Meet the people going to the ends of the earth for your viral animal videos

The Galapagos – clouds settle on what looks like verdant mesas. Instead, they are active volcanoes, though not rumbling at the moment. On the black lava beach below, giant tortoises and land iguanas lumber past, ignoring one another. In the water, a small head bops. A penguin. It seems so unlikely here.

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To be fair, penguins are the embodiment of unlikely: flightless birds that waddle, acclimated to Earth’s harshest conditions. Over the years, some ventured to hotter climes, and here they are, in the South Pacific.

Their stories are told in Secrets of the Penguins, now streaming on Disney+. To show some of their habitats, National Geographic-Linblad Expeditions took a few journalists to what feels like the middle of nowhere.

The fourth in James Cameron’s Secrets Of series (following looks at whales, elephants and octopus), this three-part documentary has Blake Lively narrating – following Sigourney Weaver, Natalie Portman and Paul Rudd respectively.

Host and National Geographic Explorer Bertie Gregory marvels at how adorable they are, and how fascinating. He recalls observing chicks reacting to their parents leaving and noticing a few juveniles vanishing into the horizon. He followed.

“I was thinking, ‘They’re just going to turn around and go back the way they came,’” Gregory says. “They’ll realise they’ve made a mistake. But they didn’t. They just all started to jump off.”

By the end, about 700 emperor penguins had jumped off a 15-metre ice cliff into waters where killer whales lurk. No one had recorded this phenomenon on film before.

“We released the clip of that early on social media, and it just went gangbusters,” he says.

Having a video go viral is a goal among naturalists. The thinking is that, once made aware, people care. And if they care, they will help protect the planet. The leaping penguins are in the first of the three episodes timed for Earth Day.

Some of the series, naturally, unfolds on the kind of frozen tundra where we’re accustomed to seeing penguins. A team spent the winter in Antarctica at the Neumayer Station III, a German research centre, where temps dipped to -58 degrees. During nine months, director of photography Pete McCowen, recalls, “The polar night, 65 days of not seeing the sun was okay, but it definitely had an effect. I wouldn’t say it was depressing, but it kind of subdued me.”

The production team had to prepare for potential problems such as wires freezing or lenses cracking, since you can’t expect Amazon deliveries in the dead of Antarctica’s winter. The careful planning paid off, and the team notched several firsts.

In one sequence, a male emperor penguin prepares for his prime paternal duty – hatching a just-laid egg. Practising with a chunk of ice, carefully nudging it from his mate toward him. He must be careful, but quick. If the egg lingers more than a minute on the ice, the embryo freezes.

Another spectacular first captured was a rockhopper mum in the Falklands telling off a southern sea lion 70 times her size.

Executive producers explain that they consult scientists before laying claim to “the first” and all must pass National Geographic’s stringent vetting process. It’s also critical to find the right host – curious, likable, a bit of a daredevil but with a scientific background.

The sunny Bertie Gregory, a BAFTA-winning zoologist, fits the bill.

“[We needed] an authentic storyteller, someone who already knew about penguins and cared. They were the two most important things,” says Ruth Roberts, executive producer. “Bertie was perfect.”

Gregory’s emotions broadcast across his face in a way that allows viewers to experience moments with him. Watching him mourn the loss of a frozen empire chick, it’s clear he’s genuinely sad yet well aware of the cycle of life.

Sprinkled throughout the series are facts about the different penguin breeds, some of which mate for life. Emperor penguins can dive up to 528 metres and hold their breath for 32 minutes. Macaroni penguins eat 9.2 million tonnes of prey annually, making them the largest consumers of marine wildlife.

And the Galapagos penguin – he of the little head bopping up in the South Pacific – is the northernmost breed, living on the equator.

As the sun beats down, they nestle into lava rocks and pant to cool off. Underwater, they speed by like torpedoes, racing past marine iguanas. These black reptiles have long tails that propel their swimming. They look like spawns of Godzilla as they navigate the crystalline waters of these remote islands, where Darwin formed his theories.

This sort of aquatic adventure attracts those who enjoy deep-sea snorkeling and possess a fearless streak.

“I love penguins,” says Michelle Plane of Portarlington. “There is nothing not to love about penguins. They are cute. They are funny. They are uncoordinated. You can see yourself as a clumsy teenager.”

That’s just it; these creatures are adored. Seriously, if you meet someone who doesn’t smile at the mention of penguins, think carefully about pursuing a friendship. Yet as much as we purport to love these 18 breeds, they’re endangered by the climate crisis.

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Protecting the pristine nature of this archipelago, the Ecuadoran government enforces strict rules about where and how visitors interact with this magical land, marked by almost alien landscapes. Rabida’s red beach, a result of oxidised lava, looks like Mars. Blue-footed boobies and local marine birds perch on steep cliffs.

Heading into this series three years ago, Gregory had two goals: to show us animal behaviour we hadn’t seen before, and to demonstrate how climate change affects life everywhere.

“I hope [this] gets people talking about penguins again because they’re in big trouble around the world,” Gregory says. “And that’s a problem for penguins, but also a problem for us.”

Secrets of Penguins is on Disney+ now.

This writer travelled to the Galapagos as a guest of National Geographic.

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