Through the lens

Wildlife cameraman Bertie Gregory has travelled all over the world in pursuit of the perfect shot. He talks to Rosie Paterson about a few of his favourite moments

- Rosie Paterson

HAVE you experienced climate change first hand, I ask Bertie Gregory— the 26-year-old BAFTA-award-winning wildlife cameraman. ‘Yes, 100%. You can’t get away from it. Every shoot I go on, the seasons are out of whack, the animals are out of whack. Every scientist and guide you talk to says: “It used to be more predictable.”’

Mr Gregory—the name behind the headline-making shot of a polar bear leaping into a pod of beluga whales in the BBC’s 2019 Seven Worlds One Planet—is quick to admit that he has benefited hugely from the natural world, but also keen to point out that he’s genuinely passionate about it. The companies he works for—including the BBC and National Geographic—offset the carbon footprint of their productions and he is personally funding the planting of a forest in Dorset. ‘These stories need to get told. If they aren’t told, people aren’t going to know about them.’ Apart from climate change, the cameraman and sometime presenter is working to get the trophy hunting of wolves banned in British Columbia. ‘It’s all well and good if we care about wolves saying “we need to stop climate change”, but if there are no wolves left when we’ve solved that problem [climate change] in 100 years or so, that’s going to be a real shame.’