THE FINAL ROAR: ON SEPTEMBER 16, ANIMAL PLANET’S EATING GIANTS: HIPPO PAYS HOMAGE TO THE CIRCLE OF LIFE
Life Continues as the Carrion of a Hippo is Eviscerated by Africa’s Natural ‘Undertakers’
August 29, 2012
"The Wheel Has Come Full Circle" - William Shakespeare
Hippopotamuses are responsible for the most deaths in Africa, but like every living creature, it, too, must die.
On Sunday, September 16, at 10 PM ET/PT, Animal Planet premieres EATING GIANTS: HIPPO, the first of two specials that examines how an African behemoth nourishes the lives of a myriad of animals after its death. An additional special about elephants is slated to air in October 2012.
A hippo dies along Zambia's Luangwa River, and a group of wildlife experts covertly stands by to witness, in real time, the beast's decay and its contribution to the brutal but efficient circle of life. Hidden remote-control cameras are placed around the fallen hippo with fiber-optic cables transmitting footage to a camouflaged studio tent 20 feet away, enabling the scientists to witness all the action without interfering with the natural course of events. In EATING GIANTS: HIPPO, the expert team spends seven days and seven nights anticipating, observing and analyzing how nature reduces this African giant to splinters of bones in a matter of days.
Alternating guests at this three-and-a-half-ton, 2,000,000-calorie-rich feast include countless creatures, including Nile crocodiles, lions, leopards, hyenas, hooded and white-backed vultures and thousands of insects.
It's a butterfly effect as the chain of events spurred by the hippo's death gives birth to sustained life. The rarely-if-ever captured footage in EATING GIANTS: HIPPO uniquely sheds light on African animal scavenging behavior and the fascinating interactions between the ruling classes within the animal kingdom and the smaller players that compete just as effectively in the fight for life.
EATING GIANTS: HIPPO is produced for Animal Planet by Tigress Productions. Executive producer for Animal Planet is Erin Wanner. Dick Colthurst is executive producer for Tigress Productions.
Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 96 million homes in the US; online assets www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com, the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising extensions.