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New Swamp Men Episodes,
Monday, October 10, 2011 at 10pm
NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DOWN & DIRTY SERIOUS BUSINESS.
FLORIDA’S FINEST SWAMP MEN RETURN TO NAT GEO WILD
FOR A THIRD SEASON OF CONTROLLED CHAOS
Doing Whatever it Takes to Rescue, Relocate and Rehabilitate Wildlife
Deep in Florida’s Everglades Swamp Men Premieres Monday, October 10, 2011, at 10 p.m. ET/PT On Nat Geo WILD
(WASHINGTON, D.C. — September 19, 2011) In the Everglades’ Big Cypress Swamp, more than 1,600 animals roam wild on thousands of acres in a park run by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The Billie Swamp Safari offers visitors face-to-face encounters with a plethora of animals, including American bison, African elan, wild alligators, venomous snakes, wild hogs, raccoons and virtually every other animal found near the swamp. Now, the Seminole Tribe is taking over the swamp and bringing in a whole new set of cultural practices and staff.
Premiering Monday, October 10, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Nat Geo WILD, Swamp Men returns for a third season with a new park director, Brian Zepeda, and his tough new team, who tirelessly work to patrol the land, relocate animals away from harming humans and rescue baby alligators from threatening wildlife. In an effort to get a larger Seminole influence and more tribe members involved at the park, Brian is taking the Safari in a new direction by focusing on tribal traditions, including asking an old Snake Clan woman from the Seminole Tribe for permission to catch gators and learning the trade in the swamp.
Under a new leader comes new staff, with each day bringing new tests of their skills. We’ll meet the group responsible for controlling the chaos, including seasoned gator handlers Gus “One Bear” Batista and Jonathan “Cattail” Vazquez, whose challenges extend beyond the park boundaries and cover all animal rescue calls in all the Seminole reservations. Operations manager Jacob “Jay” Osceola is in charge of maintaining the park’s equipment, including the popular swamp buggies. And young newcomer Everett Osceola joins the staff as an aspiring gator handler.
The staff’s goal is to immerse Safari visitors in the wild, in accordance with the Seminoles’ love of harmony with nature, but sometimes these close encounters can mean trouble for people and wildlife. Our cameras follow along as One Bear and Cattail relocate the park’s largest and most notorious gator, Everett learns to catch his first gator with his bare hands and a professional bee wrangler must remove a colony of tens of thousands of bees from a guest hut before its occupants arrive. But with everyone sharing a passion for wildlife and a willingness to get down and dirty, the team will face new swamp adventures every day.
Premiere episodes include:
Swamp Men: Swamp Shootout
Premieres Monday, October 10, at 10 p.m. ET/PT
It’s all-out combat as a re-enactment of the second Seminole War makes it even tougher to keep park visitors safe during one of the tribe’s major cultural events. Meanwhile, Jay is responsible for keeping the park’s swamp buggies running despite dangerously low water levels. Jay’s younger brother, Everett, has joined the staff as an aspiring gator handler, but for his first assignment, he has to catch a gator with his bare hands because it is Seminole tradition. Then the park’s seasoned gator handlers are put to the test when nuisance alligators turn up next to a housing development and the toughest gator at Billie Swamp Safari threatens to eat his offspring.
CONTINUES…
PAGE 2/NAT GEO WILD’S SWAMP MEN NEW SEASON
Swamp Men: One Bad Gator
Premieres Monday, October 17, at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Handlers Cattail and One Bear are called in to relocate three feisty alligators to make room for an aggressive bull alligator named “Bad” from a nearby wildlife park. Meanwhile, at another part of the Big Cypress Reservation, Seminole Tribe member Cory Wilcox takes his trained dogs on a wild hog hunt. And Jacob teaches Everett the ins and outs of giving a swamp buggy tour so he can become a full-fledged Safari guide.
Swamp Men: Most Wanted
Premieres Monday, October 24, at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Brian decides to bring “Trump,” the park’s notorious 800-pound alligator, onto the Safari’s compound to keep closer tabs on the aging reptile. While preparing to move Trump to a new enclosure, One Bear and Cattail discover an abscess that requires surgery. On the other side of the park, the staff embarks on a mission to bring water to a drought-stricken area known as “Alcatraz,” which serves as a safe haven for large nuisance gators. Then, Seminole Tribe member Billy Walker gives a new employee a hands-on lesson in handling alligators that he won’t soon forget.
Swamp Men: Gator Breakdown
Premieres Monday, October 31, at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Dangerous wildlife threatens the celebration as Billie Swamp Safari prepares to participate in its first-ever Arbor Day, a national observance that encourages tree planting. Wildlife handlers One Bear and Cattail go to unexpected extremes to remove a nuisance alligator from a local fishing spot, while a colony of bees invade guest huts and must be relocated immediately by a professional bee wrangler. And across the park, staffer Rey Becerra recognizes a rehabilitated hawk looking for food. Assuming it must be caring for its young, Rey tracks down its nest to see how the young are faring.
Swamp Men is produced by Spectrum Productions for Nat Geo WILD. For Spectrum Productions, producer is Guy Nickerson.
For Nat Geo WILD, senior vice president of production is Geoff Daniels.
For more information visit, www.natgeowild.com or www.ngcpr.com . # # #
NAT GEO WILD
For more than 30 years, National Geographic has been the leader in wildlife programming. Now the animal kingdom is taking center stage on a brand-new network, Nat Geo WILD. Offering intimate encounters with nature’s ferocious fighters and gentle creatures of land, sea and air, Nat Geo WILD and Nat Geo WILD HD will draw upon the cutting-edge work of the many explorers, filmmakers and scientists who have long-standing relationships with the National Geographic Society. Nat Geo WILD is a joint venture between Fox Cable Networks (FCN) and National Geographic Ventures (NGV) ― the same partnership behind the National Geographic Channel (NGC), which launched January 2001 and has since been one the most successful new networks on the landscape. Nat Geo WILD launched globally more than three years ago and is the fastest growing channel among the international portfolio of National Geographic networks.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Russell Howard, National Geographic Channel, 202-912-6652, RHoward@natgeotv.com
Chris Albert, National Geographic Channel, 202-912-6526, CAlbert@natgeotv.com
TV: Dara Klatt, 202-912-6720, DKlatt@natgeotv.com
Radio: Johanna Ramos Boyer, 703-646-5137, Johanna@jrbcomm.com
Print: Erin Griffin, 202-912-6632, Egriffin@natgeotv.com;
Rajul Mistry, 202-912-6794, RMisrtry@natgeotv.com
Photos: Sarah Hughes, 202-912-6670, shughes@natgeotv.com NGWILD-032-091911 |
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