Amphibian Documentary
Leto Corrales
You may not be able to turn one into a prince, but Frogs are certainly royal in their ability to adapt to many types of habitat. Commonly seen, yet little known, these water-loving amphibians are usually smooth-skinned, sleek, and speedy. We examine the surprising life cycles of the leopard and bullfrog, the tiny tree frog nicknamed the "Spring Peeper," and other croaking creatures.
Frogs and their amphibious relatives represent an evolutionary landmark, both literally and figuratively. Some three to four hundred years ago, these intrepid creatures took their first pioneering hops out of the sea and onto terra firma. Thus, the stage was set for a new era in evolution, and all land animals, including man, have them to thank.
Madagascar is an island whose plants and animals have evolved in isolation for more than 150 million years. In these pristine rain forests, Jeff discovers a plump, blood-red tomato frog, a turquoise chameleon, and a jewel-eyed gecko edged with frills.
What do the red panda, poison arrow frog, and ne-ne Hawaiian goose have in common? Each of these three species is an animal survivor. Animal survivors share the remarkable recovery of these species from near extinction, capturing their fascinating evolutionary strengths, as well as the rehabilitation efforts that enabled their return to the wild.
Stunning macro filmmaking takes viewers on an unforgettable journey, from lake bottom battles for territory to lovelorn toads searching for a mate to lizards prowling the forest for a meal. We humans are but lumbering, clumsy giants striding through these miniature ecosystems that thrive without us...even in spite of us.
Typically they fit in the palm of your hand, but some salamanders grow to human-sized proportions. To determine the king of all salamanders, Dr. Brady Barr goes in search of the "big four" of giant salamanders.
It is the greatest mass extinction since the dinosaurs. Population by population, species by species, amphibians are vanishing off the face of the Earth. Scientists are taking desperate measures to try to save those frogs they can, even bathing frogs in Clorox solutions and keeping them in Tupperware boxes under carefully controlled conditions to prevent the spread of a deadly fungus.
Into the Forest is my latest nature documentary about the animals that inhabit a forest of southwest Germany. It documents the forest creatures as they emerge from Winter and flourish into summer. Animals filmed range from tiny plankton, to the amphibians, and the Wild Boar and Red Deer. Into the Forest focuses particularly on the amphibians and the Fire Salamander. I filmed and produced it solo, over 90 consecutive days in the forest.
Into the Forest is told as a fable, and is a marriage between folklore and scientific documentary. A backdrop of medieval German villages, and lush deciduous forest creates a mystical realm in which the lives of the forest animals unfold. Into the Forest was filmed over 90 days from March to June in Baden-Wrttemberg, Germany. Filming was done in several small forests near the city of Stuttgart, including Denkendorf Alter Aichwald, Naturpark Schnbuch, Silberwald and Wurmlingen/Rottenburg. One segment was filmed on the Isle of Krk, Croatia. The story-line is portrayed as a single forest, and is based on the Alter Aichwald of Denkendorf that I explored as a child. Video elements include aerial drone footage, underwater, timelapse, extreme-macro, and night. Into the Forest is an independently funded and produced film by Wilderness Media LLC/Bryan Maltais. Post-production was done in Ft. Collins, Colorado USA. The film will be narrated in English and German versions.
Thanks to the support received by all those people who believed that telling this story could provide that grain of sand so fundamental for changes to be possible, we undertook an unprecedented trip in our lives with the ultimate goal of making an audiovisual project to show how different initiatives are saving dendrobatids: from BioTrade as an alternative to black and grey amphibian markets(3), to ex situand in situconservation at amphibian arks and private reserves, respectively.
I love frogs. I always have. As a small child I became fascinated by the miracle of metamorphosis, catching and studying tadpoles like a true proto frog geek. As an adult studying zoology at Oxford the astonishing diversity of amphibian life seemed to me to most eloquently illustrate the incredible adaptive power of evolution.
Bryan spent his early youth with his German mother and American father in Germany but later grew up in the U.S. Over the decades he regularly came back to visit his second home and the German part of his family. During those vacations he regularly visited a forest near Denkendorf, a village not far away from Stuttgart, in the southwest of Germany. It was this forest where he came for the first time into contact with the European herpetofauna and other native animals. He later studied wildlife biology and developed a particular interest into reptiles and amphibians. Over the years Bryan became a professional nature and landscape photographer and produced several documentaries, mainly about reptiles and amphibians.
We met for the first time in 2014 after I discovered his documentaries on YouTube and realized that Denkendorf is in fact comparably close to my own place of residence. Over the years we met for several more times for herping tours and I introduced Bryan to various other interesting locations like the habitat of my local green lizard (Lacerta viridis) population or the Black Forest with its melanistic European adders (Vipera berus).
To produce a high quality documentary he used a 4k camera so you can also enjoy it on a big screen in TV quality. He made slow motion and fast motion videos, underwater-and night vision footage and made also some amazing landscape videos with a drone (which had tragically a fatal accident, luckily all the important drone footage was already filmed at this time).
The fire salamander also plays a key role in the documentary, but not just for its charming appearance but also to raise awareness about the dangers of the chytrid fungus Bsal which entered the European continent from Asia over the amphibian pet trade. Bsal already eradicated whole fire salamander populations in Belgium and the Netherlands, and has already reached northern Germany. Sadly, it is likely to continue spreading even further through Europe.
Another nightly tour brought us to a local population of European tree frogs (Hyla arborea). The loudness of their croaking was just incredible. This was for me also the very first time to see European tree frogs, as this species has sadly become extremely rare, mainly as a result of a lack of fitting habitats and small periodically draining ponds where they can successfully spawn. I was also quite surprised to learn about this population which is also quite closely located to some of the other areas where Bryan filmed.
Another reptile we hoped to find remained however elusive. The year before we made a trip to the Black Forest (which is also only about an hour to drive from here) and were able to find two specimens of melanistic European adders.
But this year we had sadly lesser luck. During our first trip to the Schliffkopf, one of the highest elevations of the Black Forest, it was despite the early time of spring extremely hot, well over 25 Celsius. On some places there was still half a meter of snow, but the heat of the sun was just too much for the adders.
We made later two further trips, but every time the weather conditions were against us. At the second tour to the Schliffkopf mountain it was quite the opposite of the last time, it was very cold with a lot of wind and fog, but next to no sunshine. Again pretty bad conditions for adders. However the fog over the forest provided some spectacular landscape shots.
It was still a lot if luck involved, but during our systematic search I could detect a tiny horned adder between some stones. This enigmatic little snake was surely one if our greatest finds during the excursion.
A considerable part of the documentary was filmed in the Schnbuch forest, a large forest area near Tbingen. The deep and wide-ranging woods provided various interesting locations for filming, from game enclosures with red deers and wild boars to large ponds full of tadpoles. Germany is quite densely populated and even most of the nature reserves are in one way or another altered by human activities. In many cases this already happened centuries ago, so the landmarks of human activities are often deeply interwoven within the surrounding landscape.
One especially nice remnant of human culture was also included, the old monastery of Bebenhausen which is located just in front of the Schnbuch forest. Surrounded by centuries old wooden framework houses, its gothic architecture, ancient walls and old towers made it also a perfect location for drone footage to show the full range of the complex.The monastery was founded in 1190 and after the reformation it was among others used as a hunting lodge and the late residence of the last king of Baden-Wrttemberg in the early 20th century.
Bryan showed me the big badger den which he discovered and where he could make some great footage with a game camera.
I know many of those locations for nearly my whole life and have countless wonderful memories about them. To see them now in high quality documentary feels nearly somewhat surreal, especially as I was on site during many of filming sequences. I learned a lot of new things and made many new experiences, and it makes me really proud that I could contribute a little bit to this wonderful documentary. Bryan did really an amazing job to produce the whole documentary himself. He did all the cutting of the scenes, the selection and arrangement of the background music, the script (which I translated and adapted for the German version, entitled Der magische Wald: Reptilien und Amphibien) and the digital enhancement of certain scenes. Normally such documentaries are made by whole production teams or even specialized companies.