McCrae - My penguin year: life among the emperors

This book would never have been possible without my agent Annabel Merullo at Peters Fraser and Dunlop and my publisher Rupert Lancaster at Hodder & Stoughton, who not only gave me the opportunity but encouraged me to turn my extraordinary year into words.

From a filming and career point of view, one of my favourite parts of my work is meeting the incredibly passionate people who not only make my job so much easier but are helping conserve our amazing natural world with such enthusiasm and persistence. Whether Ive spent five minutes with you or five weeks, I thank you.

For my first opportunities and endless advice as a teenager, I owe a huge thank you to Colin Jackson and the late Ian Dewar without whom I wouldnt have a career in wildlife filmmaking. At the BBC Natural History Unit, I must thank Miles Barton, Rupert Barrington and Mike Gunton for offering me my dream job, sending me to an emperor colony and trusting me with such a huge responsibility. The BBC Dynasties team that helped, from travel and arranging camera equipment, to editing the final programme, Lisa Sibbald, Alison Brown-Humes, Theo Webb, Kirsty Emery, Gordon Leicester and Angela Maddick.

At Neumayer I couldnt have been more proud of how our team, the 37th Overwintering Crew, supported each other and made the whole experience, especially the long and mentally challenging period of isolation, so much easier than I envisaged: Tim Heitland, Zsfia Jurnyi, Maximilian Merl, Ursula Schlager, Hauke Schulz, Sven Krger, Daniel Noll, Hannes Laubach and Ronny Lebrenz. From the Alfred Wegener Institute back in Germany who assisted our film crew from all the pre-trip training to arranging our flight home: Eberhard Kohlberg, Felix Riess, Sina Loschke and Christine Wesche made logistically challenging planning seem so easy.

Id like to give a heartfelt thanks to both Stefan Christmann, my field assistant, who spent every minute of our filming year on the ice with me, and Will Lawson, my Director, for both keeping me safe while outside and making our year with the emperors so, so memorable.

Finally, Id like to give a special thank you to my family. My mum and dad for giving me such freedom as I grew up that helped forge a fascination and obsession with our natural world. My wife Becky who supports me in everything I do, and my two boys, Walter, who thankfully is none the wiser about the fact that I missed the first seven months of his life, and Ernest, who arrived part way through writing this book. I will continue to do what I can to protect, conserve and ensure you have the wildlife to enjoy in future years that I did as a child.

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My passion for the natural world started very young; in fact, I dont think I can remember a time in my life when I didnt love everything about nature. It sometimes feels like every memory I have of my younger years is linked to the outdoors; I was essentially outside every moment I could be. Growing up in Cumbria on the edge of the Lake District National Park was an absolute privilege. I lived next to an estuary and with high mountains just a stones throw away, the range of habitats I could access was fantastic. It was idyllic. Like all children, I was born with a natural curiosity for the world around me and it just grew and grew. By the age of eight I had already decided I wanted a career filming wildlife. That might sound crazy but I just knew that was what I wanted to do. I spent all my spare time exploring my local woodland and riverbank and I had it practically all to myself.

Every day, I found something new, but my most fascinating find was a family of badgers in a little patch of woodland close to my family home. They captivated me from the moment I saw my first head poke above ground at dusk and although I didnt know it at the time, their private lives and shy-looking black and white faces were to be my ticket into the television world. I think I was a slightly unusual twelve-year-old, but it was what I adored doing, sitting quietly watching the natural world go about its business around me. I spent nearly every evening with the badgers getting to know their habits and felt incredibly privileged to have such intimate views of them. Each spring when the newly born cubs ventured above ground for the first time and played in amongst the carpet of bluebells, I felt at my happiest. Being in their company was addictive.

My obsession with wildlife led me to write a letter to the BBCs British wildlife programme Springwatch when I was just fourteen years old. Springwatch is a fantastic series that annually showcases the best of British wildlife and back when it started it was totally unique, capturing never-seen-before images of the wildlife I loved. Watching the programme was always a highlight for me and was the only thing that got me inside on a spring evening. Every year they based themselves in a specific location in the UK; obviously, thinking I had the most incredible local patch on my doorstep, I wrote to them detailing how perfect the Lake District would be for the following years series.

It was basically my back garden, home to badger setts, fox dens, birds nests and a large pond. I included a map with my letter detailing the exact locations of all the wildlife I had discovered. Not expecting a reply, I was surprised when I returned from school one day to a message on the answerphone. Impressed by my passion for badgers, they wanted to make a little film with me that would appear on the programme. I literally couldnt believe it! Of course I jumped at the chance and everything was arranged. The process of making a film, albeit short, fascinated me and even though I had no previous experience with a camera or any technical knowledge whatsoever, it gave me an understanding of how making television worked.

The Springwatch team lent me a camera and I spent every evening up in the wood with the badgers recording as much footage as I possibly could. It didnt take me long to realise that I could turn all my intimate wildlife encounters into unique filming opportunities. I found myself naturally filming all sorts around my badgers sett: birds singing in the trees, bluebells blowing in the wind, even a snail working its way up a fallen log. They were the perfect ingredients for creating a film sequence on the life in the wood around the badgers sett, rather than just a one-off shot of the badgers themselves.

With a combination of the footage I recorded and material from a film crew and producer who came to film me, Springwatch created a short film about a typical evening of mine watching the animals that fascinated me most. Head to toe in camouflage with an old army scrim net draped over me, I was shown with three badger cubs and their mother playing within just a few yards. Despite a bit of good-humoured stick from school mates about my camouflage appearance, I felt honoured that my passion had been recognised by such a well-loved television series and, being relatively young, I received countless messages from viewers saying how nice it was to see someone of my age on the programme.