I thought this is quite a nice article from RT talking about the baby elephants' deaths. Why are baby elephants dying in The Secret Life of the Zoo?
Good article- well and thoughtfully/responsibly written. I think elephant herpes must be one of the worst problems facing zoos- ones that keep and breed Elephants that is.
I think the idea is they show each 'talking head' so you identify with the keeper concerned, then he/she follows with some voiceover afterward. Without the 'head' there would be less of the identity- but yes, rather a lot of the 'heads'. I wonder if they have any proper sound for Grevy zebra, rather than the plains zebra calls that were overlaid in the short clips I saw...
In case there's to be another series and the programme makers are reading this, may I make a suggestion - Mandrills. They seem to be televisually neglected as a species. I find Paignton's family of 9 endlessly interesting so I'm sure they could make a story out of Chester's large group.
It's quite a good article, but I wonder why it says "... it looks like Hari, too, may not reach his third birthday" when a quick look at the zoo's website shows that he sadly died already in October. Does RT think it would be a "spoiler" for the tv series?
Yes, I think I expressed myself badly: I feel that the problem has been too much time with each talking head, rather than too many individual heads. If they had kept the audio going, but cut the video away to the keepers with the animals after a sentence or two, it would have kept the action going rather better. Alan
What about having the talking head in the bottom corner with animal footage being the main focus, similar to the sign language overlay.
Well, I had my orang fix last night but I'm puzzled about the orang shown every week in the introduction. S/he is being carried unconscious into the operating theatre. I wonder why this story wasn't shown?
I think this was one of Blackpools Borneans having her eyes operated on whilst she stayed at Chester. Not sure why this was in the titles when it wasn't part of the show? Overall I think this show has been an incredible success - very well produced and I think last nights final episode was amazing and surprisingly quite emotional! It's been a huge ratings smash averaging the 2nd highest rated show on channel 4 (number 1 in the weeks before Gogglebox started its new series). I would be surprised if they didn't commission another series. I just hope they go back to Chester to film instead of perhaps using a different zoo? Credit to the keepers and the marketing and PR team for undoubtedly creating an upsurge in interest in Chester and no doubt driving yet another increase in visitor numbers - in turn securing more money for future developments and conservation projects.
There are advantages and disadvantages both ways. Another series at Chester would allow ongoing stories to be followed up and the experience and confidence of the keepers at Chester would make things easier, but there would be some repetition. A different zoo would offer fresh challenges. Alan
Thing that bugged me the most was the opening theme tune(?) is exactly the same as the music on Game of Life for the Wii....very confusing.
Certainly looked Bornean but Vicky had her sinuses done not her eyes. I guess it wasn't featured further, if it was one of the Blackpool gang, because they no longer live there. I was waiting for that to be shown as it was in the credits but I'm pleased none of the Chester crew had to have surgery after all
I think it would make sense to do series 2 at Chester. As GL says it would allow follow up of some of the key stories and would also allow a greater emotional attachment from the viewer who is already connected with the zoo, the keepers and the animals. There have been a lot of key charismatic species not featured as main stories in series 1 (lions, cheetahs, one horned rhinos, painted dogs, spectacled bears, warty pigs, onagers, bush dogs, okapi, tapir, 'monkey islands' , cassowary, rhinoceros hornbills,etc) not to mention some amazing conservation work being done with Bali starlings, Javan Magpies, Golden Mantela frogs etc etc. So there's loads of potential for new stories to be told. It would be quite expensive but it would be great to have the film crew follow some of the conservation projects over seas too....but maybe with this show being such a ratings winner they may well invest a bigger budget in series 2?
Seeing more of the off-show species (I'm thinking parrots) would be nice. Certainly no need for repetition given what Chester has to offer.
From what I saw of last night's (repeat?) episode, there was approximately 45 minutes of Penguins (one simple story of the 4 young birds, dragged out over the whole length of the programme) with about 10 minutes shared between the Gharial, Turtle and 'Boris the Chimp' stories. Pretty imbalanced I think and I'm sure a few other interesting stories could have been included, though programmes like this for general family audiences have to remain very simplified to enable them to be followed, which is why more stories in one episode makes that difficult. The Orangutan in the opening section was Blackpool 'Vicky' with her congested air sac. It was obviously just used as an example of the variety of work the Zoo undertakes- with no follow up as she went back to her home zoo.
The first episode is currently screening in Australia, and its quite a good watch. Several species featured, elephants most prominent, but a number of more unusual species, like Babirusa, which are going to be especially interesting to an Australian audience that will never have seen them in local zoos. Interestingly, the voice-over narration is done by an Australian - is this the case for the British version or am I watching a dubbed show?
