NUNAVUT
The extraordinary diversity of Nunavut's wildlife and the vastness of its landscape will be displayed in ultra high-definition next month during an episode of The Nature of Things with David Suzuki.

Jeff and Sue Turner, long-time Canadian documentary makers, shot footage of Nunavut's wildlife and landscape including this polar bear and two cubs during a period of 143 days last year. - photo courtesy of Suzanne Cheriton

The segment, the last of a four-part series called Wild Canada, features 80 per cent of footage shot in Nunavut over a period of 143 days.

Canadian filmmakers Jeff and Sue Turner travelled across the territory from the early spring until late September last year to capture a number of wild animals in their natural habitat, recording footage not unlike the Planet Earth nature documentary series broadcast in 2006.

"It's a beautiful territory and an amazing part of the world," Jeff Turner said of the places he visited, which included Sanikiluaq, Pond Inlet, Resolute Bay, Rankin Inlet and Pangnirtung, among others.

"I filmed many times in the Arctic and the difference with this documentary is we tried to do something never done before, which was cover the complete wildlife history of Canada. We cover the entire country in just four episodes but we could have easily made eight or 10 with the amount of footage we had."

The Turners, who have been making documentary films for the past 25 years, produced and directed the series.

More than 500 hours of footage was shot on almost 20 different cameras, the same RED Epic cameras used to shoot recent Hollywood blockbusters.

The images, composed in 4K resolution, deliver four times as many pixels as the standard high-definition resolution of 1080p.

Some sequences were shot at 10,000 frames per second in order to capture details never before seen, according to a news release.

Turner said the main challenges to shooting in Nunavut were related to weather and distance.

"There is so much of Nunavut that is remote and that's what makes it so beautiful," he said.

"It's a long ways from everywhere. The conditions and weather are more extreme and sometimes it's hard to get to certain locations. We worked with a lot of different locals from those communities to go out on the land. We always had good guides and support."

The filmmakers also had to deal with constantly changing ice conditions, which would sometimes prevent wildlife from travelling.

"We went to film beluga in Cunningham Inlet in late July, where they go to rub on the beaches," he said.

The animals rub their bodies against the rocky seabed to molt their skin.

"There was so much ice plugging the strait between Resolute and Summerset Island that a lot of beluga couldn't get in. The conditions are so variable with the ice up there."

To capture more impressive landscape shots, they used drone helicopters rigged with small cameras, as well as gyro-stabilized aerial camera systems.

Another goal the filmmakers set for themselves was to capture the effects of humans on Nunavut's landscape over time.

Turner said he wanted to delve into the issue of climate change and how it's affecting the Arctic.

"It was certainly a big priority for us," he said.

The show airs every Thursday night at 8 p.m. until April 3.