Behind-the-Scenes: Wild Kingdom

Today, Woodland Park Zoo published my teaser blog post about being part of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild’s new episode on wolverines, which will air on Saturday, November 29. In the post, I share a few glimpses of what it was like to work with the show’s co-hosts and film crew—and, of course, with the wolverines (and lynx) at ZooMontana. I begin my short essay by reflecting on the important role this show played in my childhood.

As a child growing up in Boston, most of my wildlife sightings comprised gray squirrels and American robins—maybe the occasional urban raccoon. But on Sunday nights, a silver-haired zoologist named Marlin Perkins came into my family’s living room and transported me to a much bigger world of animals, where close encounters with species I’d never even heard of ignited my imagination and helped seed my future in carnivore conservation. That little girl in yellow feet pajamas, who sat mesmerized watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom while her animal-loving mom knit mittens and hats, could never have dreamed that one day she’d be featured on the program. And the wildlife she’d be studying? Wolverines!