How we made it: Bonobos, our elusive cousins

Sometimes film crews would not be able to get near enough to an animal to attempt to film it were it not for the work scientists have done over many years following these animals and getting them used to the presence of humans. This is a process they call ‘habituation’.

Scientist Gottfried Hohmann describes how he and his team habituated the Bonobo Chimpanzee, our closest relative, in Africa’s dense Congo forest. Because of the experts’ commitment a Life Story crew were able to film, for the first time, the moment when the Bonobos collected lilies from a hidden, forest pool.