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Epic Adventures with Bertie Gregory (Disney+) is the 29-year-old wildlife filmmaker’s first time hosting a show. But he’s no stranger to the natural world, with a degree in zoology and experience on projects for National Geographic. For Epic Adventures, Gregory deploys his team and tech on land and sea to get shots that define some of nature’s biggest moments.

Opening Shot: An animated image of the earth’s surface highlights the central African country of Zambia, where wildlife filmmaker Bertie Gregory is heading to film the continent’s “most powerful aerial predator,” the crowned eagle.

The Gist: Each October rainy season, millions and millions – and millions – of fruit bats gather in Zambia’s Kasanka National Park, looking for a meal. But while their consumption of figs and berries and eventual reverse migration will sow vital seeds across Africa, the bats themselves are the meal for the crowned eagles who are perched and waiting. “I want to tell wildlife stories in a rapidly changing world,” Bertie Gregory says, and to that end he’s brought his team and high-tech camera gear to Kasanka, where the fruit bats’ migration, the fruits they eat, and the eagles who eat them are threatened by encroachment from industrial farming.

After locating an eagle’s nest, with its throng of sticks and branches nestled under the canopy of a tall, tall tree, Gregory and his team build an observation platform at elevation nearby, an operation that involves mountaineering ropes, a camouflage shelter, and an impressive array of long lens camera gear. But their efforts are paid off when the team discovers a chick – “We’ve got a chick!” – in the nest, and the mother dutifully feeding her fuzzy charge strips of monkey meat. In four weeks, Gregory tells us, that little fluff ball will be a full-sze killing machine, a growth spurt that requires sustenance. We learn that the baby chick’s parents will “smash over 130 mammals per year,” which comes out to over 1000 pounds of meat.

The action in the eagle’s nest is compared and contrasted with what’s happening at the migration feeding grounds, where crowned eagles are joined by martial and fish eagles in the swaying branches of burned and dead trees high above the forest canopy. And from static observation towers, Gregory and his team employ cameras and drones to capture the precise moment of an eagle’s fruit bat strike.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Disney+ also features the documentary Ghost of the Mountains, about filmmakers’ attempts to land their cameras on China’s elusive snow leopard, while Netflix includes the series Our Planet, hosted by David Attenborough, with whom Bertie Gregory has also worked.

Our Take: “With their powerful talons, crowned eagles can pierce the skull of their prey in a single blow.” This is the kind of fast fact a solidly-built nature program can really drive home, and Epic Adventures with Bertie Gregory does exactly that with the kind of close-in camera action that puts you in the predator’s nest. It’s a lens placement that requires tactical thinking and ingenuity, and as the team prepares for their nighttime insertion into the Kasanka forest, Gregory takes precautions with his own skull. A photo of the host is taped to his backpack, in the hope that it will prevent being eagle taloned from behind. Low-tech? Sure. But necessary, as we learn during a safety briefing that nonchalantly advises Gregory and his team on the application of field dressings in the event of bird attack. It’s a thrilling moment, and a great reveal on the work that goes into capturing the coolest wildlife closeups.

“Yeah dude,” Gregory tells a team member over the radio as they observe the crowned eagle, “that rear talon is bigger than a lion’s tooth, and that makes it the biggest natural killing weapon in Africa.” Later episodes of Epic Adventures will keep the team in Zambia to capture the lions themselves, but Gregory isn’t just a landlubber, with journeys to observe dolphins off the coast of Central America, ocean schools of hammerhead sharks, and fin whales gathering around an Antarctic hunk of ice called Elephant Island.

Sex and Skin: No way, unless you’re talking about the malbroucks and bush babies who try and fail to save their own skins from the predatory grip of a hungry crowned eagle’s talons.

Parting Shot: As the majesty of a crowned eagle in flight is captured over the green backdrop of Zambia’s vast national parkland, Gregory provides an update that, since filming, an injunction in the courts has prohibited two companies from cutting down forests on the edge of Kasanka.

Sleeper Star: We’ll go with Bertie Gregory’s drone camera system here, an addition to wildlife filmmaking that offers immediate gains from a technical standpoint. While Gregory and his team do careful work on the ground to place cameras at the point of contact, the ability to become airborne at a moment’s notice offers the viewer immediate new perspectives on wildlife and habitats.

Most Pilot-y Line: “If I can see what prey comes back to the nest, it’ll help us figure out their hunting strategy.” Gregory is all about getting the best shot he can of whatever animal life is the quarry, and securing it in a manner that doesn’t disrupt the habitat.

Will you stream or skip the cutting-edge wildlife/nature show #EpicAdventureswithBertieGregory on @DisneyPlus? #SIOSI

Our Call: STREAM IT. Epic Adventures with Bertie Gregory updates traditional wildlife and nature programming with the infusion of its host’s charisma and cutting-edge camera techniques.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges

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