With over 240 breathtaking photographs and footage from the landmark BBC series, The Hunt captures the dramatic encounters of predator and prey in an entirely new light. Featuring the extraordinary strategies of a huge range of predators, from cheetahs and African wild dogs to killer whales and polar bears, these images and stories will revolutionise what you thought you knew about life in the wild.
Whether through speed, stamina or complex subterfuge, each creature’s strategy is honed to its environment – and remarkable adaptations mean that the hunted often can, and do, outwit their hunters. It’s a life-or-death duel where each animal’s skills are stretched to the very limit.
The final chapter of the book goes behind the scenes to recount the adventures of the production teams as they themselves stalk their quarry – and are sometimes stalked – to discover never-before-seen species and previously undocumented behaviours.
From the producers of Frozen Planet and Planet Earth, The Hunt reveals in astonishing detail the most surprising and significant events in the natural world.
Alastair Fothergill was the executive producer of The Hunt. Previous to that, he was the executive producer of Frozen Planet for the BBC – a series he conceived following the success of Planet Earth, which he produced. Director of the associated feature film Earth, he has also co-directed four feature films for Disney.
Alastair studied zoology at the University of Durham, joined the BBC Natural History Unit in 1983 and was appointed head of the NHU in 1992. During his tenure, he produced the award-winning series on the Antarctic, Life in the Freezer. In 1998, he stood down to concentrate on producing the hugely successful The Blue Planet.
In 2012 he co-founded the independent production company Silverback Films, which produced The Hunt for the BBC. Alastair is the author of four books.
Huw Cordey was the series producer of The Hunt. He has been making wildlife documentaries for 20 years. Between 1996 and 2009, he worked for the BBC Natural History Unit, producing landmark series such as Land of the Tiger, Andes to Amazon, Sir David Attenborough’s Life of Mammals, Planet Earth, Big Cat Diary and South Pacific.
Since 2009, he has worked in the independent sector, producing Discovery Channel’s six-part natural history landmark series North America. Huw has also written and presented a number of radio programmes for the BBC and was a contributing author to the best-selling book Planet Earth.
Sir David Attenborough is Britain's best-known natural history film-maker. His career as a naturalist and broadcaster has spanned nearly seven decades.
His first job - after Cambridge University and two years in the Royal Navy - was at a London publishing house. Then in 1952 he joined the BBC as a trainee producer, and it was while working on the Zoo Quest series (1954-64) that he had his first opportunity to undertake expeditions to remote parts of the globe, to capture intimate footage of rare wildlife in its natural habitat.
He was Controller of BBC 2 (1965-68), during which time he introduced colour television to Britain, then Director of Programmes for BBC Television (1969-1972). In 1973 he abandoned administration altogether to return to documentary-making and writing, and has established himself as the world's leading Natural History programme maker with several
landmark BBC series, includingLife on Earth (1979), The Living Planet (1984), The Trials
of Life (1990), The Private Life of Plants (1995), Life of Birds (1998),The Blue Planet (2001),Life of Mammals (2002),Planet Earth (2006) and Life in Cold Blood (2008).
Sir David was knighted in 1985 and received the Order of Merit in 2005. He is a fellow of the Royal Society, and stands at the forefront of issues concerning the planet's declining species and conservation.
