Bear Grylls’ cameraman spent three weeks on a crumbling mountain ledge battered by wind, ice and giant mosquitos to film this heart-breaking footage of day-old chicks plummeting down a 400ft drop in search of food.
National Geographic’s new series Hostile Planet shows the moment exhausted barnacle geese arrive in Jameson Land, Greenland, after an early spring forces them to rush their migration.
The adorable birds try to increase their chances of survival by building their nests on snowy clifftops to stop prevent predators from eating their chicks.
However, they are dangerously hungry and will starve to death in the hostile environment if they don’t eat a meal within 36 hours.
Devastatingly, the grass they feed on is located a mile away and a 400ft drop separates them.
And the odds are against them too, with only 50% of the chicks born on the cliff tops surviving the first month of life.
But with no other choice, the furry creatures – who have tiny fluffy wings but won’t be able to fly for another month – are left with no choice but to risk death and leap off the side of the cliff.
Miraculously, one of them manages to survive, despite hurling at high speed onto the rocky terrain below.
Cinematographer Mateo Willis, who filmed the footage using a camera mounted on a crane, revealed he risked his life to capture the heart-stopping moment.
“The problem with those cliffsides is they’re incredibly broken.
“Over many years the ice has fractured the rocks and it’s like standing on top of a pile of bricks.
“It’s like very bad Jenga. I was perched on this unstable platform not much bigger than a bathtub and on this unstable ground, I had probably about 200 kilos of cranes, weights and a very expensive camera.
“I watched that nest sitting on a little ledge for three weeks.”
Mateo experienced battled with severe weather conditions such as snowstorms and sunshine as he filmed the show.
He said: “The weather went from everything to below zero with 50mph winds with ice forming on the tents, and snowdrifts building up to being dead still, 15 degrees with swarms of huge giant mosquitos the size of horses descending on you.
“Sometimes you’d long for the wind to come back and then it would come back and you would long for it to stop again.”
As for the chicks, Mateo admitted the crew couldn’t help becoming emotionally invested in them, all the while knowing heartbreak was ahead.
He revealed: “Apart from a satellite phone link for a conversation once a week these chicks become your entire world, your whole focal point.
“You have nothing else to focus on and you want every one of those chicks to make it and when they don’t it is heart rendering.
“You really feel for the effort they’ve gone to.
“You sit there with the parents for so long and then they lose one chick, then lose a second chick and you’re thinking, ‘Come on guys, you can do this!’
“Even if one chick gets through, that feels like a bittersweet victory.”
Hostile Planet premieres on Sunday, April 28, at 9pm on National Geographic
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