From the June 2023 Concern of Automobile and Driver.

Bob Poole is an Emmy Award–profitable filmmaker. His sister, Joyce, is without doubt one of the world’s main authorities on African pachyderm habits. Within the Pooles’ 2012 documentary, Warfare Elephants, the siblings go to Mozambique’s Gorongosa Nationwide Park—as soon as dwelling to a thriving wild-elephant inhabitants, now decimated by civil battle and poaching. The elephants remaining within the park are sometimes cautious of and even violent towards people. The Pooles recorded their interactions with the herds in hopes of serving to the elephants whereas highlighting the significance of animal conservation. To do that, they wanted a car that might get them throughout the wild terrain and stand as much as an aggressive elephant—simply in case diplomacy failed.

“Joyce and I concocted this loopy thought to not run away when the elephants have been charging and simply attempt to calm them down,” Bob explains. So he constructed a metal exoskeleton for his Land Rover Defender 110. “I assumed it might no less than give us some safety if we have been unsuitable and the elephants tried to kill us,” he says. “And finally, that occurred, and it definitely saved my life.”

Together with defending the endoskeletal filmmakers contained in the Land Rover, Poole’s customized cage can function a mount for all method of cameras. With it, the Defender [above] grew to become a cell video rig that opened unbelievable new alternatives for capturing animal antics.

Poole’s most up-to-date work will be seen in Nationwide Geographic’s Secrets and techniques of the Elephants, a four-part documentary by filmmaker James Cameron. All 4 episodes can be found on Disney+.