Nick Baker's Weird Creatures

Nick Baker's Weird Creatures
24-05-2012

this is a fantastic series which I have seen random episodes of every now and again when screenings coincide with my free time, and I really think its time it was discussed on Zoochat!! This is one of the very few GOOD wildlife tv series on nowadays with a presenter who has a genuine fascination and delight in the animals he's looking for, rather than the usual Animal Planet rubbish like Jeremy Wade's River Monsters and Austin Steven's Most Dangerous.

The episodes are as follows (asterisked are the ones I've seen):

Series One:

Horned Lizard*
Candiru
Pink Fairy Armadillo*
Lake Titicaca Frog*
Gharial
Basking Shark*
Star-nosed Mole


Series Two:

Olm
Tarsier*
Alligator Snapping Turtle
Hellbender
Chameleons
Wels
Aye-aye*
Mimic Octopus


Series Three:

Leafy Sea-dragon
Mexican Worm-lizard
Axolotl
Marsupial Mole (I really want to see this one!)
Bornean Slow Loris*
Horseshoe Crab
Anteaters
Pigmy Three-toed Sloth*

24-05-2012

Really? I thought River Monsters is a great series and shows some interesting stories.

24-05-2012

not if you know anything about fish......

24-05-2012

Care to elaborate please? I'm hope I'm not offending you or you think I'm criticizing you but can you please elaborate on that statement if possible?

24-05-2012

River Monsters is typical of the modern form of wildlife documentary, where a whole lot of nonsense is dressed up with pseudo facts and drama to make it appealing for the masses. If you don't know the subject -- and most people don't know much about fish -- then it all sounds very realistic, scientific even (especially when he claims to be a "fish biologist") but its not. I watched the "Flesh-ripper" episode with two other people. We all know NZ wildlife well and know long-finned eels very well, and we were laughing ourselves sick throughout the whole thing at how appallingly absurd it was, from the little girl being dragged downstream by a giant eel to the toxic blood that can kill a dog. There was a scene where Wade was with renowned eel biologist Don Jellyman dissecting an eel in the lab. They weren't wearing gloves because, you know, eels don't have toxic blood and Don has handled and dissected literally thousands of eels over his career, but to keep to the programme's nonsense there was an oddly-inserted clip of a close-up of Wade washing his hands and gravely saying in voice-over something like "I need to make sure I wash my hands because of the eel's toxic blood". This was the worst of the episodes but they are all utter crap to put it politely.

27-05-2012

I really love these programmes but find that few people I know seem to have watched them (but when they do they enjoy them).

What elevates them above most other nature documentaries, for me, is Nick Baker himself. He's very likeable and you can tell he's passionate (and always has been) about nature, rather than a nano-celebrity fronting a wildlife programme to pay the bills and get a little exposure. The one with the Wels Catfish is elevated to something beyond a wildlife documentary by the way it intertwines him bonding with his father. Also, on a more base note, he really does pick some awesome animals to pursue that get little exposure elsewhere.

31-05-2012

Yes i quite like the Nick Baker progs too,but he must take some kind of award for frequently FAILING to obtain film of the required creature!This can actually be quite good as then they retreat to some captive situation or museum by way of consolation[as did "Last Chance To See" with Amazonian Manatees].

07-06-2012

absolutely. He has a rather contagious enthusiasm for the subject, and each episode is sort of like a little travelogue following him actually going out and looking for the animals. Another reason I like the show is because it is exactly the sort of thing I'd like to do, and the sorts of animals he chooses are just the sort that I would choose myself.

I think the only ones I've seen where he's failed was the fairy armadillo episode (I would assume also the marsupial mole but I haven't seen that one yet). I'm not sure what regular viewers think about watching an animal programme where they fail to even find the animal, but for me it just demonstrates how contrary animals are when you're trying to see them and what animal-watching is really like, so I approve of it.