The rare emerald toads that call the females with their song, almost invisible but showy when illuminated. Robins, seagulls and crows around the Church of San Sebastiano on the Palatine; the only Italian freshwater crab, the river potamon crab, which has been able to live and procreate among the marbles for millennia. But also, among others, hawks, owls, white wagtails, rabbits, cats, hedgehogs, and an army of insects, from bees and beetles to predators such as hornets and oriental wasps. A world hidden during the day from the noise of tourists, which scientists, especially at night, study and observe. It is the journey from an unexpected perspective into the heart of ancient Rome that offers The Empire of Nature. A Night at the Colosseum Park, the documentary by Luca Lancise and Marco Gentili, produced by Sky and Brandon Box in collaboration with the Colosseum Archaeological Park and MiC, which debuts in pre-opening at the Rome Film Fest and then lands on Sky and Now in 2024.
This place "is not only an archaeological site, but a miracle. A real ecosystem, full of life forms" of isolated micro habitats. "There are things waiting for us that we have to learn to find, to look at," says naturalist Gianluca Damiani, who is among the scholars working in the area, where the animal population is constantly monitored with camera traps. They are cameras that are activated when animals pass by, taking shots and videos. Images that offer everyday moments, sometimes funny, such as an owl in the foreground, others dramatic, such as a cat preying on a bunny hidden by its parents in its den. Thus, between human 'guests' and animal owners, we discover, for example, with the naturalist Giacomo dell'Omo, the hour of the blackbirds, around 06.20, with the birds "that seem to agree to welcome the sun". The Roman Forum "is an island within Rome, the cliffs are represented by the walls of Rome and the sea is the city: the vestiges of this place offer unique opportunities to birds and they have noticed it". Among the study projects is the one related to the behavior of seagulls, on which small GPS are placed that record their movements: "We could use them as samplers of the urban environment," says dell'Omo, also to have data on air quality. There is no shortage of interesting encounters such as the one with the seagull Emilio, who every year takes a holiday of a few months from Rome, going to Switzerland, and then returns. And we witness scenes of struggle for survival such as that of bees against the fearsome oriental wasps (beer traps were not enough to stop them) or hornets, for which "a beehive is like a restaurant" explains Alice Lenzi. Finally, the documentary also takes a journey underground with archaeologists Edoardo Santini and Valentina Roccella, who, by checking the tuff cavities under the Domus Flavia, make us discover 'pieces' of a Rome "even older than the imperial one".
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