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August 14, 2008 6:26 AM Subscribe
BBC's Lost Land of the Jaguar puts Guyana's unspoilt rainforest into sharp focus.
The real stars of the three-part series are huge spiders, a harpy eagle, an (enormous) anaconda, a black caiman, a giant anteater, giant river otters, a sabre-toothed characin, one of the world's highest waterfalls and the elusive jaguar itself.
The real stars of the three-part series are huge spiders, a harpy eagle, an (enormous) anaconda, a black caiman, a giant anteater, giant river otters, a sabre-toothed characin, one of the world's highest waterfalls and the elusive jaguar itself.
Fantastic series. I lived there for a year in the early nineties, right in the middle of nowhere. Didn't see a Jaguar, but this brought back lots of amazing memories.
posted by dowcrag at 7:14 AM on August 14, 2008
posted by dowcrag at 7:14 AM on August 14, 2008
binturong, a little elf who lives in my breast pocket insists that there are things called "torrents" that you can use to download these episodes and watch them on your computer box.
He's nuts though.
posted by chuckdarwin at 7:29 AM on August 14, 2008
He's nuts though.
posted by chuckdarwin at 7:29 AM on August 14, 2008
Seriously bloody annoying series, more like. I want to see the wondrous animals of Guyana, not a bunch of cameramen and biologists travelling very slowly in the direction of the wondrous animals of Guyana.
Seriously, the episode I saw was 90% man climbing a mountain/men navigating a river/woman setting up a tent, 10% poor quality shots of an anaconda, a harpy eagle, an anteater and various huge moths. And every time one of our heroes found some fauna, they said "Remarkable! This has almost certainly never been described!" before buggering off to have a look at another creature without telling us anything about it. More reality telly than serious wildlife programme, really.
I would pay double the usual license fee to watch David Attenborough line up these half-arsed documentarians and give every last one of them a mighty punch in the dick.
posted by jack_mo at 7:30 AM on August 14, 2008 [4 favorites]
Seriously, the episode I saw was 90% man climbing a mountain/men navigating a river/woman setting up a tent, 10% poor quality shots of an anaconda, a harpy eagle, an anteater and various huge moths. And every time one of our heroes found some fauna, they said "Remarkable! This has almost certainly never been described!" before buggering off to have a look at another creature without telling us anything about it. More reality telly than serious wildlife programme, really.
I would pay double the usual license fee to watch David Attenborough line up these half-arsed documentarians and give every last one of them a mighty punch in the dick.
posted by jack_mo at 7:30 AM on August 14, 2008 [4 favorites]
It wasn't science-programming but it was exciting and enthusing. And anything that gets people enthused about rainforest ecology has to be good.
posted by Hogshead at 8:00 AM on August 14, 2008
posted by Hogshead at 8:00 AM on August 14, 2008
Third link:
Britain is backing an offer by the President of Guyana to preserve the country's entire 50 million acres of rainforest in return for sustainable development funds.
posted by chuckdarwin at 8:02 AM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite]
Britain is backing an offer by the President of Guyana to preserve the country's entire 50 million acres of rainforest in return for sustainable development funds.
posted by chuckdarwin at 8:02 AM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite]
Agree with what jack_mo says. It had the potential to be a brilliant series, but blew it by focusing way too much on the naturalists. For every 10 seconds of wildlife was saw, we had 30 seconds of scientist telling us how extraordinary it was. Since when did the film-makers become more important than the film itself?
posted by afx237vi at 8:21 AM on August 14, 2008
posted by afx237vi at 8:21 AM on August 14, 2008
I tried really really hard not to really enjoy the series. It's like the Big Brother meets Life On Earth.
No wait. Like it's a good thing. It's really good! Come baaaaaack!
posted by Jofus at 9:32 AM on August 14, 2008
No wait. Like it's a good thing. It's really good! Come baaaaaack!
posted by Jofus at 9:32 AM on August 14, 2008
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posted by binturong at 6:53 AM on August 14, 2008