Episodes

Filmed in Canada in spring when the majestic moose of Saskatchewan are calving. Jim Fowler joins the Canadian conservation officers in a research project in an attempt to learn why in recent years the mortality rate of moose calves is so high.

Two young women are doing research work in Africa, one studying the sable antelope and the other studying the vervet monkeys in Kenya.

Each year the squid return to an area in the Pacific Ocean off California coast to mate and deposit their eggs. This attracts sharks, which come to feed on the mating squid. Two scientists study the behavior of the sharks by capturing an angel shark and taken to the research vessel where its stomach will be pumped to learn what percent of its diet is comprised of squid.

In his first visit to Ethiopia, Marlin Perkins explores the "World of the Bleeding Heart Baboon." The Gelada gets its nickname from its red chest.

Helicopters take Marlin and a capture team into one of the most inaccessible areas of Canada, the Cumberland Delta in Saskatchewan where a moose is darted from one of the choppers; a radio telemetry collar is attached to its neck.

Jim Fowler joins in the airlifting of the overly abundant red deer by helicopter out of an area so dense that choppers can't land. A dart-gun is used which tranquilize and at the same time attaches a tiny radio telemetry transmitter to the animal for tracking purposes. The deer is placed in a canvas bag and lifted to a large boat in a fjord nearby.

Part II takes Fowler to the remote snow-covered peaks of the Alp-like country where a special pair of net guns are used to capture more red deer. The deer are then transported to a farm and kept in dark pens for a time and released to mountain pastures and watched by a trained Border Collie dog.

Research being done in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia of the social behavior and the mating habits of two species of baboon the Hamadryas and the Yellow. One species rules a tightly organized harem, the other social group is not nearly as rigidly structured socially or sexually.

Perkins documents the story of a unique partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, universities, state fish and game agencies, and private organizations like the Wildlife Management Institute. Marlin visits 5 of the 50 cooperative wildlife research units which will show us a study of the fawn deer; the ecological interrelationship of forestry and endangered species; the protection of North America's largest and most beautiful snake, the Indigo; on the whooping crane and to the mountains of Utah to capture cougars.

Most dangerous scenes involve Jeremiah Sullivan and the testing of the metallic mesh anti-shark suit. Wearing this suit he provoked sharks into attacking him.

A constant effort is being made to invent new and more humane methods of capturing wild game and in this episode Perkins introduces us to two guns; one to inoculate animals and the other to capture them.

Jim Fowler travels to the Mana Pools National Park on the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe, Africa to observe the elephants, buffalo, antelope and baboon that come down during the dry season to gather in this area to feed on the acacia trees and refresh themselves at the pools of water.