A BBC cameraman recently got a lot more than he bargained for while filming for the Animal Park docu-series, and he probably won't be forgetting the ordeal any time soon. Why? Well, because he got rammed in the nuts by an excitable sheep, and that looks like the kind of pain that lingers.
What should have been a relatively peaceful shoot involving a sheep -- a.k.a. not one of nature's most terrifying beasts -- took a turn for the dangerous for the cameraman. Fortunately, all seemed to be okay by the end, so we don't have to feel guilty for laughing at what was caught on camera.
Prepare for a collision of man vs. beast that was never meant to happen, and take a look!
Oh, Cecil! What did he ever do to you?
Despite the cameraman seemingly not doing anything but hovering around with his camera, he became the target of Cecil the Cameroon sheep as soon as he was down on eye-level with the animal.
Not to blame the poor cameraman in the BBC video, of course, but he did seem to be tempting fate a little bit by laughingly covering the danger zone when Cecil first approached. He had barely moved his hand away before Cecil lowered his head and rammed!
Cecil did show off his love of ramming earlier in the video as well. While the expert was explaining what was special about Cecil and his sheep brothers, he began to ram her legs. He even apparently nipped at her fingers a little bit when she was feeding him.
Cecil doesn't come across as angry to me in the video, but rather a sheep who tends to ram people when they're in front of him. Sorry, cameraman!
The cameraman does deserve kudos for how well he handled the situation. Not only did he protect the camera and the sheep when he fell over, but he also refrained from dropping any non-BBC-friendly F-bombs and even put something resembling a smile on his face ASAP.
The two women in the background probably didn't help much, as they could barely even stifle their laughter after the ramming incident. I mean, the cameraman clearly wasn't mortally wounded, and it was pretty funny.
People who operate cameras have had to deal with all kinds over problems, ranging from weather to speeding cars to even on-camera robberies, but I have to say that this is the first time I've seen a cameraman rammed in the nuts by a sheep.
But hey, maybe this will be good for the BBC, in the grand scheme of things! I'm guessing the cameraman's woes will result in a lot of people knowing about a show that they hadn't otherwise heard of. Animal Park isn't exactly Doctor Who, after all!
I'm not sure knowing that his injury means more publicity for Animal Park will soothe the sting -- physical or emotional -- for the cameraman, though. Hopefully this experience just means that anybody who approaches Cecil and/or his brothers takes proper precautions from now on.
