Grasslands episode on BBC1, viewers saw how the wolves were under intense threat from farmers who use fire to clear the grassland in order to grow huge swathes of crops.

The wolves, which are red in colour and have especially long legs, have already lost 50% of their habitat in Pousada Trijuncao.

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Producer and Director Kiri Cashell said: “The death of our maned wolf, Nhorinha, and her puppies is truly heart-breaking. We spent three years working with scientists to better understand this species, and the footage we were able to capture from inside the den provides such an intimate look into the first few weeks of these puppies’ lives.

The crew successfully captured the first images inside the den of a wild maned wolf (BBC Studios/Tom Greenhalgh)

“Sadly since filming ended, we have discovered that the mother and two of her puppies fell into drainage ditches which are used to feed the crops of neighbouring farmland. Unable to escape, the wolves drowned.”

Kiri said that the deaths were not isolated because a number of the wolves wearing the electronic tracking collars had already been found dead. “It’s a really sad representation of what’s going on, and a reflection of the big problem facing the whole species,” she said.

Cameraman Mark MacEwen films the cerrado grasslands (BBC Studios/Tom Greenhalgh)

“More and more, farmland is encroaching onto the Cerrado. This is a vitally important grassland and some predict it could disappear completely in the next thirty years. The death of these maned wolves is an upsetting and poignant reminder of what could be lost.”

In proportion to its size, the Cerrado is being destroyed more than two times faster than the Amazon rainforest to clear land for farming.

In the programme, narrator Sir David Attenborough explained that if the maned wolves disappeared altogether from the region it could trigger the collapse of the entire ecosystem. He warned: “At the current rate of habitat destruction, these may be some of the last maned wolves to survive in the wild.”

Researcher Barbara Do Conto Peret Dias said that conservationists were working hard to find solutions. “I feel quite worried but not hopeless,” she said. “I grew up here, it’s my home, I have to protect it.”

Nicola Methven