Learn About the Animal

• There's no point in going out into nature and aiming to film an animal in its natural habitat without doing your homework first. If you want to film an animal in the wild, you will have to learn about its natural behavior, where it goes and where you'll be most likely to find it to shoot it.
  
  Even if you find a place where you are very likely to find the species of animal that you're after, you may not necessarily get video of it on the first try, Filming animals takes lots of patience and you may have to wait quite awhile before you get what you are looking for.
  
  

Restaging

• Sometimes you cannot shoot the perfect scene in the wild because the conditions are not present or because the animal cannot be induced to act in a certain way. If this is the case, you may achieve the desired effect by simulating the environment that you are after and using captive animals rather than wild ones.
  
  If you film animals in captivity, you should never claim that it was filmed in the wild as this is a false representation. However, sometimes situations are simply too difficult or too dangerous to simulate in the wild, thus captive animals need to be used in a controlled area. Restaging and simulating events and environments can add something to your animal footage that would definitely not be able to be filmed if left up to fate and nature.
  
  

The Law

• Most countries have strict laws concerning animal welfare. Thus, when filming animals, you should be very aware of these laws and the possibility that you may be breaking them, especially when filming animals in captivity.
  
  In many countries, the breaking of animal welfare laws can lead to prosecution as well as criminal conviction. Actions such as the capture of birds for filming purposes and tethering a live animal as bait to attract a predator are illegal in many countries. Therefore, if you are filming animals, always check the local animal welfare laws first--it's better to be safe than sorry.