KCET Airs Documentary Series Wild!

KCET Airs Documentary Series Wild!

Stunning nature & wildlife documentary film series debuts on KCET June 21, 2011

Los Angeles - May 24, 2011 - KCET, the nations largest independent public media company serving Southern and Central California, announced it will air 12 episodes of the popular wildlife and nature documentary series, Wild! beginning June 21, 2011 at 8 p.m.

The stunning film series replaces Nature of Things in the KCET programming line-up and will run in hour-long episodes for six months.

Wild! brings KCET viewers on weekly sojourns into the wilderness to meet members of the animal kingdom-starting with an unexpected Penguin invasion at a South African beach resort, continuing with a look at the 45 million year old Tarsier creature that roams the forests of Southeast Asia and ending with a remarkable discovery of a pod of whales in the Southern Ocean thought to be extinct.

KCET will air Wild! shows from the most popular episodes of past seasons plus three new episodes including Dolphins of The Shadowland and Animal Inventors.

This is spectacular TV, said Bohdan Zachary, vice president, Broadcasting and Programming Development for KCET. Through the series, viewers will become immersed in far away regions in which an array of animals live in their unique habitats.

Episodes include:

Penguin Invasion

When penguins take over a popular South African beach resort, laughter, fun and conflict are the result.

Peculiar Primate: Tarsier

Witness the alien-like Tarsier in their natural habitat and discover why the worlds oldest primate may soon simply disappear.

Elephants: The Last Mahout

A unique looks into the plight of the Asian Elephants, exploring the tragic collisions of man and beast and speaking plainly about the steps necessary to save this remarkable animal.

Sharks: Scavengers Of The Seas

Before being an earthly paradise with enchanting colors, the lagoon of New Caledonia is above all a paradise for sharks. Usually considered as fierce predators, sharks really are opportunistic scavengers - scavengers that are not too picky when it comes to their menu: feathers, fins or anything will do.

Tigers Fighting Back

Across Asia, the fight to save tigers is being waged on many fronts. Leading the charge are three men whose mission is to understand tigers using science. The challenge these biological detectives face is enormous: over the last century, tiger numbers have plummeted by 95%. Could the future of these big cats lie in the hands of three conservationists?

Dolphins Of The Shadowland

Its almost impossible to study dolphins for extended periods of time in the open ocean. For this reason, a pod of sixty bottlenose dolphins resident in New Zealands Doubtful Sound provides a unique opportunity for scientists to improve our knowledge of these mysterious, appealing mammals.

Man Among Lions

Abdi Jama, a Somali camel herder, went to the U.S. and became an engineer. After twenty years, he returned to the African wilderness with a passion and talent for filming. He captured on-camera the moving and dramatic takes of the Okavangos leopards, lions and elephants.

Animal Inventors: Animal Engineers

The animal world is a vast untapped reservoir of engineering design and technology. This film explores the design principles upon which the natural world has been built, and looks at the parallels in the human world, demonstrating that animals beat us to the patent office by several million years with solutions to many of the great engineering challenges.

Animal Inventors: Animal Magicians

Episode two reveals some of natures most powerful secrets, from medical solutions for cancer and diabetes to finding the answers to the most vexing of questions, such as how can humans live longer, love longer and live in outer space?

Animal Inventors: Animal IT

This film explores the world of animal senses and animal intelligence. We may think were the smartest creatures on earth, but animals often see and hear far more than we can. Their senses are more finely tuned and their responses much faster. Human roboticists are now turning to animal tech for inspiration in building the next generation of artificially intelligent machines.

Forgotten Rhino

Forgotten Rhino presents the contrasting stories of two species of Asian rhino - the battle to save the critically endangered Javan Rhino and the remarkable success story of human efforts to resurrect what was a dying species, the closely related Indian rhinoceros. The film also acknowledges the desperate plight of Asias third species and the worlds smallest rhinoceros - the Sumatran rhinoceros.

Lost Whales

For 150 years, southern right whales were hunted to the brink of extinction, but the discovery of a pod in the Southern Ocean has sparked fresh hope that their numbers are increasing. Intimate underwater footage unveils the behavior of these gentle giants and gives scientists a chance to predict and protect their future recovery.

About KCET

On-air, online and in the community, KCET plays a vital role in the cultural and educational enrichment of Southern and Central California. KCET offers a wide range of award-winning local programming as well as the finest public television programs from around the world. KCET currently produces the Emmy , duPont-Columbia and Peabody Award-winning SoCal Connected, a hard-hitting prime-time weekly television news program that examines the issues and people of Southern California. Throughout its more than 40-year history, KCET has won hundreds of major awards for its local and regional news and public affairs programming, its national drama and documentary productions, its quality educational family and childrens programs, its outreach and community services and its website, kcet.org. KCET is a donor-supported community institution. For additional information about KCET productions, Web-exclusive conte

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