How British wildlife became a video sensation in China and beyond, providing the perfect antidote to pandemic blues
- The animals of British artist Robert E. Fuller’s Yorkshire garden have become unlikely stars. In China, the response has been ‘bonkers’
Deep in the Yorkshire Wolds, in northern England, Robert E. Fuller, like most of us have been for the past year, is glued to a screen. But not to the latest Netflix series or a pirated feed of Oprah Winfrey’s Harry and Meghan interview. He is watching a pair of wild tawny owls, Luna and Bomber, flying back and forth from the woods to their nest, caring for their two precious eggs, laid a few weeks earlier.
Neither owlet from the two eggs will survive, perhaps because they come early and cannot endure the sub-zero temperatures. One chick will die from exhaustion and be eaten by Luna.
We know this because Fuller goes on to observe it.
An artist who specialises in painting wildlife, Fuller began filming creatures in and around his garden a few years ago, gradually introducing more hidden cameras and monitors so as not to miss a thing. He shares his best video captures on YouTube, and last summer began live streaming some of the action.
Perhaps having exhausted their stockpiles of Netflix dramas during the pandemic, increasing numbers of viewers across the globe have been tuning into the highs and lows of nature in Fuller’s rural world. He now has 100 cameras strategically placed in and around his garden to provide ever more material for his voracious audience.
“People were crying out for what they were missing,” he says, “or what they didn’t even know about.”