Sharkbait Productions

Species on the Brink: The Reticulated Giraffes of Samburu

Status: In Production
Director: Stuart Spray
Writer: Stuart Spray and John Doherty
Contact: Stuart Spray mail@sharkbaitproductions.co.uk
Release date: 2012
Genre: Documentary

All over Africa, giraffes are in serious decline. Some 30% may have been lost in the past 10 years alone. The principal reasons are believed to be poaching, especially for meat, and loss of habitat. Reticulated giraffes Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata seem to have fared especially badly, with a drop in numbers of more than 80% from perhaps 30,000 a decade ago to fewer than 5,000 today.

The Reticulated Giraffe Project aims to address this lack of information by investigating aspects of the animals' behavioural ecology and of the population processes operating upon them.

Sharkbait will shadow reaserched John Doherty, Reticulated Giraffe Project, to find out what it takes to conserve these magnificent creatures.

The Scottish Leisler's Bat Radio Tracking Project

Status: Post production
Director: Stuart Spray
Writer: Stuart Spray and John Haddow
Contact: Stuart Spray mail@sharkbaitproductions.co.uk
Release date: October 2010
Genre: Documentary

Filmed in the Summer of 2010, the documentary follows the progress of the Scottish Leisler's Bat Radio Tracking Project in South West Scotland.

The project was coordinated by bat ecologist John Haddow and aims to find out more about one of Scotland's rarest bats by fitting radio transmitters and following the bats to and from their day time roosts and night time foraging habitat.

Species On The Brink

Status: Pre-production
Director: Stuart Spray
Writer: Stuart Spray and Kevin Duffy
Contact: Stuart Spray mail@sharkbaitproductions.co.uk
Release date: 2011
Genre: Documentary

The 'Species on the Brink' team will investigate why nearly 30 years after the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) became law, many of our rare plants animals, are still struggling on the edge of extinction. Over six episodes, the series will follow conservationists on the front line in an attempt to answer the question 'What can be done to protect the UK's rare fauna and flora?'.

Rapter persecution in the UK - whats really going on?

Status: In production
Director: Stuart Spray
Writer: Stuart Spray and Kevin Duffy
Contact: Stuart Spray mail@sharkbaitproductions.co.uk
Release date: 2011
Genre: Documentary

At the CLA (County Land and Business Association) Game Fair in 2008 the RSPB announced a 40 per cent increase in reported crimes against birds of prey in the UK.

RSPB species officer Jeff Knott told the BBC 'The key thing is that people are still attacking (raptors) very commonly across some areas of the uplands, particularly on areas of land managed as driven grouse moors and this really has to be unacceptable in any modern society.'

In response a spokesman for the National Gamekeepers Organisation commented 'There is a prospect of real progress being made on the raptor issue, so it's extremely disappointing when we see some of the old entrenched rhetoric being trundled out. We're never going to solve these issues while the media is being fed inflammatory storylines. The RSPB is a huge organisation and, like a supertanker, it takes time to change course - we'll just have to hope the cool heads in the charity don't sacrifice the prospect of real progress for the sake of a few soundbites.'

So what is really going on? Is raptor persecution still rife across the UK's sporting estates or is the problem being blown out of proportion? And what is the way forward for raptor conservation in the UK?

Stuart Spray and Kevin Duffy take an uncompromising look at the issue of raptor persecution in the UK, with no holds barred interviews with members of the Scottish Raptor Study Groups, conservationists, landowners and gamekeepers.

Bats and trees

Status: In production
Director: Stuart Spray
Writer: Stuart Spray
Contact: Stuart Spray mail@sharkbaitproductions.co.uk
Release date: 2011
Genre: Documentary

Most British bats have evolved to roost in trees. Features such as rot holes, cracks, flaking bark and old wood pecker holes can all be suitable for roosting bats.

Unfortunately, our mature trees and the wildlife they support have for many years been under threat from misunderstanding and poor management. Many trees, thought to be dying or dangerous, continue to be unnecessarily felled or damaged by inappropriate tree surgery. It is not known how many bat roosts are lost each year as a result of this type management.

Recent changes to UK legislation now require landowners to carry out a bat survey for roosts prior to tree surgery taking place. However, surveys are often carried out at the last minute by untrained personnel using flawed methodology resulting in bat roosts being missed and often destroyed.

In this short documentry produced in partnership with Solway Heritage, Stuart Spray takes a look at trees and their importance for roosting bats in the UK and asks the question 'Is current legislation designed to protect bats and their roosts doing the job?'.

The Caerlaverock Suite