Conservation and comedy with Caleb McElrea

Caleb McElrea is a science communicator, wildlife photographer and filmmaker. While completing an honours degree in zoology, Caleb discovered that wildlife filmmaking was a way to satisfy his love of science and his creative side at the same time. It’s an occupation that combines comedy, conservation, and close encounters with cassowaries. Read on for insight into Caleb’s adventures in wildlife filmmaking.

I’m from Queensland originally, and moved to Melbourne to do honors in zoology at the University of Melbourne. While I was down here, I was introduced to Dr Jenny Martin, who’s a science communication hero.

To me, science communication has that linear, logical scientific thought, while also being really creative and people-oriented. I have always felt the need to explore both.

Researchers are amazing at finding stuff out, but it’s relatively rare that they have overlapping skills of finding something out and then communicating it effectively. Science communication requires such a different set of skills, often, to what researchers are good at. 

I remember, in my undergrad, when my focus was so much on Science, I wrote a whole chapter of a novel in one semester, just because I thought to myself, “I need to do something creative.”

So, that took me down the science communication path.

Comedy meets Conservation

I think about wildlife filmmaking as a subset of science communication. Wildlife filmmaking is like a cinematic version of telling people about science. Y ou’ve got series like BBC Earth’s Blue Planet II, where they had an episode on ocean pollution, and the  resulting impact of that episode on waste policies in Europe was huge. The content that they produce is a  really captivating  and accessible way of communicating conservation.

Depending on who you ask, there are now people who are more science-focused than ever, and then there are many others who have a lot of distrust around science.

I think filmmaking is one way of uniting people and showing them, “We can trust science. It’s good. Sometimes scientists get stuff wrong, but they acknowledge that and then they figure out what the right thing is.” 

I find the idea and the potential of comedy in wildlife filmmaking very exciting. 

I am playing around with the question: Can natural history be true but funny as well? You’re communicating fact, but some how the way that the fact gets communicated can be funny. 

With the Reet's Entree film, I leaned really far into trying to make it funny. Some people found it fantastic, but others were like, “This is really weird.” 

I am still producing videos in that vein.

Getting the Shot

Central Australia was the last trip where I had a destination in mind and said, “Let’s just go there.” Since then, it’s been, “Where do I live? That looks nice. I’ll go film that.” 

A lot of it is opportunistic. I’ll go on a long hike in a place where I know there are lyrebirds, wombats, bowerbirds or gliders, and hope I see something.

When I find something, I put the hike on hold and spend as long as I want filming. There’ve been a lot of times when I’ve walked for kilometers in the dark to get back to the car, just because I spent way too long out filming.

Other times, I contact someone whom I know has knowledge about these things, and say, “Hi, you don’t know me, but I’d like to go out spotlighting for owls with you (or whatever species they're trying to find), if you have the time.” And fortunately, most of the time, people are open to that. That’s one of the nice things about the wildlife community. 

It did surprise me, in my undergraduate degree, how many people were studying zoology and couldn’t identify common wildlife. I am glad that I now have a reasonable amount of field knowledge to go out with, which is very useful. I also have some friends who can go on a walk, point in 15 different directions and name 15 different bird species just by their calls!

Close Encounters

Upon reflection, I have probably put myself in some stupid situations. Northern Australia is the easiest place to get into dangerous situations, because you’ve got crocodiles, venomous snakes and cassowaries. 

I’ve had a few people comment on this photo [of a crocodile] and ask incredulously, “How did that happen?” But actually, it was fine. I shot this from a boat in the Northern Territory, so I was pretty safe - this time!

This photo [of a cassowary] was taken in the Daintree in Far North Queensland.

We were camping, and I saw this blue and red head emerge, about 100 meters away, coming out of the rainforest. I  followed it around for 20 minutes, and then it started walking towards our tent, across all the empty campsites, in full view.

I’m just pacing along beside it, with a bit of distance, getting my photos.

And then it finds some fruit and starts feeding, when suddenly it rears up and puffs out its feathers.

Next, I hear rustling, and out come two chicks and another cassowary. That would’ve been the dad, I think. The dad’s normally the one that takes care of the babies, which is rare for birds, and they can be very, very protective.

To get the shot, I’m kind of low on the ground, trying to get the angle, and not in a good place to run away.

These are the most dangerous bird in the world: they have a knife-like claw about the size of a finger, that they can easily eviscerate a human with. So, it could’ve been bad. But thankfully, I was alright.

Combatting Nature Deficit Disorder 

Growing up, my parents ran a bushwalking club for the church, so we were constantly going out bushwalking, getting people in on it and making it a community thing. If we took a weekend away, it was always to the rainforest or to the mountains. I had an upbringing more or less in nature.

I think in Australia, we’re a little bit spoilt in terms of our oceans and our coastline and our beaches. We are, coastally, as a nation, about as lucky as you could get. I think as Australians, we need to check ourselves and remember that what we have is spectacular, on global terms

I can’t get enough of Far North Queensland. One of the things that I think is really wonderful is that it’s the only place in the world where two World Heritage Areas actually meet. There’s a point, Cape Tribulation, right at the top of the wet tropics, where the rainforest comes down onto the beach: that rainforest, the Daintree, is world-heritage listed, and so is the water that it meets, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

We Melburnians may not have the tropical rainforests, but we have some amazing parklands and public spaces down here in the CBD. However, we are still spending less and less time outdoors. Because not much of our parklands are native forest or even natural environments, I think there is a level of disconnect, which leads to what is known as Nature Deficit Disorder.  

My advice is, if you can, get out there. Don’t just go to a bar and see your friends; go to Bunyip State Forest, Wilsons Promontory or the Grampians and explore, because there are some fantastic trails to discover, wildlife to encounter and views to take in. And they’re right on our doorstep.

Over the course of my lifetime, I’d like to see that become more and more a part of our identity as Australians.


View more of Caleb’s work on his website.  

You can also connect with Caleb on LinkedIn, and join the Science Alumni group.