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Can Four of Our Best-Loved Television Stars Help Save the World's Most-Endangered Species From Extinction?

Posted on: Thursday, 1 September 2005, 21:00 CDT

Charities working in the environmental field have long realised that most of us will pay more attention to the plight of endangered animals if someone famous is photographed with them, championing their cause. For some reason, though, television producers have been slower to make the connection.

Although there have been occasional oneoff wildlife documentaries on both the BBC and ITV, featuring concerned Hollywood luminaries such as Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Bob Hoskins and Timothy Dalton, it's taken a while for programme-makers to grasp the full potential of linking popular TV personalities with 'box-office' species iconic animals such as rhinos and elephants.

But that's about to change. To launch Sky One's new wildlife unit, actress Joanna Lumley, comedians Griff Rhys Jones and Vic Reeves and winsome BBC zoologist Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek will this autumn be tiptoeing as unobtrusively as possible around the habitats of animals that are rapidly disappearing from the face of the Earth.

In Final Chance to Save, a series of four one-hour specials premiering next weekend, each will present a very personal account of the manmade destruction of orangutans, black rhinos, tapirs and turtles respectively.

All in all, it could make for fairly depressing viewing, except that executive producer Clive Tulloh insists that, as the title of the series indicates, the emphasis is on saving these species at the 11th hour, not recording their final death throes. And he makes no apology for using celebrities to draw in audiences for this most serious and worthwhile of environmental projects.

'There have been many excellent wildlife programmes on TV, but we wanted to do something different,' he says.

'Most wildlife programmes don't tackle the environmental threats facing the animals being filmed. It's what is sometimes described as the "Eden myth", that is, you watch most wildlife programmes without getting any sense of quite how endangered some of these species are, and how much humans encroach on them.

'We involved celebrities because, naturally, we want to get as big an audience as possible for these programmes, and it helps to personalise the stories being told.

'In Griff's case, for instance, we considered a number of possible species for his programme, and he ended up choosing the black rhino himself; he said he felt a close affinity with them, being a bit of a grumpy old man himself.'

Long one of the nation's favourite comedians, Rhys Jones has been best known in recent years for helping save endangered buildings, as presenter of the BBC series Restoration. But he says the opportunity to help in the fight to save a species is easily one of the most exciting projects he's ever been involved with.

'I think there's something fabulous about rhinos, particularly the big black ones. They have their little areas of territory they're fierce about, they don't do much through the day except eat huge amounts and sleep, and they are rather solitary creatures; there's lots there for a middle-aged man to identify with.

'And they are great armour-plated creatures. You see the mums looking after their young, charging around with their tails curled up in alarm at the presence of humans. They've become symbols of virility, and it's because of that image that, paradoxically, they are under such grave threat [they are hunted for their horns, which are believed to have aphrodisiac qualities].

It's that image of strength that has led to them being killed.

'I grew up with various save-the-rhino campaigns and had assumed they were safe. So I was shocked to discover in Kenya that the black rhino population has fallen by 96 per cent over the past couple of decades. This is an indictment of us all.

'But the war is being won. The methods-being used to protect the rhino are having an effect. Education is working.

During filming, I met an extraordinary wildlife ranger called Edward, who is helping breed and protect black rhinos in sanctuaries and reserves in Kenya.

'It was a privilege to be involved in this project. I'd been to Africa before with Comic Relief but this was my first opportunity for a wildlife venture. I met amazing rangers and field workers employed by the Tusk Trust and Save the Rhino, and I'm definitely going to continue to be involved in these charities' fundraising efforts.'

Tulloh says that in a future six programmes in the series, to be screened next year, animals featured will include tigers, gorillas, pandas, cheetahs and maybe the albatross all iconic species facing imminent extinction. So how did his company, Tiger Aspect Productions, decide which ones to investigate?

'The species chosen are described by environmental activists as "umbrella species", in that if you can save them, you automatically save many thousands of other, smaller, more obscure species. All these species are an essential part of a complex, interrelated chain, and if you lose one high up the chain, you lose all those under it, too.'

Tulloh says, though, that the aim of the series is not to send viewers into a spiral of gloom, but to galvanise them into joining environmental campaigns that just may turn the tide. Each programme will include an interactive segment, where viewers can get more information on the charities involved in each conservation project, and find out more about the animals featured. It's hoped that the four programmes will raise at least Pounds 10,000 for each of the charities involved.

'One programme isn't going to save a species, but a series like this can make a difference, particularly if, as we expect, it's sold around the world,' says Tulloh.

'Television can change people's outlook and that is vital many of the issues that determine whether or not a species survives involve consumer behaviour. Take the change in attitude to the sale of ivory or fur, for example, which has helped save many once- endangered species.

'Other environmental success stories include the mountain gorilla and the giant panda, where in both cases numbers have at least stopped declining, or are even slowly creeping up and all largely because of the intense worldwide interest generated by films, newspaper articles and TV documentaries.'

He says that of the species featured in the first four programmes in this series, he's most optimistic about the black rhino, which 'seems to be being managed back from the brink'.

Central and South America's tapirs are, however, still under extreme risk, partly because so few people know anything about these reclusive and mysterious creatures.

'The tapir really is a most bizarre animal,' Tulloh enthuses. 'It's got a nose like an anteater, hooves like a rhino, it's the size of a pig, it can walk underwater using its trunk like a snorkel, and it's actually part of the horse family; it's like it's made up of bits of other animals.

'They are extraordinary, almost surreal creatures, and I thought that Vic Reeves, being a kind of surreal comic himself, might find them particularly appealing. It turned out that near where he lives, in Kent, there's a wildlife sanctuary with tapirs there, and he was already fascinated by them.

Vic was keen to find out about an animal that had so far been ignored by everyone, so he jumped at it.'

Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek, who investigates the plight of the gentle sea turtle, is best known for her work with primates, having lived for four years in a hut near Lake Tanganyika, studying chimpanzees with the world-famous primatologist Jane Goodall.

With a PhD in zoology from Bristol University and dark good looks, she's long been a star of BBC TV's natural history unit, making a number of programmes about primates. This time though, she says, she wanted to focus on sea creatures instead. 'I'd been on holiday in Nicaragua and had become involved with the turtle preservation programme there. Then when I came back, I was asked if I wanted to make this film about turtles. It was very timely.'

Although she is a scientist herself, Uhlenbroek says she strongly supports the idea of using famous actors, musicians and rock stars to present wildlife documentaries.

'People who love wildlife will watch wildlife films,' she says. 'But you really want, and need, to bring in as wide an audience as possible and there's no better way to do it than with big star names. I don't know why it hasn't been done more often, but I'm really glad this series is coming out.'

Joanna Lumley says she chose the orang-utans of Borneo because their behaviour is 'so human'. To lose them would be 'worse than a tragedy' she says.

'It would be the beginning of the end.' With extinction within 20 years now a distinct possibility, Lumley's episode highlights the work of a woman called Birute Galdikas, who has devoted the past 35 years to staving off this tragic outcome.

'Joanna spent part of her childhood in Malaysia, so she's particularly interested in the environmental issues in this area of the world,' Tulloh says.

Overall, the logistical problems of coordinating celebrities' packed diaries with animal 'availability' was, he admits, 'something of a nightmare'.

'For budgetary reasons, we have about two weeks per episode for location filming, which is quite a tight schedule when filming wildlife,' says Tulloh.

'We had to make sure we'd actually be able to see the creature when the celebrity presenter was available.

'But I'm sure it's going to be worth it in terms of viewing figures. The presenters involved are among Britain's favourites they are people you want to spend time with. All of us involved in this project hope so, anyway.'

'Final Chance to Save' starts next Sunday on Sky One at 8pm. For more details on the charities, contact: Save the Rhino (020 7357 7474, www.savetherhino.org); Tusk Trust (01747 831 005, www.tusk.org); World Wildlife Fund (01483 426 444, www.wwf-uk.org); Tapir Preservation Fund (00 1 503 325 3179, www.tapir back.com); Orangutan Foundation UK (020 7724 2912, www.orangutan.org.uk).

WEEK BY WEEK IN THE WILD

Episode one: Griff Rhys Jones is in Kenya, observing some of the last 400 black rhinos to survive the poachers, who are after their tusks. Almost all those now in the wild were bred elsewhere, including in the UK, and then reintroduced into the wild.

Episode two: Vic Reeves looks at the dramatic decline in tapir numbers. As befits his surreal comic style, Reeves first stumbled across this most mysterious, eight-hoofed jungle creature while picking wild garlic in a Kent wildlife reserve.

Episode three: Charlotte Uhlenbroek (below) is in the Caribbean with sea turtles. Her programme reveals the impact of commercial fishing and pollution on turtle numbers, and the threat from poachers.

Episode four: Joanna Lumley travels to Borneo to investigate the plight of orang-utans, another species that has been all but wiped out by deforestation and which could disappear entirely within 20 years.

Source: Mail on Sunday; London (UK)

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