00:00You know, wildlife, you know, photography and everything has come so far, but it's still
00:23about showing almost the human nature in the wild, if that makes sense, it's showing the
00:29heart. Could you sort of talk about that? Because that's what, you know, Wild Kingdom is about,
00:33you know, it's about showing those family dynamics in many ways. Could you guys talk about that?
00:38Sure, sure. I think that you nailed it. That's exactly what Wild Kingdom has been doing since
00:441963. But you mentioned technology. Gee, technology has changed things so much.
00:52The way we used to do research, early shows, when I was with Jim Fowler, where
00:57if you wanted to study an animal, they would have it in the net, or someone might have to
01:01rope it, or you jump on its back out of a boat and grab an alligator and put it in,
01:05and then tag it, measure it, and do the work up and let it go. Now, when we want a close-up of
01:12wildlife, there's a quiet drone that goes out, or a huge long lens, or Ray was recently in a show
01:20where they had cameras on a trail with wildlife walking by, and they were motion-sensing cameras
01:25we captured. So I think with today's Wild Kingdom, you see a lot more sort of natural behavior
01:32because of technology. We could not have done that in the past.
01:35This morning, we're using radio telemetry to guide us to a mother black bear.
01:41Checking on bears in their hibernation dens is something I've done many times in my work as a
01:46wildlife ecologist. We have three newborn cubs to this mama. I'm going to pass them off to some of
01:53our crew to keep them warm. They are too little to thermoregulate right now, which means they
01:58cannot produce their own body heat. They need their mother's body heat or a volunteer. Right
02:04now, I'm cuddling this little one who's kind of exploring my scent. This is one of those
02:13really wonderful conservation success stories. Yeah, Dr. Ray, can you talk about that? Yeah,
02:18because behavior is such a big thing because sometimes people, it's sort of like humans,
02:22animals aren't going to act the way they really are unless you're not around sometimes.
02:27That's right. Yeah. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. I was just going to say,
02:30you were just with animals that were. Yeah, that's true. No, it's true. I mean,
02:34essentially, almost every species of wild animal is going to be stressed out if it's being handled
02:40or approached by a human being. And so one of the things that we really showcase in our television
02:45show is experiencing and observing wild animals from a distance. And to Peter's point, we can
02:52still get just amazing original footage because of drones, because of long lenses, because of all
02:59the amazing technological advances while keeping wild animals wild and not tamed. And then every
03:06so often, I've got to say, there'll be a need, the biologists are working with, to do a checkup
03:12on an animal or to change the batteries out of a tracking collar or something. And that's when
03:19we will set a trap or we'll sometimes sedate an animal in the field and we're able to get
03:24super hands on. And we did that with our very first episode of season two, which is called
03:29Into the Bear's Den. We go into a bear den and sedate a mama black bear and do a full checkup
03:36on her and her cubs. And that's possible due to technology. And then we also get up close
03:42and personal with her, which is pretty cool. Wow. I'm amongst the slots. This is pretty cool.
03:47It's a brown-throated three-toed sloth. I think this is your tree. It's perfecto.
03:57It's a kitten. No way. Is that a kitten? That's a kitten. We're going to put this trap right in
04:02there. All right. One, two, three. 45 more. But it's also about adrenaline. And Peter,
04:13you can talk about this too. When you're in those situations, though, there's still that energy and
04:18all that. Can you talk about that? Because it's about translating a bit of that onto screen
04:23sometimes. There is. And of course, the exception is that we recently experienced is that Ray and I
04:29were in the Bahamas when I think is the world's only shark sanctuary. And we were scuba diving
04:36with reef sharks and sitting on the bottom at about 45 feet deep. And sharks were all around
04:44us. And Ray was swimming along the surface looking down. I was on the top. I was above,
04:49but they were right there. And they were circling below her. And then they came down and they'd
04:54circle around me. But they were more curious and interested in us, which changes the older
05:00attitudes about sharks. In early shows, we filmed them in cages. Well, now we're learning more and
05:05more. They were just curious. Ray and I were swimming with whale sharks. And the whale sharks
05:11are feeding as they do normally and just sort of are ignoring the fact we're in the waters. They go
05:18on feeding them. So there are species of animals that still have no fear of humans. And hopefully,
05:23we get to capture that and share it with our audience. As you know, season two is launching
05:28October 5th on NBC in that wonderful time slot, the more you know. So this is going to be an
05:34exciting second season. And I have to say, it's not always the big ferocious animals that spike
05:42our adrenaline the most. Sometimes it's because we're in these very unfamiliar kind of uncomfortable
05:48situations. So whether it's entering a completely pitch black bat cave where bats are flying and
05:55spiders are dropping from the ceiling of the cave, or whether it's waiting in the night. I was just
06:01doing this down in southern Georgia waiting pitch black night in swamp water that has alligators and
06:08water snakes and snapping turtles and something bumps up against you. And you'll see me on camera
06:14giving a little scream here and there, not because I'm worried that something is going to kill me,
06:19but because there are the creepy crawlies that even I, as strong as I am and as familiar with
06:24wildlife as I am, sometimes, you know, they surprise you.
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