Co-Hosts/Wildlife Experts Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant & Peter Gros talk to The Inside Reel about evolution of the show. technology and new aspects of animal understanding and behavior in regards to the 2nd season of the new iteration of "Mutual Of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" entitled "Protecting The Wild" on NBC.
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00:00You know, wildlife, you know, photography and everything has come so far, but it's still
00:23about showing almost the human nature in the wild, if that makes sense, it's showing the
00:29heart. Could you sort of talk about that? Because that's what, you know, Wild Kingdom is about,
00:33you know, it's about showing those family dynamics in many ways. Could you guys talk about that?
00:38Sure, sure. I think that you nailed it. That's exactly what Wild Kingdom has been doing since
00:441963. But you mentioned technology. Gee, technology has changed things so much.
00:52The way we used to do research, early shows, when I was with Jim Fowler, where
00:57if you wanted to study an animal, they would have it in the net, or someone might have to
01:01rope it, or you jump on its back out of a boat and grab an alligator and put it in,
01:05and then tag it, measure it, and do the work up and let it go. Now, when we want a close-up of
01:12wildlife, there's a quiet drone that goes out, or a huge long lens, or Ray was recently in a show
01:20where they had cameras on a trail with wildlife walking by, and they were motion-sensing cameras
01:25we captured. So I think with today's Wild Kingdom, you see a lot more sort of natural behavior
01:32because of technology. We could not have done that in the past.
01:35This morning, we're using radio telemetry to guide us to a mother black bear.
01:41Checking on bears in their hibernation dens is something I've done many times in my work as a
01:46wildlife ecologist. We have three newborn cubs to this mama. I'm going to pass them off to some of
01:53our crew to keep them warm. They are too little to thermoregulate right now, which means they
01:58cannot produce their own body heat. They need their mother's body heat or a volunteer. Right
02:04now, I'm cuddling this little one who's kind of exploring my scent. This is one of those
02:13really wonderful conservation success stories. Yeah, Dr. Ray, can you talk about that? Yeah,
02:18because behavior is such a big thing because sometimes people, it's sort of like humans,
02:22animals aren't going to act the way they really are unless you're not around sometimes.
02:27That's right. Yeah. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. I was just going to say,
02:30you were just with animals that were. Yeah, that's true. No, it's true. I mean,
02:34essentially, almost every species of wild animal is going to be stressed out if it's being handled
02:40or approached by a human being. And so one of the things that we really showcase in our television
02:45show is experiencing and observing wild animals from a distance. And to Peter's point, we can
02:52still get just amazing original footage because of drones, because of long lenses, because of all
02:59the amazing technological advances while keeping wild animals wild and not tamed. And then every
03:06so often, I've got to say, there'll be a need, the biologists are working with, to do a checkup
03:12on an animal or to change the batteries out of a tracking collar or something. And that's when
03:19we will set a trap or we'll sometimes sedate an animal in the field and we're able to get
03:24super hands on. And we did that with our very first episode of season two, which is called
03:29Into the Bear's Den. We go into a bear den and sedate a mama black bear and do a full checkup
03:36on her and her cubs. And that's possible due to technology. And then we also get up close
03:42and personal with her, which is pretty cool. Wow. I'm amongst the slots. This is pretty cool.
03:47It's a brown-throated three-toed sloth. I think this is your tree. It's perfecto.
03:57It's a kitten. No way. Is that a kitten? That's a kitten. We're going to put this trap right in
04:02there. All right. One, two, three. 45 more. But it's also about adrenaline. And Peter,
04:13you can talk about this too. When you're in those situations, though, there's still that energy and
04:18all that. Can you talk about that? Because it's about translating a bit of that onto screen
04:23sometimes. There is. And of course, the exception is that we recently experienced is that Ray and I
04:29were in the Bahamas when I think is the world's only shark sanctuary. And we were scuba diving
04:36with reef sharks and sitting on the bottom at about 45 feet deep. And sharks were all around
04:44us. And Ray was swimming along the surface looking down. I was on the top. I was above,
04:49but they were right there. And they were circling below her. And then they came down and they'd
04:54circle around me. But they were more curious and interested in us, which changes the older
05:00attitudes about sharks. In early shows, we filmed them in cages. Well, now we're learning more and
05:05more. They were just curious. Ray and I were swimming with whale sharks. And the whale sharks
05:11are feeding as they do normally and just sort of are ignoring the fact we're in the waters. They go
05:18on feeding them. So there are species of animals that still have no fear of humans. And hopefully,
05:23we get to capture that and share it with our audience. As you know, season two is launching
05:28October 5th on NBC in that wonderful time slot, the more you know. So this is going to be an
05:34exciting second season. And I have to say, it's not always the big ferocious animals that spike
05:42our adrenaline the most. Sometimes it's because we're in these very unfamiliar kind of uncomfortable
05:48situations. So whether it's entering a completely pitch black bat cave where bats are flying and
05:55spiders are dropping from the ceiling of the cave, or whether it's waiting in the night. I was just
06:01doing this down in southern Georgia waiting pitch black night in swamp water that has alligators and
06:08water snakes and snapping turtles and something bumps up against you. And you'll see me on camera
06:14giving a little scream here and there, not because I'm worried that something is going to kill me,
06:19but because there are the creepy crawlies that even I, as strong as I am and as familiar with
06:24wildlife as I am, sometimes, you know, they surprise you.