Greg Marshall and Crittercam

The movie March of the Penguins recently came out and amazed movie goers with phenomenal footage of emperor penguins living in their native habitats. But how did they get the camera so close? The movie was made using several techniques, but much of the footage would have been missed if not for the work of Greg Marshall of National Geographic and his amazing invention.

Greg got the idea for his invention on one of his underwater dives in the early 1980's. He was watching a shark. As many sharks do, this one had company: a remora, or sucker-fish. Remoras have an area on the tops of their heads that allow them to affix themselves to sharks, waiting for opportune moments to grab morsels of food.

Greg realized that if he could affix a camera to the shark as the remora was, then the shark's habits and habitat could be filmed without bothering the shark.

There were several problems with this idea at the time, but the biggest of which was finding a camera that was small enough to do the job. Thankfully, around the mid to late 1980's smaller min-cameras began to gain popularity.

So, roughly around 1986, Greg Marshall and his crew strapped on one of these smaller cameras to a captive loggerhead turtle and watched to see what happened. It seemed that the turtle was unhindered by the camera and the first run of the Crittercam went relatively smoothly. Greg now new that he needed to take the next step: testing in the wild.

The problem was that this technology was so new and the idea of using these cameras to videotape wildlife in this way so radical, Greg had a hard time getting his concept off the ground. He began traveling to try and raise funds, going to various Universities and fund raising events.

Greg Marshall received his first chance to study the crittercam in a wild setting through the assistance of the David E. Luginbuhl Foundation. This foundation was interested in preserving the leatherback sea turtle and saw potential in Greg's idea. Unfortunately the first run of the crittercam was less than awe-inspiring. The camera laden turtle took off on it's maiden voyage just fine, but soon the signal was lost. A week later the turtle returned without the camera.

It took Greg's idea several more years of planning and fund raising to come to fruition. When Greg and the crittercam were noticed by National Geographic it seemed to be a match made in Heaven. From then on National Geographic has added the crittercam to a wide assortment of adventures and wild-life viewing scenarios.

Getting a camera to work in any condition can sometimes be an experience. But to get a camera to work in habitats that humans can't survive in is a task that is a continuous battle for the crittercam crew. For example, the penguins in the arctic could go to great depths and amazingly frigid temperatures. Keeping a camera that can run and continuously transmit a signal has been a continuous battle.

Thankfully for National Geographic and for the animal viewing world as a whole, Greg and his crew have been able to prevail through the difficult conditions and continue producing amazing camera shots. This camera work has been a great asset to conservationists abroad as well. For example, one of the early crittercam tasks was to view the habits of the endangered Hawaiian monk seal. With the use of this amazing camera the natural eating habits and areas of these seals were filmed, thus allowing for better protection of the feeding areas.

The crittercam has gone through some amazing transformations over the years. The most obvious of which is size. At it's conception, the crittercam was large and ungainly. With continued advancement and funding the camera progressed in technology and reduced in size. It's development continues today with increasing computerized technology and tracking systems.

Does the crittercam harm or hinder the animals? How do they know whether it does or not? Well, the answer in one word is testing. The crittercam goes through extensive testing first in the zoo and terrarium setting. Only after Greg and his crew are confident of the crittercam in the setting that they desire do they progressively introduce it in the environment of their choosing.

So the next time that you are viewing an animal adventure show and wonder how the camera man was able to get so close, wonder no more. The crittercam is most likely hard at work and showing you what you are seeing.