Witness deadly conflicts between man and beast

Media News

New Delhi, August 19, 2011

Zoologist and large predator expert Dave Salmoni isn't a stranger to danger, but this is his first time when he is on the front line of a war between humans and animals. In Animal Planet’s new series WORLD'S DEADLIEST TOWNS, Salmoni takes viewers to some of the most hostile places in the world where animals and people are locked in extreme mortal combat.

Premiering on August 23, every Tuesday at 9 pm on Animal Planet, the three part mini-series WORLD’S DEADLIEST TOWNS shares intense, real-life scenarios where people are in perpetual fear for their lives. Led by Salmoni, WORLD’S DEADLIEST TOWNS transports viewers to remote Indian and African villages, where rogue elephants, killer hippos and man-eating tigers have waged full-on wars – pillaging people’s land, eating their food and, in some cases, putting man on the menu.

Dave Salmoni is on a mission to find out why fatal attacks are on the rise. Travelling to three transitional danger zones, Salmoni risks his own life to understand what has pushed wild creatures and humans into deadly conflict. Whether its man-eating tigers in India, homicidal elephants in Sundarbans or hippos in Africa, Salmoni uncovers cases that reveal shocking developments in the animals’ deadly strategies, helping explain why the crisis is worsening and what might be done to solve it.

“WORLD’S DEADLIEST TOWNS shows the remote corners of the world where people must live under the constant threat of predatory and threatening animal presence,” says Dave Salmoni. “The people I visited in Bengal, the Sunderbans and Zambia all have that in common – the persistent, mortal fear that they may not be alive tomorrow – that an elephant, a tiger or a hippo will be the death of them or someone they love.”

Tiger attacks are on the rise. Every day, tigers are killing people or are being killed by humans. Salmoni explores and further claims amazing facts around 250 Bengal tigers living in the Sunderbans, a mangrove forest in North East India. The tigers in this region are notorious for being man-eaters. Stalking their victims from behind, these tigers deliver a lethal attack to the back of the neck and are becoming stronger hunters every day. Putting himself at extreme risk, Salmoni uncovers one recent case that reveals a shocking development in the tigers' deadly strategy, helping explain why the crisis is worsening and what might be done to solve it.

Dave Salmoni understands what makes hippos so deadly, but on Zambia's Zambezi River, he's entering a world of African witchcraft and sorcery that makes him rethink everything he believes about animal attacks. As a zoologist, Dave struggles to explain Zambia's most vicious hippo attacks, until his scientific approach meets local beliefs. He enters a world of witches and witchdoctors, where evil sorcerers possess hippos and make them kill. Dave is skeptical until he witnesses a hippo exorcism ceremony that leaves him amazed and confused. After this journey, he never will look at animal attacks the same way again.

Elephants have the reputation of being gentle giants, but in a village in West Bengal, in Northeast India, they've put man on the menu. Joining forces with an armed elephant squad, Dave Salmoni helps defend the villagers, their land and their crops from rampaging elephants in the dead of night. During the past 10 years, hundreds of men, women and children in this region have been trampled to death by the planet's largest land mammal, and the situation has just reached crisis point as a necropsy shows that one elephant even consumed man. It's one of the most hostile wildlife war zones on Earth. What has happened to make these beasts become so dangerous?

For further information, please contact:

Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific

Ruchika Tandon

Mobile: +919810202457

Email: ruchika_tandon@discovery.com