Grainger's World: Working With Wild Animals

Documentary (2007) 53 minutes ~ Color

Working with Wild Animals is a one-hour special that shows the tender rapport – and high danger – that exists between wild animals and their keepers in public exhibitions.

The program features eleven intimate stories around the world, starting with world famous magician, Rick Thomas, who shares his Las Vegas home with the most adorable tiger cubs, playing with and training them for his famous stage act.

In the wilds of South America, Andrea Valido shows off her magnificent collection of exotic animals, from giant anteaters, to capybaras and playful pumas. Andrea takes some of her animals to the local school and for a walk around her own zoo before heading back to the office with her collegue, a mischievous monkey. In the tropical north of Australia, Allan Hair risks life and limb daily as he entices giant saltwater crocodiles to jump high out of the muddy waters of the Adelaide River. And at the Singapore Zoo, keeper Rohan Rohmat shares breakfast every day with an amorous orangutan, while at the LA Zoo, Stephanie Zielienski has created an amazing bond with a family of sea lions. In Canada, Tony Van Zuilchom displays the scars he’s received from an angry jaguar, before showing his bond with a pack of wolves and a giant black bear called Ben – the star of many Hollywood movies.

Elsewhere around the globe, Working with Wild Animals uncovers soccer-playing elephants, dolphins that paint, and the entertainer with over a thousand birds in his home.

Stars: Greg Grainger