THIRTEEN’s Nature Covers Mission to Reverse the Decline of Giraffes: Africa’s Gentle Giants Wednesday, October 26, 2016 on PBS Our Coverage Sponsored by Stribling and Associates
Can you spot Melvin?
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This post is dedicated to Peachy's friend who is a foot and a half taller than her...approximately!
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We admire people and animals that tower over us not only because they can tell us how the view is from up there and reach things we cannot but also because they add height diversity to life! Variety is of course the spice of life and PBS has another winner with their show on Giraffes, coming soon to you!
Did you know they are becoming extinct even quicker than the elephants (we love them too!)? Everyone in Manhattan should have a special appreciation for Giraffes as they are the skyscrapers of the animal kingdom.
You'll learn quite a bit: Giraffes are vital pollinators, spreading seeds. They are not reading our restaurant review column: they only eat leaves and incredibly, they can go through the desert on leaves alone without water.
Dr. Julian Fennessy and his family are doing unprecedented research and have discovered so much about Giraffes that was never known before: there are 90K left and in seven countries, they are now extinct. They collect Giraffe DNA, no simple feat, to enhance the world's knowledge, even at the risk of being personally shot at in their helicopter by human warzone chaos on the ground.
We really liked the part where the Giraffes are dreaming at night with their neck curled up and think it's amazing how they take turns sleeping, watching out for each other. Melvin is a hoot with his seahorse head, obvious lip and acute charm, all discovered by the Fennessy children.
Enjoy the years of hard work by the Fennessy's of Australia in this superbly executed special on Giraffes upcoming on PBS!
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Dr. Julian Fennessy leads a team to relocate the world’s rarest giraffes
It’s ironic that the life of one of the world’s most identifiable and popular wild animals, the giraffe, is still something of a mystery. As these giants began to be studied, it was revealed that they don’t need to drink in the desert because they can get enough water just eating leaves. Another important finding is the role giraffes play as pollinators and seed spreaders which is vital to maintaining healthy landscapes in many parts of Africa. Much of what we know about these creatures is due to the work of Dr. Julian Fennessy, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF), who has been studying giraffes for over 20 years.
Fennessy has exposed the shocking fact that giraffe populations in Africa are down by 40 percent in just two decades, prompting the featured mission in the film to move a herd of rare Rothschild’s giraffes across the Nile River to a safer location. Giraffes: Africa’s Gentle Giants airs Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings). After the broadcast, the episode will be available for limited online streaming at pbs.org/nature.
Dr. Julian Fennessy, an Australian, earned his PhD studying the tall beasts in the Namibian desert. He runs the GCF with wife Steph out of the family home in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital. They are parents to Molly, age seven, and Luca, age ten, who share the Fennessys’ love of giraffes. They’ve learned the huge bumps on a giraffe’s head, called ossicones, are different from horns or antlers. They spot an old bull their parents studied before they were born and their dad estimates he may be the world’s oldest recorded wild giraffe at over 20 years old. But with only 90,000 left, his goal is to identify which giraffes need urgent help based on his ground-breaking theory that there are four or five unique giraffe species, not just one.
As the film chronicles, Fennessy has to go to Ethiopia’s border with war-torn South Sudan to complete his collection of DNA samples from Africa’s wild giraffe population before he can run a species analysis. Searching for Nubian giraffes by helicopter, he gets one sample before gunfire aimed at the copter ends a final day’s search for more.
It was Fennessy’s research that greatly contributed to the very recent genetic discovery which confirmed there indeed are four distinct species of giraffe: the northern giraffe, southern giraffe, reticulated giraffe, and the Masai giraffe. This breaking news comes just as the world is learning of the endangered status of the giraffe and the need to preserve all four species.
Because a population in Uganda, called Rothchild’s giraffes, are the same type as the Nubian and are endangered due to poaching and oil drilling plans, Fennessy and the Uganda Wildlife Authority work out an ambitious plan to protect the species.
A team of Ugandan veterinarians and park rangers go through training in how to safely capture a herd of young, healthy females and a few males. They guide them into trucks, drive four hours to the Nile River, cross via a ferry, and then release them in a safer habitat to breed far from the oil drilling. The film captures all the drama of such a difficult and dangerous operation in Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park as the Fennessys and the team hope a successful relocation will prompt more missions to protect these rare giraffes for generations.
Nature is a production of THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLC for WNET. For Nature, Fred Kaufman is executive producer. Giraffes: Africa’s Gentle Giants is an AGB Films production with Gripping Films for THIRTEEN Productions LLC and BBC in association with WNET.
Nature pioneered a television genre that is now widely emulated in the broadcast industry. Throughout its history, Nature has brought the natural world to millions of viewers. The series has been consistently among the most-watched primetime series on public television.
Nature has won more than 700 honors from the television industry, the international wildlife film communities and environmental organizations, including 17 Emmys and three Peabodys. The series received two of wildlife film industry’s highest honors: the Christopher Parsons Outstanding Achievement Award given by the Wildscreen Festival and the Grand Teton Award given by the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. The International Wildlife Film Festival honored Nature executive producer Fred Kaufman with its Lifetime Achievement Award for Media.
PBS.org/nature is the award-winning web companion to Nature, featuring streaming episodes, filmmaker interviews, teacher’s guides and more.
Support for this Nature program was made possible in part by the Arnhold Family in memory of Clarisse Arnhold, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, the Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust, the Filomen M. D’Agostino Foundation, Rosalind P. Walter, Sandra Atlas Bass, Susan R. Malloy, Jennifer M. Combs, Timon J. Malloy and the Sun Hill Foundation, the Arlene and Milton D. Berkman Philanthropic Fund, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and by the nation’s public television stations.
About WNET
WNET is America’s flagship PBS station and parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21. WNET also operates NJTV, the statewide public media network in New Jersey. Through its broadcast channels, three cable services (KidsThirteen, Create and World) and online streaming sites, WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to more than five million viewers each week. WNET produces and presents such acclaimed PBS series as Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, PBS NewsHour Weekend, Charlie Rose and a range of documentaries, children’s programs, and local news and cultural offerings. WNET’s groundbreaking series for children and young adults include Get the Math, Oh Noah! and Cyberchase as well as Mission US, the award-winning interactive history game. WNET highlights the tri-state’s unique culture and diverse communities through NYC-ARTS, Reel 13, NJTV News with Mary Alice Williams and MetroFocus, the daily multi-platform news magazine focusing on the New York region. In addition, WNET produces online-only programming including the award-winning series about gender identity, First Person, and an intergenerational look at tech and pop culture, The Chatterbox with Kevin and Grandma Lill. In 2015, THIRTEEN launched Passport, an online streaming service which allows members to see new and archival THIRTEEN and PBS programming anytime, anywhere: www.thirteen.org/passport
