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ANIMAL ADVENTURER DONALD SCHULTZ UNDERTAKES GLOBAL MISSION FOR RARE VENOM AND DNA SAMPLES IN WILD RECON
- New Animal Planet series circles the globe for dangerous missions and potentially life-altering scientific discoveries -

While other children were out playing soccer, nine-year-old Donald was busy catching and handling the deadliest snakes on the planet. Born and raised in South Africa, Donald was the youngest person ever to give venomous snake demonstrations at the world-famous Fitzsimons Snake Park. But catching, caring for and studying snakes were not enough. Now, Donald travels the globe tracking down dangerous creatures, all in the name of science. He uses his animal acumen and taste for adrenaline for a greater cause, risking his own life for research that may one day save the lives of animals and humans.

WILD RECON is a new 10-part series featuring Donald Schultz - world adventurer, animal expert and adrenaline junkie who is willing to do a job no one else dares. With support from the world's top veterinarians and animal researchers, Donald travels to remote and jeopardous locales to collect venom and rare DNA critical to cataloguing species and research that will one day save countless lives. Whether harvesting venom from deadly black mambas in Mozambique, collecting lethal jellyfish tentacles off the remote coasts of Australia, chasing and relocating charging elephants in Sri Lanka, or bringing down a 600-pound wild African lion to get a blood sample in South Africa, Donald is fearless in the worldwide pursuit of bio-specimens for research and potential new scientific discoveries that he hopes will save lives. As Donald himself says, "This is not a stunt; this is my job."

"The work I do on WILD RECON is literally my life's work," adds Donald. "I've been going on these adventurous missions for years, and now the series spotlights the jeopardy that I enjoy in collecting these samples on behalf of the research community. I've dedicated my entire life to working with animals."

Each episode of WILD RECON sends Donald to an exotic locale where Donald faces some of Earth's mightiest, deadliest and most fascinating creatures in their natural habitats. Hiking through thick jungle undergrowth, diving to depths of hundreds of feet to sample shark species or skydiving into hard-to-get-to habitats, Donald stops at nothing to complete his mission. In addition, his missions are a race against the clock as he must get his fragile samples out of the field and into the lab for the next stage of work to commence. With Donald's help, researchers will hopefully unlock the mysteries of animal DNA, identify the blueprint for undiscovered anti-venom or even one day find a cure for a life-threatening disease.

Donald works closely with researchers at zoos, universities, laboratories, pharmaceutical companies and especially local governments and communities to assess their needs and identify what research could be critical to their ongoing studies.

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