National Geographic did not pay a Million dollars each to purchase these videos - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 8, 2023
Update (08 February 2023):
Another video with multiple clips of different birds in the wilderness is being shared on social media, claiming it as a video shot on a cell phone at the Kruger national park. The post, like the previous one, claims that National Geographic acquired the footage by paying one Million Dollars. Let’s find out the truth behind this claim through this article.
Claim: National Geographic channel paid one Million dollars to acquire the viral video shot at the Kruger National Park.
Fact: The viral video contains multiple clips of birds in their natural habitat. A few of those clips are part of some documentaries, one of which is even shot in India. There is no reports on National Geographic channel paying one million dollars to acquire the viral video. Hence the claim made in the post is False.
On reverse image search of the keyframes obtained from the video, we found that some of these visuals were shot at different locations, not in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. We have listed a few of the debunked videos below.
Video of Great hornbills casque-butting:
A reverse image search on a keyframe led us to an Instagram post of Natgeo wild which contains an image similar to the birds in the viral clip. The post’s description states that it was shot by Sandesh Kadur in the Western Ghats of India.
A post shared by Nat Geo WILD (@natgeowild)
Mr Sandesh also posted a similar image on his Facebook, writing, ‘Great hornbills casque-butting don’t miss watching #ourplanet Forests episode to see these hornbills in full motion!‘ This episode is available on the YouTube channel of Netflix for free. The clip of Great hornbills in this episode is the same as the one in the viral video, and contrary to what the post says, this video clip was not shot in Kruger National Park, South Africa but was filmed in the Western Ghats of India.
Bower Bird Papua New Guinea:
This part of the viral clip was taken from a BBC earth YouTube video showing the Bower bird’s performance to attract a partner. This was shot in the forests of Papua New Guinea and not in Kruger National Park.
Another Bird:
This video contained the bird’s footage in the viral clip, and this was also not shot at the Kruger National Park but was filmed in the Papua and the Maluku Islands, Indonesia.
Links to a few other video clips can be found here and here. These videos are the longer versions of the video clips presented in the viral post.  We did not find any evidence that National geographic had purchased the rights to any video filmed in the Kruger National Park.
Published (13 January 2023):
A video of an Eagle sheltering eggs in a nest is being shared with a claim that reads, ‘National geographic channel has paid 1 million dollars for this rare video.‘ Let’s fact-check this video through this article.
Claim: National geographic channel has paid 1 million dollars for this rare video of an Eagle sheltering eggs.
Fact: This video is a clip from a 24/7 live stream of a Bald Eagle nest. A non-profit organisation called ‘friends of big bear valley‘ runs this stream on YouTube. There are no credible news reports to prove that National geographic channel has paid 1 million dollars for this video. Hence the claim made in this post is FALSE.
We performed a keyword search on the internet using relevant keywords about the video. This led us to a news report published by abc7, which contained a video that matches the initial portion of the viral video. We also found a YouTube video that matches the visuals of the viral video.
Reportedly, this video of a bald eagle, Mrs Big Bear protecting her eggs in a nest was captured near Big Bear lake, California. The Eagle and her mate share the duties of incubation throughout the year. A link to the YouTube live stream of this nest was given in the article, which is now defunct.
As per the description of this video, the nest is on the San Bernardino National Forest,  and the camera is provided by ‘The Friends of Big Bear Valley.’ Based on these hints, we searched the internet with relevant keywords, which led us to the website of ‘The Friends of Big Bear Valley’ and the YouTube channel in which they stream the visuals of the Eagle’s nest 24/7. This video stream is owned and operated by ‘The Friends of Big Bear Valley.’ According to their website, the Eagles nest camera is the first ever active bald eagle nest in Big Bear Valley, California.
We then searched the internet to see if the National Geographic channel had paid one million dollars to purchase the footage of the viral video, which is a clip of this live stream. We did not find any information about National Geographic channel purchasing this video. Factly had earlier debunked multiple videos with similar claims that National Geographic channel had paid one million dollars to purchase the footage of a viral video. Below are the links to those articles.
To sum up, multiple unrelated videos are being shared claiming that National Geographic paid one Million dollars to purchase them.