My wild queens

The women risking lives to show off matriarchs of natural world

- NICK WEBSTER

IT was an urgent call of nature which led Vanessa Berlowitz to one of her and most undignified hairiest moments in the wild.

A former star of the BBC Natural History Unit, she is the toast of wildlife film-making worldwide with her new National Geographic and Disney+ show Queens proving a massive hit.

She has worked more with Sir David Attenborough in the field than any woman and survived coming face to face with elephant-killing lions and a charging grizzly bear.

But she nearly met her maker when filming in Norway's remote Svalbard archipelago for BBC's Frozen Planet.

While trying to spend a penny, a hungry polar bear appeared just metres away. Vanessa was staying in a remote small hut with two male crew members, "desperate for a pee at 3am - it's still daylight because it's so far north.

She said: "I've got all my outdoor gear down by my ankles because at that point they didn't design outdoor clothes for women. You had to literally take your skidoo suit virtually off, and unpeel five layers of thermals.

"So I was down to my knickers and thermal vest and just had this awful feeling of something watching me over my shoulder.

"I looked behind me and there was a very emaciated female polar bear probably within 30 metres - and that is far too close at any time of year.

"This was summer, probably the most dangerous time to meet a polar bear because there's very little food. A female is particularly dangerous if she is also feeding young cubs. So this was about as dangerous as it can get.

"I didn't even bother pulling up my pants and waddled as fast as I couldwith my pants around my ankles back to the cabin. I was so panicked I fell through the door which gave a nasty awakening to the men who ended up staring at my bare bottom.