Mayo goes wild

STARS OF THE SHOW John McCarthy, Commissioning Editor with RTÉ, John Tiernan, Louisburgh Wildlife cameraman, Colin Stafford-Johnson and Crossmolina-based Director, Gillian Marsh, of GMTV Productions, at the launch of ‘Living the Wildlife’, in the Ice House in Ballina.

Mayo production company goes wild on RTÉ

Áine Ryan

IT is hard to believe it is almost 45 years since Éamon de Buitléar and Gerrit Van Gelderen first broadcast the popular RTÉ wildlife series, ‘Amuigh Faoin Spéir’. Certainly, this country’s social, cultural and physical landscape has changed remarkably since. Undoubtedly, our natural habitats have been transformed and threatened too ironically, in the name of Celtic Tiger progress. Think of the elusive and fast-fading corncrake. Crek, crek, Crek, crek. 
On April 1 next – courtesy of the innovative Crossmolina-based GMTV – RTÉ will return to the traditional wildlife series format, and broadcast the first programme of ‘Living the Wildlife’. It is filmed and presented by Emmy award-winning Irish cinematographer, Colin Stafford-Johnson, who now lives in County Mayo.
Over two decades, Mr Stafford-Johnson has tracked and filmed wildlife all over the world, including tigers in India, jaguars in the Amazon and birds of paradise in New Guinea. Last week, at RTÉ Factual’s launch in Ballina’s Ice House Hotel, he regaled and mesmerised the gathering with tales of the hilarity and frustration of many of these quests. However, for a cameraman who has been chased by bears and charged by tigers, it was a more low-key moment he chose to highlight for his enthralled audience.
Basically, Stafford-Johnson went off on a whim to Guyana for the BBC’s ‘Planet Earth’ for a couple of months in the hope of capturing a jaguar on film. It was supposed to be the dry season but it rained all the time. (A little like last summer when he got weatherbound on the Inishkeas for the RTÉ series.)
Anyway, on his first morning filming in Guyana, he was greeted with a giant deadly tarantula which had slept in his shoe. Rumour had it that there was a jaguar in the vicinity the previous day. Nonetheless, the only wildlife that caught Stafford-Johnson’s avid attention on his first day filming was a menacing looking cayman (crocodile) that suddenly submerged in a characteristic pre-attack move. Then there were the stingrays and electric eels.
After 120 days shooting from dawn until dusk, the intrepid cameraman only managed to get a ten-second shot of the fleet jaguar. To make matters worse, the BBC ultimately chose not to use the shot, but did do a radio programme on the trip instead.
“It was probably one of the most expensive wildlife programmes the BBC ever did,” said Stafford-Johnson glibly.
In the RTÉ series Colin takes to the road in his camper van and, as he journeys across Ireland,  discovers all sorts of wildlife, along with a few wild characters that also share his passion for nature. Following a trail of milk cartons, he finds an urban fox family living on a farm on the edge of Dublin. Back in Mayo he meets well-known Louisburgh farmer, John Tiernan, who adapted his farming practices to ensure the continued return of the corncrake.
“The corncrake hadn’t been here for years and arrived back, out of the blue, in about 2001 to my farm in Doughmakeon. Every year now, it comes back on the same date (May 14) and onto the same patch of ground,” said John Tiernan.
He also told The Mayo News that bird-watchers and ornithology enthusiasts now turn up every year from all over Connacht to try and spot the elusive corncrake yet to be seen by Tiernan himself.
“One night I was in the shower and I heard it back again. Well, I jumped out and threw a few clothes on myself and phoned Michael Commins’ show on Mid-West and the listeners could all hear it crekking away live over my mobile,” he continued.
While John Tiernan’s tale is a positive one, ornithology academic, Mr Derek McLoughlin, relates a salutary tale about the possible extinction of the less garrulous twite. Up to 100 years ago the twite was in evidence in every county in the country now there are only about 100 breeding pairs left, and, tellingly, they are mainly found near the gaeltachts of Mayo and Donegal.
“As farming practices changed dramatically over the last 30 years, these birds disappeared dramatically. They are solely seed-eaters and can’t depend on vertebrates for food, so hay would be an important source of food,” explained Derek McLoughlin. He is presently pursuing a doctorate on the subject matter.
“After CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] and all the EU subsidies were introduced you can graphically follow their dramatic decrease,” he also said.
For Series Producer, Gillian Marsh, the production of ‘Living the Wildlife’ was very exciting and, moreover, timely.
“To me this is a very important series, as a producer and a parent. There is a whole generation of children out there who don’t know what’s under ragwort.”
Or as Colin Stafford-Johnson observed earlier – in light of the programme’s launch on the edge of the majestic Moy estuary – the ridgepool is replete with lapreys, a species that has been around for over 250 million years and predates the dinosaur.