Baby Animals From The Wild

From The Wild is one of the two-part series of Baby Animals programmes, outlining the attempts by Doodle the puppy and Bungie the kitten to find babies of exotic animals living in zoos. It was released onto VHS by Dorling Kindersley Vision on 4th May 1998.

## Episode

### Episode outline

The episode starts with Bungie the kitten as she looks around to find a tiger cub. The first animal she encounters is a week-old gazelle calf, which is nothing like a tiger. The next animal is a family of bush dogs, which have sharp teeth and claws and carry their babies in their mouths, but otherwise are not very similar to a tiger. Bungie looks out for something orange, and soon finds a baby orangutan with its mother. But an orangutan doesn’t have stripes like a tiger. Finally, Bungie finds a pair of tiger cubs which are playing with their mother. To close out this segment, a cartoon containing a tiger from Felix the Cat plays.

The second segment follows Doodle the puppy as he tries to find a baby gorilla. The first animal he encounters is a group of meerkats, which have small ears but are otherwise completely unlike a gorilla. Next, Doodle finds some wallabies which are also nothing like a gorilla – neither is the arctic fox he briefly passes. The third animal encountered is a family of baboons. They are more similar to gorillas, but they have tails. Finally, Doodle finds a family of gorillas including a baby gorilla that is still hanging onto its mother. To close this segment, a cartoon involving apes plays.

The third segment follows Bungie the kitten as she looks to find a zebra foal. The first animal she encounters is a small group of capybaras, which bear no resemblance to zebras. Focusing the search for something with stripes, the next animal Bungie meets is a group of ostrich chicks. They have stripy necks, but no other features shared with zebras. Bungie passes by snakes and a tiger and soon encounters the third animal, a sable antelope calf. It has a striped face and long pointed ears, but it has horns unlike the zebra. Finally, Bungie finds a herd of zebras, including a foal. To close this segment, a cartoon with a horse wearing a striped swimming costume is shown.

The fourth segment follows Doodle the puppy as he tries to find an elephant calf. The first baby animal he encounters are banded mongooses, which are very different to elephants. The second animal Doodle encounters are two baby gibbons playing on a jungle gym. They are also completely unlike an elephant. Doodle passes a mother and baby tortoise to reach the third animal, a family of pygmy hippos. Like elephants, they have thick grey skin, but have short legs and don’t have a trunk. Finally, Doodle finds a herd of African elephants with several babies. To close this segment, a cartoon with a baby elephant stealing milk is shown.

The final segment follows Bungie the kitten as she tries to find a baby giraffe. The first animal she finds is a red panda, which bears no resemblance to the giraffe. The second animal she finds also has no similarities to the giraffe, as they are baby chimpanzees. Bungie passes a young cassowary to encounter the third animal, the okapi. They have a giraffe-like head and eat leaves like a giraffe, but have short necks and striped legs. Finally, Bungie finds a herd of giraffes that has a young calf. To close out the segment and the whole episode, a cartoon is shown of giraffes helping out at the animal fair.

## Animal species filmed for the programme

### Studio footage

* Domestic cat, *Felis catus*
* Domestic dog, *Canis familiaris*

### Location footage

* Parma wallaby, *Notamacropus parma*
* Reticulated giraffe, *Giraffa reticulata*
* Western lowland gorilla, *Gorilla gorilla gorilla*
* Tiger, *Panthera tigris*
* Dama gazelle, *Nanger dama*
* Bush dog, *Speothos venaticus*
* Crested porcupine, *Hystrix sp*.
* Bornean orangutan, *Pongo pygmaeus*
* Chimpanzee, *Pan troglodytes*
* Slender-tailed meerkat, *Suricata suricatta*
* Arctic fox, *Vulpes lagopus*
* Hamadryas baboon, *Papio hamadryas*
* Hartmann’s mountain zebra, *Equus zebra hartmannae*
* Capybara, *Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris*
* Common ostrich, *Struthio camelus*
* Red-tailed boa, *Boa constrictor*
* Sable antelope, *Hippotragus niger*
* Grevy’s zebra, *Equus grevyi*
* Patagonian mara, *Dolichotis patagonum*
* African bush elephant, *Loxodonta africana*
* Banded mongoose, *Mungos mungo*
* Lar gibbon, *Hylobates lar*
* Red-footed tortoise, *Chelonoidis carbonarius*
* Pygmy hippopotamus, *Choeropsis liberiensis*
* Northern giraffe, *Giraffa cameleopardis*
* Himalayan red panda, *Ailurus fulgens*
* Southern cassowary, *Casuarius casuarius*
* Okapi, *Okapia johnstoni*

## Making this programme

Parts of this programme were filmed on-location at five British zoos, namely Exmoor Zoo, Paignton Zoo, Marwell Zoo, Twycross Zoo and Howletts Zoo. This is the second time that a Dorling Kindersley Vision programme was filmed on-location at Twycross Zoo, as the gorilla studio footage in Eyewitness: Ape was filmed in a repurposed building on the zoo grounds.