Gordon Buchanan: ‘I was just a boy when I heard Call of the Wild. How could I resist this?’

Reading it again for the first time in 40 years, Gordon Buchanan realised how much The Call Of The Wild had shaped his life.

The acclaimed wildlife film-maker had been made to read Jack London’s classic adventure story when he was a 10-year-old schoolboy, and the vivid depictions of the harsh and brutal landscape of Canada’s Yukon during the Klondike gold rush of the 1890s captured his imagination.

It was only when he read the novel again four decades later, in preparation for his own trip to the region, that he understood how much the story had influenced his world.

“Everyone in class had to read the same book and I asked some of my friends from that time if they remembered it, and some couldn’t, but for me there was something about the book, and the way of life it described, that planted a seed in my mind,” he said.

“It wasn’t until I read the book again 40 years on that I said, ‘Gosh, no wonder I ended up doing a job like this’. Because at the age of 10, it was precisely the type of thing I wanted to do in life. If I hadn’t read the book, maybe I wouldn’t have the career I have.”

The Call Of The Wild puts sled dogs at the forefront of its story, specifically Buck, a St Bernard-collie mix who was stolen from his Californian home and sold into service as a sled dog, becoming more primitive and wild as he attempts to survive and adapt to his new environment. In new documentary, Snow Dogs, Buchanan takes on a dogsled challenge in the Yukon wilderness, following in the footsteps of the Scottish Klondike gold rush explorers. But it is the seven-dog team that poses a bigger challenge than the brutal and wild environment.

“It had crossed my mind previously to use dogs as a way of transport in remote places to film wild animals, but they make so much noise that they would scare most animals off, and I didn’t know this at the time, but it is so labour intensive to look after the dogs that it doesn’t leave much time in the day. This project’s mission wasn’t about seeing wild animals; this was more about the challenge of learning to dog mush in one of the wildest places in the world.”

Buchanan had just one day with expert musher Pierre-Luc Fortin to become acquainted with Hero, Epic, Vicky, Lucky, Exy, Wookie and pack leader Yukon before he was out in the wild with the Alaskan huskies. Gaining their trust and respect was harder than he imagined.

“Before I went, I thought it was about mastering or dominating them, and about me becoming the boss, but that’s not how they work,” Buchanan explained. “You’re part of their team, so you need to understand them as individuals and how they work as a group. Each of their personalities were different, so I had to treat them with respect, love and care.

“I completely underestimated what I needed to do for them. To feed them, I had a block of frozen meat, which I needed to chop up and cook in four or five litres of water. I needed to melt snow on a fire to do that, so I also needed to chop wood to feed the fire. Every day, it was a case of getting up, preparing the dogs’ food, feeding them and myself, then harnessing them and going off on the trail.

“The worst moment was when two of the dogs ran off; I thought there was no stopping them. They have been bred for hundreds of thousands of years to run, and when they are not burdened by a sled they’ll just keep on doing what they love.”

Luckily, the dogs’ harnesses became entangled in a branch and so Buchanan was able to catch up with them, which is more than can be said for his support team. He said: “The main crew had a snowmobile with a trailer containing the filming equipment, but the dogs were way ahead so I knew I would have to film a lot of it myself.

“It would be 40 minutes before the crew arrived after the dogs had stopped. But to experience somewhere like that – where the only wild animal I saw at that time of year was caribou – I wanted as much time alone with the dogs as possible.”

The speed of the dogs – around 20mph – made the culmination of Buchanan’s trip, taking on the Burn Run, a treacherous one.

He said: “If you were to walk along it in the summer on foot, you’d think it was just a little forest trail, but it’s a different prospect in the snow and ice while being pulled along by seven dogs. There’s lots of rocks and sharp bends, and you are responding to one part of the trail or overhanging tree while another one is coming along to bop you in the face. There are lots of challenges and that’s why it’s so infamous.”

Where the wild things are: Globe-trotting film-maker Gordon Buchanan finds nature on his doorstep

Buchanan describes it as one of the best experiences of his life and the perfect present for turning 50 this year.

“Across my career, you’re learning all the time, but a lot of that is about using skills you already have, whereas this was something completely different. It turns out you can teach an old dog a new trick!”

Buchanan, wife Wendy and their children Lola and Harris are looking forward to a chilled-out Christmas.

“Ordinarily, we spend it at home, but we’re going away this time in order to destress Christmas and to try to enjoy it,” he said.

Next up, in 2023, is a tour celebrating 30 years as a film-maker, but he still has plenty of ambitions .

“As much as I like being out in the wild, I’m quite sociable as well and I’m fascinated by people and what they are interested in, so I’m looking forward to the tour,” he added.

“I would love to go to Antarctica, where I’ve never been. I spent a lot of the early years of my career in the Tropics, but growing up on the west coast of Scotland doesn’t prepare you for living in a rainforest, so I feel more at home in the colder environments.”

Snow Dogs, December 18, BBC Scotland, 8pm, BBC2, 9pm