The Drill - What started it all

While working on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, as a biologist, I learned about an animal so mysterious that among scientists and filmmakers, its elusive nature was legendary. The more we learned, the more we realized something needed to be done to save them from extinction.

Drills and their cousins Mandrills are the largest monkeys in the world and they have been inhabiting this region of West/Central Africa for nearly 3 million years. Far longer than the 300,000 years humans have walked the planet but while our species now struggles with a population of over 8 billion, current estimates put the number of drill monkeys at only around 3,000 individuals left in the wild. That’s the equivalent of the entire human species being reduced to the size of my high school. The drills are disappearing, and with them, their critical role in maintaining one of the world’s most competitively biodiverse ecosystems on our planet.

Hunted throughout their range the drills are watching their forests disappear to illegal logging and farming. These ecocystems are critical for life on earth and yet drills remain one of the world’s least known and most endangered species of primates. If nothing is done, it’s possible that drills go extinct without many people ever knowing they existed in the first place.

That’s why since 2012, it has been the mission of Drill Films to bring these amazing and charismatic animals to the international stage to raise much-needed awareness of their existence and their fight for survival. Through this, we hope that others will step up to help protect not only the drills but the countless other species like them. Through our efforts we strive to be on the fighting side in the preservation of Earth’s biodiversity.

After our initial conservation film “El Proyecto del Mono Dril,” we assembled a team of dedicated individuals to put the drill’s reputation to test. Through a cumulative 12 months in the field over three seasons we spent countless hours tracking these ghosts of the forest and many more waiting in blinds. It was only then did we begin to piece together their secret lives.

Whether it is creating sequences for the BBC, National Geographic and the Smithsonian Channel, Drill Films has held to our mission of combining cutting edge filmmaking with front line conservation. Our journey began when we became the first to film drills in the wild and today we are proud to have seen our images of drills and their beautiful island home of Bioko broadcast across the world for millions to see. I am hopeful that this awareness will support conservation strategies, strengthen ecotourism and drive public interest in preserving their natural heritage.

Moving forward, we continue to build on our knowledge gained while working in extreme environments with rare and elusive species. Our specialty is extended in situ shoots focused on character driven stories. Our background in natural sciences and animal behavior has been put to the test with over a decade of filmmaking expeditions into some of the most remote and unforviging environments. Drill Films is dedicated to finding and telling stories of our natural world to help save it. We hope that through employing our craft, skill, and experience, we can help build a better future.

-Justin Jay