WILDLIFE DETECTIVES
14 Episodes
The Wildlife Detectives series follows wildlife specialists as they uncover medical and environmental mysteries that threaten wildlife around the world. Wildlife Detectives examines topics including what's killing the bald eagles and coots in the southeastern United States, an anti-poaching sting operation in India and the struggle to discover the disease that threatens the mammoth yet fragile Manatee.
Murphy Entertainment Group’s unique and compelling series Wildlife Detectives is running around the world under two banners. In North America, Animal Planet broadcasts the series. Internationally, Wildlife Detectives runs on National Geographic International.
VIRUS ALARM--Jeffrey Pohorski, Producer/Editor
First came the dead birds in and around New York City–thousands of crows, blue jays and other species.
Then, a physician from northern Queens reported two patients with what was diagnosed as encephalitis.
At the same time, more birds died at the Bronx Zoo; more crows and blue jays in the New York City area.
A veterinarian noticed an odd cluster of sick horses on Long Island.
By the end of the summer the inter-species death toll included seven humans, nine horses, a variety of zoo birds including flamingos and a snowy owl and several thousand wild crows.
What disease specialist first believed was encephalitis was actually something never seen before in the Western Hemishpere: West Nile Virus.
Experts:
Dr. Andrew Spielman, author, Mosquito
Ward Stone, New York state wildlife pathologist
Dr. Tracey McNamara, Bronx Zoo
Dr. John Andresen, veterinarian
Dr. Deborah Asnis, infectious disease specialist
Dr. Robert McClean, director of National Wildlife Health Center
Locations:
New York City
The Bronx Zoo
National Wildlife Health Center, Madison, Wisconsin
LETHAL LUNCH--Jeffrey Pohorski DP/Editor
Sea lions like to snack on anchovies. But this tame the snack may be a dietary time bomb for sea lions and other mammals higher up the food chain–including humans.
In 1987, 140 people who ate mussels that had accumulated a certain algae fell victim to a strange neurotoxicity. Three died. Others still suffer from an Alzheimer’s-like loss of short-term memory. Scientists suspected the mussels ingested algae loaded with domoic acid. They also suspected domoic in several suspicious wildlife events–from the stranding ofmarine mammals and deaths to seemingly drunk pelicans falling from the sky. But no one could prove it.
Wildlife Detectives picks up the story of what one scientist called "a beautiful sleuthing job." The story has implications not only for the health of sea lions but for all mammals.
Experts:
Dr. Frances Gulland, veterinarian, Marine Mammal Center, Sausalito, California
Dr. Gregory Doucette, oceanographer, Nation Ocean Service, Charleston S.C.
Dr. Christopher Scholin, researcher, Montery Bay Research Aquarium, Moss Landing
California
Dr. Mary Silver, professor, University of California and Santa Cruz
Locations:
National Ocean Service, Charleston, South Carolina
Monterey Bay Research Aquarium, Monterey Bay, California
Marine Mammal Center, Sausalito, California
Pier 39, San Francisco, California
