One day, Andoni Canela, a wildlife photographer, proposed to his then-underage son Unai to accompany him on his travels around the world. The aim was to film cougar, jaguar, lion, cheetah, tiger, leopard, Iberian lynx and snow leopard in their natural habitats. He knew it wouldn’t be easy and warned his son, but he didn’t hesitate to join the adventure. Shortly after the age of 13, father and son traveled to Patagonia, more precisely to the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Years later, they returned when Unai was already 18 years old. The result of these two journeys can be seen in the first of the eight 30-minute episodes of Panteras, the series that La 2 premieres on Sunday 13 at 9:00 p.m
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During those five years, Andoni and Unai Canela traveled between three and four months a year, with each trip lasting an average of three weeks. For each of the eight cats they wanted to film, they made two or three expeditions. The photographer estimates that they were on location between two and three months for each of the animals that are the protagonists of this story. Some of the outcome of these trips has already been featured in an hour-and-a-half documentary due out in 2021, but the original idea of the project was to break this series into eight episodes, one for each cat. In a telephone conversation on August 1, Andoni Canela compares both productions. Aside from the fact that the series contains much more material that was filmed entirely by father and son, in the television version it is Unai’s voice that accompanies the viewer with his memories and his description of the experience, while the film dispenses almost entirely with voice acting. above.
Andoni and Unai Canela, in a picture by producer Wanda Vision.
The relationship between father and son is very present throughout the tour. The series not only shows pictures of the animals in their natural habitats on four different continents. For the two protagonists it is also a journey of inner discovery. “We were up to four weeks without anyone else, for example in Tibet looking for the snow leopard or in Patagonia. This has both positive and negative sides. It was cold, hot, you don’t have internet… Unai found it more difficult at first, then of course he accepted it.” Andoni admits that there was some tension between father and son, which is natural when the latter hits puberty. “We had to solve it because there was no other choice. There were also very positive moments when he became another colleague, we got along very well.”
Two cougars near a lake in Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia (Chile).Andoni Canela
It is precisely this relationship between father and son and the fact that all the pictures are taken separately that distinguish the series “Panteras” from other television productions that focus on nature. “We transparently show our search for the cats and also what happens to us, and sometimes we deliberately show motion errors or that you have to react quickly, we pass on the camera… We wanted to take the viewer with us,” says the photographer.
Andoni Canela and his son Unai in a moment from Panthers, the series.
According to Canela, the biggest challenge in their adventures in search of the big cats was capturing pictures of the snow leopard since it lives in Tibet and the Himalayas. “We were over 4,500 or 5,000 meters high, which means you are moving in areas where just walking is difficult, with temperatures as low as 28 degrees below zero. It is a very shy and very mimic animal that blends in with the landscape. We did three trips to see the snow leopard. We were in the first one for a month and only saw it once,” he recalls. It also highlights the complexity of capturing images of the jaguar in the Pantanal, south of the Brazilian Amazon. “We were there at the beginning of the rainy season but they expected it and it rained a lot. It was about 10 days before we saw the first jaguar and that happened at night and while swimming. It also cost a lot to have a lynx with its cubs. We wanted images that would tell the story of a lynx with its cubs, how they would go hunting and come back with food for the little ones… We did it, but it took a lot of time.”
A cougar, in Panthers, the series. Andoni Canela
Andoni Canela, who has now traded the big cats for the wolf while his son Unai is in search of musk oxen in Greenland, explains why he chose big cats for this project. “We wanted to show that everything in nature is connected. In addition to the eight cats, there are more than 100 different animals in the series such as birds, reptiles… The cats are bioindicators because a big cat needs a well-preserved ecosystem, sufficient forest and humidity. .. so that life is preserved and herbivores live. Cats are 100% carnivores and need to hunt, so they need to be surrounded by enough herbivores, and that requires the rest of the chain. These animals need larger spaces. Humans have eroded the natural habitats and they are making way for agricultural or industrial development, and in many places they have disappeared because they ran out of territory.”
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