Animal Planet's blog

ANIMAL PLANET – Monday 4 October, 11.30am

Today, World Animal Day is observed by animal lovers of all beliefs, nationalities and backgrounds across the globe and every year on October 4, animal life in all its glory is celebrated. This year Animal Planet has teamed up with WWF to dedicate an entire day to some of the world’s most amazing and endangered creatures existing in the wild. Join us for a day of wildlife specials, featured back-to-back exclusively on Animal Planet, as we venture around the world exploring animals from the African jungle, to the Amazonian forest, right through to the jungles of China.

Highlights include:

War of the Wombats | 9.30am

Gorillas Revisited with Sigourney Weaver | 10.30am

Polar Bears: On Thin Ice | 11.30am

Killer Whales: Up Close and Personal | 12.30pm

The Beauty of Snakes |1.30pm

Amber the Russian Tiger | 2.30pm

Woolly Jumpers: Made in Peru | 3.30pm

China’s Last Elephants | 4.30pm

White Lions | 5.30pm

Want to do more to protect these amazing and endangered species from extinction? Go to wwf.org.au/world-animal-day

ANIMAL PLANET – Sundays from 26 September, 9.30pm

This special features a creature with a soft boneless body, eight tentacles of which one is a sex organ, eyes that take up a quarter of its body weight and a brain and intestines in a single pouch. Sound like your worst nightmare? Think again. This alien like creature is the Octopus, a carnivorous predator that can grow up to five metres long, change shape and colour at will, solve complex problems with a formidable intelligence, walk on land and sea and cross through fire. The Octopus has lived side by side with humankind from the beginning, however, only now are we beginning to unravel the extent of its astounding intelligence.

ANIMAL PLANET – Saturdays from 25 September, 10.30pm

Why do antelopes need lions? What links Atlantic sand eels to Alaskan grizzly bears? How do alligators make life easy for racoons? The answers to these questions are found in this fascinating new series, which illustrates the incredible relationships between the species that construct our ecosystem and the circle of life on Planet Earth.

ANIMAL PLANET – Sunday 12 September, 8.30pm

One hundred and eighty million years old, surviving from the giant reptile era, ferocious African crocodiles often inspire fear and even fascination in humans. They are said to kill nearly 3,000 people in Africa a year, the highest amount of incidences occurring in Tanzania. This special takes viewers face-to-face with the formidable killer, as we witness its underwater behaviour, unique survival skills and predatory methods.

Richard (Ric) O’Barry – lead activist of the Oscar®-winning film The Cove – and his son, filmmaker Lincoln O’Barry, are two men driven by a single passion to expose the plight of dolphins worldwide.

Now, continuing the journey that began in the Academy Award-winning film, Animal Planet presents the powerful three-part miniseries, BLOOD DOLPHINS, premiering Wednesday, October 6 at 9 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT.

From former dolphin trainer of the hit-series Flipper, to dolphin activist operating on the edge, Ric O’Barry continues on his redemptive mission to save dolphins at the peril of man. Along with his son, Ric returns to Taiji, Japan, the site of The Cove, and travels to the Solomon Islands, the nerve centre of dolphin slaughter and trade, to confront cultural, political and economic forces that affect the world’s dolphins.

Each operation is an uncharted journey into the heart of enemy territory. In BLOOD DOLPHINS, Ric and Lincoln encounter serious opposition, but setbacks, disappointment and struggle are not foreign to them – these obstacles do not stop them from continuing their mission. With the stakes always high, the operations sometimes frustrating and often dangerous, and the outcomes both heartbreaking and hopeful, no single mission will achieve final victory. But for Ric and Lincoln O’Barry, saving dolphins is a battle well worth fighting…one they are determined to win, no matter how long it takes. 

“Dolphins are highly intelligent, self-aware, complex creatures that should swim free without the threat of slaughter or captivity,” says Ric O’Barry. “The most important thing I can do…that my son can do…is show the world through projects like BLOOD DOLPHINS just how threatened dolphins are so we can all do something about it.”

Threatened by annual hunts, dolphins are slaughtered by the thousands each and every year. They are also victimized by a highly lucrative – at times cutthroat – captive trade, where a “prime specimen” can rake in up to $200,000 for the dolphin entertainment industry. Either scenario is a sad fate for one of the most remarkable, intelligent and loved creatures on the planet. 

“My father is more aware than anyone else of how extraordinary dolphins are,” says Lincoln O’Barry. “Having worked almost 50 years with dolphins as the trainer for the television-star Flipper, he has spent the last four decades trying to redeem himself for the mistake he made by working with the captive dolphin industry.”

Episode highlights for BLOOD DOLPHINS include:

BLOOD DOLPHINS – “Return to Taiji”

Wednesday, October 6 at 9 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT

For years, Taiji, Japan concealed a dark secret – an annual six-month long dolphin hunt, where approximately 20,000 dolphins are brutally slaughtered in a tiny, hidden inlet known as “The Cove.” In 2009, the Oscar®-winning film, The Cove, exposed Taiji’s hunt to the world for the first time. Now, Ric and Lincoln O’Barry use the power of international outrage to attempt to stop dolphin hunting. And though the mission appears to work – the annual hunt is delayed and a covert swim to The Cove itself shows no preparations to resume the slaughter – a single phone call brings them rushing back. 

BLOOD DOLPHINS – “The Solomon Islands, Part 1”

Wednesday, October 13 at 9 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT

In recent years, the Solomon Islands – a tiny nation in the South Pacific – has emerged as a major crossroads in the blood trade in wild dolphins. Dolphin dealing is legal here and has sparked a gold rush among poverty stricken indigenous tribes who have hunted dolphins for centuries. For Ric and Lincoln O’Barry, a mission to The Solomon Islands brings intrigue and danger, as well as high hopes. 

BLOOD DOLPHINS – “The Solomon Islands, Part 2”

Wednesday, October 20 at 9 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT

Ric and Lincoln O’Barry’s mission to the Solomon Islands continues and is fully launched on two fronts. First, they must confirm the true intentions of dolphin dealer-turned-advocate Chris Porter. Secondly, they make inroads with the indigenous people still involved in dolphin hunting. 

ANIMAL PLANET – Thursdays from 9 September, 9.30pm

Venom expert Donald Schultz is willing to risk his own life to save those of others in one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet. Whether harvesting venom from the fangs of a deadly taipan snake in Australia, or vaccinating cheetahs against a disease that threatens to wipe out the entire population, Donald is fearless in his quest to ensure the survival of dozens of species across the globe. Tearing his way through unexplored jungles and rappelling down sheer mountain cliffs, his work has the potential to uncover the blueprint for elusive antivenins or the DNA sequence of an entirely new species of wildlife. Each mission brings him face-to-face with some of the most deadly creatures on Earth and in each location he faces a series of challenges, only Donald can overcome.

ANIMAL PLANET – Wednesdays from 25 August, 9.30pm

Without claws, venom or razor-sharp teeth, humans are no physical match for our wildlife counterparts. Given our natural disadvantages, a confrontation with an animal can easily turn deadly. However, there are times when no amount of size or power can overcome a much stronger opponent, a human’s will to live. This new series features the inspirational stories of people who, regardless of the obstacles or consequences, were determined to survive an animal attack.

ANIMAL PLANET – Sundays from 22 August, 8.30pm

In the northern tip of South Africa’s Kruger National Park, the Levuhvu River has dried up during the most severe drought in living memory. There remains only one pool of water deep enough to hold more than the hundred crocodiles and twenty hippopotamus that have nowhere else to go. The local wildlife must drink here too and take their chances with the crocodiles that wait under water to ambush. This documentary focuses on the shift of normal animal behaviour as the animals desperately compete against each other for water. To avoid the crocodiles, warthogs dig pits next to the pool, however the baboons try to steal and guard these pits for themselves. The battle for the water creates some bizarre situations as the smallest crocodile seeks safety from its own kind by riding on the back of a hippopotamus, while a baby hippo seems to invite disaster as it gnaws on a crocodile’s tail.

ANIMAL PLANET – Saturdays from 14 August, 10.00pm

Emerging 35 million years ago as a mysterious rift along the surface of the earth, a 6000 km long fault line between eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula has created not only a unique geological phenomenon but also landscapes of immense beauty. Today, the coral reefs of the Red Sea, the rain forests of Rwanda and the steppes of the Serengeti are home to an array of amazing animals such as whale sharks, stingrays, mountain gorillas, forest elephants, rhinos, giraffes and lions. This series takes viewers on a breathtaking journey along several of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth. Using the latest HD filming techniques combined with CGI and newly developed flight devices, viewers are provided with magnificently enhanced vistas and astounding insights into our planet’s treasury.

ANIMAL PLANET – Sunday 8 August, 8.30pm

At over seven feet tall and weighing in at almost a tonne, the moose is one of the largest land animals in North America. For years they have fought off nature’s most viscous predators, however these giants of the north woods are now at odds with a new foe, humans. As towns and cities expand into moose habitat, these powerful, fast and aggressive creatures are coming into conflict with people and the results can be deadly.