BBC Dynasties: What's it like following painted wolves?

Have you ever wondered what it'd be like to work on wildlife programmes like Planet Earth, Blue Planet, or Dynasties?

Getting to see the animals up close, and make new discoveries about them?

Newsround has been speaking to the producer of the latest episode of Dynasties 'Painted Wolves' to find out what's it's really like.

Nick Lyon and his BBC film crew have spent four years tracking and filming these special animals in Zimbabwe.

You'll be able to watch the Painted Wolf episode on Sunday 2 December at 8pm on BBC One.

What is Dynasties?

The series presented by Sir David Attenborough, follows a different animal family every week.

So far we've seen what it's like to live as a chimpanzee, Emperor penguin, and in a pride of lions.

This week we're meeting the painted wolf - also known as the African wild dog, and African hunting dog.

The main characters in this story are Tait - the alpha female, who is head of this dynasty - and her daughter Blacktip, who now leads her own wolf pack.

Tait has ruled her dynasty for many years on the banks of Zambezi river in Zimbabwe, but she is an aging leader.

Blacktip runs a very large pack of 30 wolves, and needs more space, so ends up challenging her mother for land.

Nick says what happens is "quite dramatic" but wouldn't tell us anymore before the episode airs.

What are painted wolves?

They are a rare species of wild dog only found in Africa.

The markings on their coat are unique to each dog, which helped the filming team be sure they were tracking the same group of painted wolves all the way through.

As they are relatively small at around 25kg, they are at the mercy of much larger predators, such as lion, hyena and crocodile.

The ears are used as radar and are an excellent tool for hunting.

Painted wolves used to be found in 39 African countries, and today it's claimed they're found in less than half of these.

These are the countries where painted wolves can still be found

There are estimated to be only 6,600 painted wolves left in the wild.

The reason their numbers are dropping is partly because they are a misunderstood and widely persecuted species.

Farmers consider them a threat and will generally shoot any that they see. But there isn't actually much evidence of painted wolves attacking livestock.

The team wanted to make a film that would help people look at these wonderful and endangered animals afresh.

What was it like following the wolves?

The team worked on location for two years, using a variety of special cameras, combining sensitive low light, starlight and thermal technology, to follow them 24 hours a day.

At other times, Nick says his team started the day at 3am, tracking the wolves by their footprints.

They also had to check any water for crocodiles, just in case.

During filming, the crew made the amazing new discovery that painted wolves don't just hunt impala - but baboons too!

Nick said: "All the books we used for research say that painted wolves don't hunt baboons because they're too dangerous. A big male baboon can weigh twice what a painted wolf weighs."

But the team managed to film the wolves hunting baboons for the first time, which according to scientific research, had never been recorded before.

After filming ended, Nick worked with a scientist to write a new paper to be published.

How difficult were they to film?

Nick says this was "a real challenge", mainly because they were so difficult to keep track of, but this got easier over time.

"After following [them for so long] we got into sync with the packs, and we understood their habits and routines.

"This would let us get ahead of the pack, get into position in advance and make big decisions that were gambles but paid off, because we had grown to understand these packs so well."

But as with most animals, you can never quite predict what they'll do next.

He says: "When Sir David Attenborough met the painted wolves it was approaching the end of the day and we were many hours away from camp.

"Just as he delivered his line to camera, the pack stood up and went to hunt not to be seen again, but we got the take. Sir David nailed it."

Nick says his team really bonded with the wolves over the course of filming:

"The painted wolves got to recognise us too and were completely relaxed having us around.

"It was like they totally accepted us being there with them.

"It's been such a privilege and it allowed us to get some extraordinary insights into their lives."