Posts tagged "national geographic"

"Cesar, please, help me!" pleads comedian Howie Mandel. So begins the premiere episode of the newest season of National Geographic Channel's "Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan."

Mandel, who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and did not grow up around animals, is terrified of his wife Terry's chihuahua. Millan is quickly dispatched to Mandel's Los Angeles home to meet the tiny and temperamental dog named Lola. The little pooch stations herself on the sofa beside Mandel's wife and snarls at the comedian every time he tries to approach. "I am afraid for my life," admits Mandel, and he's not joking.

Mandel isn't the only TV star in need of pet intervention. Even after six seasons, there seems to be no end to troubled canines, and celebrities, needing Millan's help. This season, viewers of the popular series can expect to see actress Rhona Mitra, who most recently starred on the ABC show, 'The Gates,' getting help for her aggressive French bulldog, Oscar. Even wildlife expert Casey Anderson -- best-known for having his 900-pound pet bear Brutus serve as best man at his wedding to actress Missi Pyle -- calls Millan to help tame the couple's two dogs.

Nor does Millan ever seem to run out of pithy admonishments and his brand of wisdom. "You can make a dog unstable by giving it only love," says Millan after observing Lola the chihuahua dominate the humans in the household.

And finally, no season of "Dog Whisperer" would be complete without stories about dogs possessed by strange obsessions. In this season's premiere episode, we meet an English bulldog named Bebe who is inexplicably driven to destroy lampshades.

The seventh season of "Dog Whisperer" premieres Friday, October 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel.



More From AOL Lifestyle: If you are interested in other celebrity news from the new season's TV shows, check out "The Fug Girls Pick the Best and Worst Looks of Fall TV" over at Lemondrop.

Perhaps the most recognizable star of the new Nat Geo Wild network is Casey Anderson, a wildlife expert who captured headlines last year when he chose his pet grizzly bear, Brutus, to be best man at his wedding. Anderson talked to Paw Nation about his new series, "Expedition Wild with Casey Anderson," (which premiere's tonight), and what it's like taking care of Brutus, who turned 8 years old in January, weighs 900 pounds and eats 40 pounds of food each day.

How did you get Brutus?
He was a little grizzly bear that was born in a wildlife park that was overpopulated. Essentially they had one choice, and that was to euthanize him. When bears are born into captivity, they can't be released into the wild. They don't learn the skills from their parents to survive. So I got the idea to start a sanctuary that rescued bears like Brutus, giving them the opportunity to live some sort of a life, and most importantly, let them be ambassadors to their wild cousins.

How many bears do you have at your sanctuary, Montana Grizzly Encounter?
We have four now. We rescued a couple more that were part of a circus, bears that lived in eight-by-eight-foot cages for 18 years. They never were able to run or swim or dig or wrestle. Now they can be bears and run around the sanctuary and do all those things. It's just really wonderful to see. They have several acres that they run around on, and then every night, as state law requires, they come into their own dens. We make sure to spay and neuter all our bears because captivity is a dead-end street for a bear.

Things are about to get even wilder at National Geographic. Tonight, the nature-loving institution is launching its TV channel, "National Geographic Wild" (aka Nat Geo Wild) for American audiences. The Nat Geo Wild network, which first launched in Hong Kong in 2006, is dedicated to giving viewers a window into some of the most remote and exotic locations on earth and the creatures who inhabit them.

"Against a global backdrop of increasingly urgent conservation challenges facing wildlife, Nat Geo Wild is giving the animal kingdom center stage as it features the work of some of the world's foremost explorers, filmmakers and scientists," the new network said in a statement.

Some of the original series you can look forward to seeing include:

Mystery Gorillas: Follow Mireya Mayor, a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader-turned-primatologist, as she ventures into the Congo to peek into the private lives of the elusive great apes.

Expedition Wild: Join Casey Anderson and his 800-pound grizzly bear pal on Alaskan adventures. (Be sure to read Paw Nation's interview with Casey Anderson Monday, April 5.)

Caught in the Act: Animals are captured on tape in rare and often spontaneous situations. Experts offer insights into the unique animal behavior.

Rebel Monkeys: Cameras follow a gang of monkeys living at a temple in Jaipur, India as they lounge poolside and accept handouts from humans who have come to worship the Hindu monkey god, Hanuman.

Other shows coming up include: "Shark Island" where Enric Sala and his crew explore waters crowded with sharks and other animals and "Hunt For the Giant Octopus" where researchers try and find a highly intelligent giant octopus that measures 33 feet across and weighs 400 pounds.

Nat Geo Wild hits American televisions today. Check online at Nat Geo Wild or with your cable provider for availability .

There's an orangutan whose best friend is a hound dog; a cat whose playmate is a crow; an elephant whose constant companion is a Chow-mix dog; a baby hippo who pursues a friendship with a 130 year-old tortoise; a lioness who bonds with baby antelope; and the story of Christian, a lion cub purchased at Harrod's Department Store in 1969, who remembers his first owners a year after returning to the wild.

You may have seen them on Youtube, but now in "Unlikely Animal Friends," the National Geographic channel explores these six unusual animal bonds in depth with extensive footage, interviews with the animals' owners and commentary by experts.

Perplexing as the unlikely friendships are, they illustrate the "ability of animals to feel complex emotions," says one expert on the show. Love and compassion, it seems, are not solely the domain of humans: witness other inter-species videos such as the fawn who bathes a cat and the dog who befriends a duck.

The one-hour program, "Unlikely Animal Friends," premieres this Saturday, September 26 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic channel.

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Talk about bearing witness!

An 800 pound grizzly bear named Brutus served as best man in naturalist Casey Anderson's 2008 wedding to actress Missi Pyle. But this was not a stunt for pun's sake; Anderson calls Brutus his best friend, even telling Good Morning America, "He gives me unconditional love."

Expedition Grizzly, a new documentary airing on National Geographic on Sunday, May 3^rd at 9pm EST, captures Anderson living among the bears of Yellowstone National Park, charting their lives and man's impact on their environment.

Anderson first befriended the bear in 2002 when young Brutus' wildlife park became overpopulated. Before the cub had to face a lose-lose fate of captivity or death, Anderson adopted him and opened a sanctuary so Brutus could "act like a real bear."

Of course, "real bears" don't usually eat at kitchen tables and swim in lap pools. But according to Anderson, they do experience human-level emotions, sometimes even shedding tears. Anderson's relationship with his furry surrogate son spawned his mission to dispel false "man eater" stereotypes about Grizzlies.

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