Waterhole: Africa's Animal Oasis, a new series, by producer Anwar Mamon gives an insight into the importance of biodiversity, By Team Viva

Anwar Mamon has been producing documentaries for UK and US broadcasters for over a decade. During this time, he has been lucky enough to film in some of the most remote locations on the planet, such as the frozen Canadian High Arctic, the uncharted jungles of Burma, the dense forests of Russia and the desolate deserts in Namibia. The driving force behind everything Anwar makes is a passion to bring nature closer to viewers than ever before and also attract a more diverse audience to the natural history genre by finding stories that are emotional, relatable and engaging. His latest series for BBC2, Waterhole: Africa's Animal Oasis featured a successful partnership with a wildlife reserve to ensure local communities benefitted from film shoots and also were represented onscreen.

In a world first, remote cameras are half-submerged in a specially built waterhole in Africa. The series reveals secret animal behaviour and new science, the evolution an ecosystem around a brand-new water source. Rigged with a state-of-the-art camera system to film around the clock, this new waterhole in a water-stressed region in Tanzania doesn't just give a lifeline to wildlife, it also provides an extraordinary eye-to-eye view of the action as animals including lions, baboons, elephants, giraffes and cape buffalo gather around it. As the seasons shift, it discovers how water shapes the behaviour of Africa's most iconic animals and has a unique perspective on the inner workings of the African savannah. Excerpts:

Could you explain the importance and relevance of a show like Waterhole: Africa's Animal Oasis.

This is a unique natural history event or show, because we were the first people ever to put cameras embedded into a waterhole in Africa. We didn't know what was going to happen. It was a very high risk show, as we didn't know whether animals would come or how many or which ones would come. The importance is that it illustrates, throughout the three episodes, how important biodiversity is and gives you a deeper understanding of biodiversity as we really get to see how everything from the tiniest insects to giant African elephants interact and help each other to survive in the African ecosystem.

What's the kind of technology used for this show? And what were the challenges faced?

So we had fixed cameras, which are remote and are essentially on motors that can spin 360 degrees, These can film at night with infrared technology. The challenge was that those kind of cameras don't run on batteries. These need to be hardwired. We had up to 20 of those running, sometimes up to 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Obviously, it wasn't like a regular natural history film shoot. So we had to excavate lots of ground lay up to two kilometres of cable and had a control centre where all the camera feeds could come into one place and where we could choose which camera to record when. When an animal came in, we could choose how to film it. And, those cameras are not designed to be put into the middle of the African Savannah. They're not designed to cope with 40-degree heat, or elephants stepping on them, or dust. Dust was a huge problem and so we worked with some amazing technicians at the reserve. We found out but, also on our own, we actually created these pyramid casings out of steel that we managed to fix into the ground. And they protected the cameras from heat and did help protect them from dust. Also, much to our surprise it did stop them from getting damaged by large animals like elephants and buffalo. Thanks to many of the local people and Tanzanian guides that we worked with, we ended up doing this, the pyramids, obviously because that's the strongest geometric shape. So we thought that would help if elephants trod on it or buffalo pushed it. But the locals came up with a great idea, that we cover them in canvas, which is exactly what they use for their safari tents. The thinking behind that is that the animals are used to seeing Safari tents, and they don't often trample on those and they stay clear of them. So what we anticipated was that they would see lots of little tents dotted around the waterhole and would ignore them. And luckily, that's what happens.

What is the kind of wildlife found at the waterhole?

On this show, we really had no idea what would turn up or when it would turn up. So when you ask what kind of wildlife? Well, pretty much everything you can imagine from the African Savannah. So lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo... the big five. We had a hippo walk past at one point. But we also had all the things you might not expect. We had incredible bird life. We had wading birds, some incredible insects, as well, that rely not just on water but also on the mud to survive. So we were very lucky over the six-month period that we managed to capture lots of different animals.

Any unique experience while shooting for this show?

Yeah, for sure. We had an extensive experience of filming animals around the world and in Africa. What this show enabled is that fixed the remote cameras all around the water. Because we partnered with Mwiba Wildlife Reserve in Tanzania, we were involved in the beginning of the building of the waterhole, so we were able to put filming highs right in the middle of it and sunk them in. So when you went into the filming height, your eyes were in line with the water. So, you had an animal eye level view as animals came to drink. A unique experience that I'll never forget is when we were filming an elephant at night, he'd come for a drink and we were in the hiding. You don't often get to film elephants at night, because they can be dangerous, obviously. But this elephant was maybe five feet away. And to hear it drinking, you know, sucking up the water in its trunk in and then squaring in his mouth. Then it started doing some vocalisation as well because there were some other animals coming in. So that was a very special moment.

How was the experience shooting alongside Africa's most iconic animals?

I think it was very special, because often with wildlife shows we focus on one behaviour or species. Sometimes you're very much focused on predator prey. What's unique about the waterhole and this series is that this is the one place where all animals have to come. At some point, they're all going to need water, they're all going to come to this one central place and they have to figure. What we got to witness was, how they cooperate, how they interact, how there is a schedule to life at the waterhole, within a week, certain animals were coming at certain times, which meant that other species wouldn't come. It's always a privilege to film in Africa with its wildlife. And what this series enabled us to do was to get closer, and hopefully to understand them better.

What are the factors affecting the waterhole currently? Is climate change affecting the ecosystem here?

Yes, I think it's an important element of the show, that water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource across Africa. That is partly to do with climate change, partly to do with pressures from wildlife and pressures from the human population. So there's a lot of pressure on water resources, especially at certain times of year, like the dry season. The importance of putting in things like water holes is that you have to choose very carefully where you put them. We're not saying that waterholes should be put across Africa, because what we did is we worked with scientists, the wildlife reserve and the Tanzanian government to choose the location of this water very carefully. So, that it would benefit animals but not interfere with the ecosystem in too much of a negative way and would benefit animals throughout the year with a constant water source. While they would also keep using their traditional more natural water sources as well.

Can you tell us more about the partnership with the wildlife reserve to ensure that local communities benefited from this shoot?

Mwiba wildlife reserve in Tanzania has been a wildlife reserve for nearly a decade and they have worked with local communities, including the ancestral owners of the land, the Hadzabe tribe. So, one of the first things we did with them is to ensure that local communities were aware of what we're doing and work behind it. So, I had a meeting on one of the first trips to Tanzania with the heads of the tribe who blessed the sight of where the water was going to be. I think they recognise the growing issue of water scarcity, for wildlife. And we're very happy that hopefully, this waterhole, which is going to stay there permanently, as part of reserve, will be something for future generations of wildlife to help them survive. Then during the build, we were very insistent that we use wherever we could local community help during the build. Also, while we were filming, we relied heavily on local expertise... so guides... but also some of the tribe members helped us to not just identify certain flora and fauna but also to identify specific animal characters. Because we were there for a long period of time, we were able to film 24x7. We were able to get from them, this character info that you wouldn't normally get. like we were able to film a leopard called Jasiri, which means brave one, in Swahili. Jasiri has been known since he was born to many of the people in that region. We were able to enrich our storytelling because of working with the local communities.

Any surprising moments captured at the waterhole?

Many surprising moments, too many to even go into really. I think you have to wait until the May 10 when it goes on TV. But I think the biggest surprise to us was the interplay between two of the apex predators in that location, which are lions and hyenas. We anticipated that lions and hyenas would come to the waterhole and we also anticipated that one of those predators would dominate essentially. And during the earlier parts of filming, lions were definitely dominating the waterhole, but that changed halfway through. We were very surprised to see how hyena actually ended up being the most dominant force at the new Waterhole by the end.

(The show premieres on May 10 at 9 pm on Sony BBC Earth.)