From Ants to Elephants
The Oprah Winfrey Show | March 30, 2007
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When Huw found out he would be shooting the planet's jungles, he says he knew there was one shot he had to have. He hired an ant expert and set out to capture a scene that seems straight out of a science fiction novel. For weeks, Huw and his crew search the jungle floor for a distressed bullet ant. Finally, they find their guy. The ant is near death. Spores from a parasitic fungus have infiltrated its body and mind…driving it insane. As cameras roll, a parasite begins to grow from the insect's head. After three weeks, deadly spores will burst from the alien growth. "That was a sequence that I'm probably most proud of," Huw says. When sick ants like this one are discovered in a colony, worker ants carry them far away and leave them to die. If they don't, thousands could suffer the same fate. Huw says he saw whole colonies destroyed by this fungus. |
