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THE low hum rumbling across Kenya鈥檚 Masai Mara isn鈥檛 the sound of a distant herd of wildebeest on their annual migration 鈥� it鈥檚 the trundling motor of an armoured robot called Beetlecam 2 as it sneaks up on a pride of feasting lions.
Built by London-based wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas, the robotic camera affords a view of the big cats unlike anything shot from distance with a long-focus lens. 鈥淭he shallow depth of field and close-up ground level perspective is one you don鈥檛 see every day,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou get a real sense of the animal in its own environment.鈥�
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After teaching himself how to make wheeled, remote-controlled robots from courses online 鈥� 鈥淚鈥檝e a physics degree so I understand this stuff鈥� 鈥� Burrard-Lucas built Beetlecam 1, a fabric-covered robot camera (below, left). But that 鈥済ot beaten up by predatory lionesses and inquisitive cubs鈥� far too often, so he designed a follow-up, Beetlecam 2 (below, right).
Beetlecam 2 has an armoured carapace made of aluminium and fibreglass, and carries a 拢5000 remote-controlled camera. One day before dawn last August, Burrard-Lucas sent the machine 50 metres from his off-road vehicle to snap this lion breakfasting on a wildebeest 鈥� the orange glow of the sunrise spectacularly lighting up its mane.
The next targets of this man-machine duo? Close-ups of leopards and Ethiopian wolves.
