WILDLIFE DOCUMENTARIES

• Snake killers: Honey badgers of the Kalahari - National Geographic Special

Produced by David and Carol Hughes , filmed by David & Carol Hughes and Keith & Colleen Begg. First released on the National Geographic Channel in November 2001.  For three years David and Carol, along with Keith and Colleen Begg followed and filmed the lives of habituated wild badgers in the Kalahari wilderness as part of the first intensive study of these amazing carnivores. 

" Honey badgers may look innocent, about the size of an average dog, but these fearless foragers prey on more than 60 different species in the Kalahari, including some of the region's most dangerous snakes. One honey badger was seen eating over 30 feet of snakes in just three days. Join honey badger experts-Keith and Colleen Begg- who through research, film and photography have compiled the most extensive study to date of honey badgers in the wild. Their cameras capture not only the heroic saga of a remarkable couple working in the wild, but the natural history of  one of the world's most unique and extraordinary creatures" National Geographic Channel highlights.

In 2002 this film won 1st Place in the Animal Behaviour Category at the International Wildlife Film Festival (Missoula) and was nominated for The Chris Award for Science and Technology at the Columbus Film and Video Festival. In 2003 it won best Animal behaviour at the Jackson Hole Film Festival, USA. It also won best Animal Behaviour at the Japanese Wildlife Film Festival  and best Scientific Film at the FIFA International Wildlife Film Festival in 2003.

•  "The Meanest Animal in the World?"   Survival Special       

Filmed and produced by Simon Trevor who spent more than ten years accumulating sequences for this documentary on the honey badger. Simon lives near the Tsavo National Park, Kenya where he filmed badgers both in the wild and in captivity at his home. This film is entirely dedicated to badgers and the main sequences include a badger raiding a beehive within a hollow log, and shows the Greater honeyguide arriving later to collect the honey comb remains. There are also sequences of badgers digging for dung beetle pupae and searching for rodents along with Pale Chanting Goshawks. Final sequences show interactions between a male and female badger at a refuge in a termite mound and eight male badgers competing for a leopard's impala carcass. See the site below for  information on how this film was made.

http://www.angliatv.com/survival/factsheets/surv14.html 

• The following films include sequences of badger behaviour:           

"The Velvet Claw", by David Macdonald (episode 7 "tough at the top") shows a badger displacing a leopard from its kill, in a tree.

"Kalahari - Wilderness without water", filmed by Anthony Bannister and Richard Goss show badgers hunting with Pale Chanting Goshawk.

"Black Jack - High Stakes", filmed by Kim Wolhuter in Etosha National Park, Namibia. This film is about Black-backed jackals, but includes scenes of a badger killing a leguaan and a jackal pup. 

"Land of the Tiger", filmed by the BBC, this series covers India and includes a sequence of a honey badger placing various objects together to reach a kingfisher nest.