Page 95 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #10
P. 95
WILDAT HOME
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TELEVISION BOOKS FILM ONLINE APPS PUZZLES
Big Cat Tales ofers
a window into the lives
of the lions, leopards
and cheetahs of the
Maasai Mara.
Angela Scott/Animal Planet
CatchingupwithAfrica'sfamouscats
Jonathan and Angela Scott launch the next chapter in the Big Cat brand.
of Big Cat Diary,” says Jonathan. “Tales allows us to pick up stories instantly.”
TV BIG CAT TALES also reflects our lives on safari, doing Expect emotive family dynamics,
ANIMAL PLANET, FIVE PARTS, STARTS OCTOBER
choice what we’ve done since moving to the spectacular river crossings and epic
People never tire of watching big cats. Mara in 1977, with input from our chases (arguably the series’ highlight
Testament to this was Big Cat Diary co-presenter Jackson Looseyia about is a hunt by an unusually large
– and later incarnations Big Cat Week what it is to be a Maasai.” coalition of cheetahs known as the
and Live – the much-loved and long- Of the fresh feline faces in Tales, Five Cheetah Boys), as well as an
running BBC series that from 1996- many descend from those that insight into the pressures facing one
2008 offered a jeep’s-eye view onto became household names in the Big of Africa’s most famous reserves.
the plains of Kenya’s Maasai Mara. Cat heyday. “Bahiti the leopard is “These animals have been our
A decade since the format was granddaughter of Bella, a Diary legend; lifelong obsession – they are like old
retired by the BBC, the cats are back Malika the cheetah is likely related friends – but as we approach our
in a new series for Animal Planet, to Kike, the car-jumping female seventies, we are looking to pass the
fronted once again by ‘Big Cat People’ that pooped on me in 2003; and of baton on to the next generation of
Jonathan and Angela Scott. “Animal course there’s the Marsh Pride,” says Kenyans,” says Jonathan. “We want to
stories are still at the heart of the Jonathan. “But there are always new inspire conservationists long after we
programmes, but this is not a repeat characters to feature – the format have departed this world.” SM
October 2018 BBC Wildlife 95
