In the oldest beech forest in Europe located in Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo, a camera was set up opposite a tree. It was to be left for 365 days, from June 2016 to 2017, continuously capturing footage from day to night.
One year later, the footage is complete and it’s astounding thousands of people across the world.
The project
In 2005 it was discovered that Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo housed the oldest beech forests in Europe. To promote this valuable habitat, an innovative project called Forestbeat was established by photographers Bruno D’Amicis and Umberto Esposito. They sought to explore and promote the incredible diversity of the forest through video, audio and photo.
Their most recent project, “A Tree, 365 Days”, aimed to capture animals in a way that the public doesn’t normally see.
Diversity
After setting up a video camera opposite a “rub tree”, where brown bears rub their backs, the pair waited a year to see what it had captured. It didn’t disappoint. From the beauty of the changing seasons to the intimate moments between wild boars, deer and foxes, the camera also captured rare sights of endangered Marsican brown bears.
Success
The footage has since been watched over one million times. Of the success of the project, D’Amici said:
I am glad that many people can understand the importance of those unique forests and realise that even in a country like Italy, so densely populated, there is still an abundance of wildlife worth preserving.
It seems like simple footage, but to find such a tree takes a lot of work…We believe in the power of honest imagery to draw people attention and convey a strong message of conservation.
To find out more about the pair’s conservation efforts, check out ForestBeat.
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