Animal Planet's introduces new anchor - Nick Baker

Media News

New Delhi, March 10

Have you ever heard of the pink fairy armadillo, the saggy-skinned frog or the blood-squirting lizard? Animal Planet introduces adventurer and animal expert Nick Baker who is in awe of the most bizarre creatures to roam the planet. An unconventional and daring explorer, Nick travels to the remotest and inhospitable corners of the globe for encounters with the ugliest, slimiest and downright bizarre animals in NICK BAKER’S WEIRD CREATURES.

From the rarest reptile, the gharial, found only on Indian subcontinent to an elusive armadillo that swims through sand dunes or the star-nosed mole with the fastest nose in natural history – some would dismiss these creatures as freaks of nature, but for Nick these are the unsung heroes of evolutionary biology. Premiering every Thursday at 10 pm on Animal Planet, the seven-part series, NICK BAKER’S WEIRD CREATURES begins with a visit to the British Natural History Museum’s Darwin Centre, where Nick first acquired his love for all things weird and wonderful.

Each episode of NICK BAKER’S WEIRD CREATURES will take viewers behind-the-scene into the world of specimen jars and formaldehyde at the Natural History Museum. Appearing as deformities and defects, viewers will see just how these creatures have in fact evolved highly specialised characteristics in order to survive. Nick also meets the specialists who have devoted their lives to these zoological outcasts and the indigenous people with whom these oddities share their habitat.

Episode Descriptions:

Blood Squirting Lizard

Nick heads to the cowboy country, southeast Arizona, in search of the horned lizard – a reptile with an amazing trick up its spiny sleeve. He discovers a whole range of life with spectacular defense mechanisms. Armed with a high-speed camera, his target weird creature promises to deliver a literally eye-popping spectacle.

Basking Shark

In this episode, Nicks goes in search of the basking shark - the second biggest fish in the sea. Amazingly, for a creature the size of a London bus, very little is known about its biology and behaviour. On his journey, Nick meets the best of Britain’s marine wildlife, including some of the weirder visitors to its waters.

Pink Fairy Armadillo

The world’s smallest armadillo is highly elusive and very peculiar. About 10 centimeters long with looks like a door wedge, it lives in the sandy dunes of western Argentina and is very rarely seen by those who live there. Nick travels the same Mendoza Desert roads as Charles Darwin did two centuries ago, meeting guanacos and gauchos along the way – and trying all his trapping tricks to find a Pink Fairy Armadillo.

Croc from Mars

Gharial are the most peculiar and endangered species of crocodile on earth. Huge in size, but no threat to people, their need for clean and flowing rivers is at odds with northern India’s rapid growth. Nick sets out to discover why gharials are so different from other crocodiles, how their body design works and what humans are doing on both sides of the battle to save the gharial from extinction.

Star-Nosed Mole

In the boreal forest of Manitoba, Canada, Nick goes trapping for the fastest nose in natural history, the star-nosed mole. Its 22-tentacled nose enables it to find food at lightning speed – one reason that this mole has the energy to survive the freezing winters of the forest. In an environment where eating whatever is the key to survival, Nick has one eye on the monstrous mosquitoes and the other on the lookout for bears.

Saggy-Skinned Frog

Nick takes on his biggest frogging challenge yet – a giant frog that lives underwater in one of the highest lakes in the world, Lake Titicaca. Struggling with the lack of oxygen and faced with the risks of diving at altitude, this is Nick’s most dangerous “weird creatures” mission. With a cultural history as unique as its wildlife, Titicaca is a remarkable backdrop for this weird amphibian.

Vampire Fish

A blood-sucking vampire lives in the waters of the Amazon. The candiru is a tiny catfish that has been known to swim up the human urethra. Nick takes a riverboat lab down the rivers of southeastern Peru – his mission is to lure and capture candiru and try to separate myth from science.

For further information, please contact:

Praveen Gujjari

Hanmer&Partners

Tel: 011- 46524014, 98911-36123

E-mail: praveen@hanmerpr.com