BAD Wildlife Documentaries

Shark Week and your Hitler idea can work perfectly together...

 

Why stop there?
If after the treatment the fish were cooked and served, we'd have man-eating-fish-fish-eating man

 

FOODCEPTION

 

So Discovery Channel has a new president, and he's promising that the network won't air any more sensationalist and BS programming. I'm happy about this, though I won't hold my breath.

 

discovery and animal planet have a lot of ***** on, i searched for snake shows on the sky box there recently, and all that came up were 'cannibal snake', 'man eating super snake', world's deadliest.... all sensationalist crap. swamp wars is another show that is pure fake reality garbage... same with turtleman and fatal attractions. i usually just avoid animal planet now except for when they show old reruns of decent stuff at dead zone times like 6am and stuff i'll record what they show then (safari park vets, gibbons: back in the swing, another series about nankuse wildlife sanctuary that i forget the name of)
the only good show that i can think of the AP put out recently was ivory wars about the ex-marines going out to africa and showing the rangers military tactics to combat the poachers out there, and another one off special with a similar theme of a chinese-american basketball star that was trying to raise awareness about the same issue of rhino and elephant poaching, saving africas giants was the name of it.

 

I remember the good old days of Animal Planet (when it was good), I have fond memories of watching Documentarys that followed Crocodiles and Alligators from Hatching (does anyone know the name of them) and watching whatever episode of Crocodile Hunter was on.

 

The worrying thing is that people take these programmes as the gospel truth. It's a worrying trend Im noticing when visiting zoos, especially those documentaries that overly humanise their subjects-big cats being a prime example. The visitor then queries/argues why he/she can't pet/go in with the animal when they've seen it happen on TV.

The trend for dumbed-down documentaries is also clear in the UK. Life Story had it's moments, but it wasn't up to the standard of previous BBC programming. It seems a case of less science more sensationalism.

I long for the return of good quality programming like Survival or Wildlife on One, but it's not gonna happen. Instead I'm fed a diet of Im a Celebrity, get me out of Here!

 

This is the first mention I have seen of the recent 'Life Story' on here, which I think must say something about it.

Survival and Wildlife on One. Those were the days of decent programming. And no, they won't be back.

 

Yeah, I get rather annoyed at the programs that seem to suggest that any animal raised by humans will grow up to be this sweet, friendly pet, gentle as the gentlest of dogs. (at the same time, I'm not a fan of Animal Planet's "Fatal Attractions" either) Bad for people and bad for animals to perpetuate that, ya know?

At least BBC still puts out a few decent wildlife documentaries every now and then. Feels like it's been forever since Discovery or Animal Planet did that. (I guess if they did, it didn't get advertised much)

 

Thought you'd enjoy this, then:
An open letter to new Discovery Channel President Rich Ross from a shark scientist | Southern Fried Science

 

Hit the nail on the head .

 

BBC America still shows David Attenborough reruns. I am always impressed with his on location excellent narratives. Also, NATURE on PBS is excellent with many wealthy foundation donors.

 

When the mermaid documentary aired, my mom thought it was real. She called to tell me about it. I quickly convinced her it was fake by pointing out that if somebody DID find a mermaid, that would be all over the international news, and it would have drastic implications on conservation as well as our understanding of humanity.