Inside Nature's Giants, series 2

Can't wait to see this! I thought the previous series was excellent, and a great, fresh variation on the "natural history television program" genre.

An example of a needless slaughter of a Great White.
It`s much better to catch & release.

looking forward to these - particularly the python and the squid.

though...quick question - how do you release a Great White after dissecting it?

(well, that's easy, I know...but getting it to swim again, that's the rub)

90 minute special on the giant squid? That is going to be so great.

The first series was a pleasant surprise: I was expecting something a bit sensationalist, in a bad way. I hope the second will be as good.

Bob: The animals in the first series were already dead of other causes; one of the goals was to determine cause of death for some of them. Hopefully that's the case this time, too.

Simon G thanks for the update, as long as they are dead, not like the Japanese who claim they must slaughter the Minke for research

Hi fans of "Inside Nature's Giants" (or "Raw Anatomy" as it is called in the US). As a member of the dissection team, I can attest that the great white shark was not killed for this series. None of the animals dissected were killed for the purpose of making this film series.

Hurrah! looking forward to this.
thank you Joy for the reassurance.

Congrats to the ING team for the BAFTA they were just awarded! And nice to see Joy on TV and not wearing an orange suit :)

Hey sorry to go off on a tangent here, but is this youtube clip real?

Kung Fu Bear

It seems too crazy to be true

It's for real. The bear (an Asiatic black bear called Claude) has become a National celebrity (in Japan: Claude is kept at Hiroshima'a Asa Zoo).

Thanks Darren. I saw the article in the guardian but I still couldn't believe it.

That bear would be amazing in a fire dancing routine at a luau here, heh. I guess I'll have to amuse myself with this until Inside Nature's Giants comes out stateside. The first series didn't show here in Hawaii for about a year after you blogged about it.

Was it called Inside Nature's Giants on its Hawaiian release? I heard that it was called something crappy like Gross Anatomy elsewhere in the US.

And Claude the bear is definitely for real. He's been filmed from so many angles, and from all kinds of distances, that I have no doubt that what we can see (filmed by many different people, on all kinds of different cameras) is for real. Furthermore, his 'Kung Fu' behaviour isn't that different from stuff engaged in by other bears. Still very cool though :)

Holy blap! This is awesome. The line-up is near-perfect, too ... although I still wish they'd do a ratite. Still, gotta save something for Series 3, right?

No, it was called Inside Nature's Giants. I know I would have said some pejorative if the program was being sold as Gross Anatomy.

@Joy Reidenberg: Great to know someone from the team visits this blog. If only the giraffe flotation paper was already public when you had the chance to run a test... :)

My goodness, thank you for introducing me to this show with this post--I've been watching the first season on YouTube and it may be the most enthralling TV production I've ever seen, a total masterpiece of a show IMO. The tone reminds me very much of The Ancestor's Tale (not too surprising given that Dawkins is pretty present in the show). I'm not sure where the writer and readers of this blog hail from, but does anyone know when and on which channel this season will be airing in the US, if it is airing at all?

It's things like these that reassure me that my goal of attaining a career as a zoologist is completely the right thing =) I am so taken with this show!

By the way, will Richard Dawkins be in ING, series 2?

I'm looking forward to the next series, Plastinating Nature's Giants" in which Gunther Von Hagens pumps a fully grown Fin Whale with acetone followed by reactive plastics and has a 'whale' of a time getting the final plastinate out of the studio!

Seriously - looking forward to this next series immensely.

I felt like the programme on the great white shark could have been 30 min longer as they were so much to discover/learn on this discectomy. Or maybe that's me being to greedy. I really really enjoyed it tonight!!

Oh I can't wait to see them at the Cheltenham Science Festival tomorrow night!!

Hey Stephanie.. it was great wasn't it? The liver was INCREDIBLE. Evidently not that many people know that lamnids are warm-bodied :(

Hi Darren. In response to your post #13, yes, a slightly differently edited version did air under a different title in the US. It was called "Raw Anatomy" and aired on the National Geographic Channel.