By April MacIntyre Dec 31, 2007, 18:15 GMT
On Sunday, January 20, at 9:00 PM ET/PT, NGC's Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr: Undercover Hippo journeys into the heart of Zambia in an attempt to infiltrate the largest population of wild hippos on earth.
cute now, but watch out EPA/ORESTIS PANAGIOTOU
Dr. Brady Barr is a Texan, with a similar spirit to Mutual of Omaha's Marlon Perkins and Jeff Corwin. He seeks out animals in their natural habitats, yet is a bit more off-kilter in his personality and enthusiasm displaying a "winging it" feel to his animal adventures.
In 1997, Barr signed on with National Geographic as a field specialist for their Explorer series, becoming National Geographic's resident herpetologist, and he has since appeared in more than 60 National Geographic films.
Barr is now the host of the NGC hit series, "Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr," and he is a member of the Endangered Species Coalition of the Council of State Governments.
His goal for this episode was to collect the magic bullet sweat from the backs of wild hippos, a red, oozing elixir that is a natural sunscreen and antiseptic valued by researchers who wish to chemically replicate it.
How he was to accomplish this sweat-collecting was part engineering feat, and part comedy of errors that had me howling with unexpected laughter. I am not sure if that was the intent of the footage.
Barr takes us step-by-step with hippo facts, that the lethal hippo is one of the main people killers of Africa. Their bite force measures off-the-charts, and can crush nearly anything that gets in their way. "It was like a hydraulic press. It wasn't like a lot of bites I've felt — like a croc or a shark, which are really fast. It was a slow, deliberate hydraulic press of a bite ... 1,800 pounds," Barr says of the measured bite force.
When hippos give you the "dead stare," followed by "open gape" or yawning look, watch out my friend, the crap is literally going to hit the fan. The third warning of a territorial hippo about to charge you is the "dung shower," where copious amounts of feces and urine are projectile-shot out the rear end of the animal as its tail acts as a poop rudder spraying it in a 360 degree trajectory.
On top of smelling really bad, you're practically a dead man if it gets to this stage, according to Glenn Feldhake, the hippo behaviorist enlisted by Barr for the lesson.
The hippopotamus is one of the largest mammals on earth. Hippos sport giant canine teeth up to a foot long and size-wise come in third next to elephants and rhinos. Their natural enemies are crocs and lions, but really only the baby hippos or lame older animals are in danger of attack from them.
No animal in nature seems to mess with a 6000+ male hippo, or a trim 2-3000+ female.
They can also chase you on land at 20 MPH bursts.
Barr, with the help of National Geographic engineer Walter Boggs, devised a specially constructed Kevlar-skinned hippo suit to enable him to get close enough to scrape their backs, ostensibly.
Barr's intentions to enter the field and attempt this sweat recovery are noble. If the secrets of hippo sweat are unlocked, it could lead to the development of new antibiotics and sun blocks for humans. Captive zoo hippos excrete sweat, but the scientists say there is a marked difference between the caged and wild animals exudate.
After 40 days and 500 man-hours to design and build — even testing the model at a crash test facility to see if it can withstand the blow from a charging hippo — the suit is a state-of-the-art, 200-pound decoy made out of Kevlar body armor, with lifelike skin added.
A life-sized Fiberglas head cast from a real hippopotamus that is set in a submissive posture to decrease the probability of a violent attack, the suit also includes hatches which Dr. Barr can use to reach out and obtain measurements. Four hidden cameras fixed on every side provide 360 degree surveillance.
Finally, Dr. Barr goes to South Luangwa National Park in Zambia, where there are more than 9,000 hippos.
Here, he teams up with a park ranger named Boston and a support crew ready to aid Barr in any life-threatening situation.
Barr then positions his "suit" in runs and nearby waterholes and crawls inside with hopes of his first true hippo encounter.
Think about this: Barr spends hours inside this unventilated heavy structure crouched over in an uncomfortable position, breathing in rotting dung piles and sweating his brains out as he waits for the hippos to check him out. They don't. Over and over, they give him wide berth.
Barr then gets the bright idea to cover his faux hippo with mud that is primarily hippo dung - as the sun beats on that, the ammonia smell practically knocks him out - he is on-camera choke-vomiting inside his decoy prison.
I don't want to give away anymore than I have to, but I will note that after all we witness, the process, expense and efforts that went into this exercise, it would have been nice to have a different ending than the one that transpires. With his credentials, I was expecting some really interesting results from his latest adventure with wild hippopotamus of Africa, not a do-over.
UPCOMING EPISODE:
Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr: Dragon HuntSaturday, January 26, at 8:00 PM ET/PTDr. Barr's observations and adventures continue with a whole different beast: the Komodo dragon. Studying a 150-pound super-predator that exhibits some of the techniques of some of the world's best hunters is a dangerous business — and Dr. Barr is ready for the challenge. The Komodo dragon is a carnivore, able to devour up to 80 percent of its body weight in a single meal. It's armed with razor-sharp, serrated teeth, a snake-like forked tongue, body armor and a mouth full of noxious bacteria. Dr. Barr, along with San Diego Zoological Society scientist Jeri Imansyah, head to the Island of Rinca in Indonesia, home to the highest concentration of Komodos in the world, to examine the predatory style of the dragon. In his first experiment, Dr. Barr covers a remote-control car in animal fur to see how or even if the dragon will attack it. Could it provide critical clues to how they hunt? In another experiment, he does what no scientist has ever done before: he straps a camera onto the back of this mammoth reptile. Will the footage provide clues to the Komodo's predation techniques?
Grade: B, Family friendly
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