TV presenter Chris Packham has teamed up with National Geographic to celebrate WILD’s Big Cat Week with a series of events.
Earlier this week, Packham unveiled a Living Billboard, featuring a realistic animatronic leopard, at London’s South Bank.
As well as this, he has also lent his voice to two documentaries – Russia’s Wild Tiger and Thailand’s Wild Cats.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, he revealed how these docs compare to recent series on Big Cats, such as Netflix’s very popular Tiger King, which followed Joe Exotic as the owner of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park.
“This is observational, and we’re interested in the natural behaviour and all the animals featured are wild. There’s no captive animals here, only if they’re being moved from A to B or the scientists are putting a collar on them so that we can better understand them,” he said.
“I think exposés like Tiger King are important, because obviously there are large numbers of these animals in captivity and their welfare is of prime concern. But equally, you could make the case that their wild counterparts, where they’re playing a vital ecological role – they’re killing prey, they’re chasing prey, they’re shaping the landscape and so on and so forth – that’s where they really ought to be.”
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While Packham understands the demand for other styles of documentaries, he believes it’s important to show big cats in their natural habitat.
He continued: “We’d all much rather that they were out in the wild. They’re meant to be in the wild and it’s there they’re meant to be doing what they’ve got to do, which is basically helping maintain those ecosystems so that they’re functional, stable, sustainable, and so that their ecosystems can support us and our future as well.”
Although “entertaining”, Packham argued that some of the more viral documentaries can be “exploitative”, which is something he steers away from.
Speaking of the two documentaries he narrated for National Geographic, he explained: “Of course, they’re interesting, but in terms of them being entertaining, I wouldn’t say they’re not entertaining, but they’re not exploitative. And I think things like Tiger King are exploitative, in that sense.
“You’re exposing a man in that case, or I should say a collection of people, who were exploiting animals for personal gain. We’re observing animals to better understand them so that we can better protect them, and that’s critical.”
Big Cat Week runs from February 7th-13th on National Geographic WILD. To find out what’s on TV tonight, check out our TV Guide or visit our Documentaries hub for all the latest news.
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