For Release: 2008-03-24 11:36:00
Lizards do push-ups for it. Gelada baboons show off their passion-flushed pectorals. Bowerbirds become interior decorators. From dancing spiders to drumming monkeys, the universal urge to mate has led creatures throughout the animal kingdom to evolve elaborate courtship rituals and astonishing anatomy. Nature’s two-part “What Females Want and Males Will Do” follows wildlife experts around the world as they use cutting-edge technology and field study to discover what makes winners and losers in the animal dating game. It airs on consecutive Sundays, April 6 and 13 at 8/7 p.m. CT on KET2 and KET HD and Saturday, April 12 and 19 at 4/3 p.m. CT on KET1.Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham, “What Females Want and Males Will Do” reveals “animal magnetism” in the flesh. In the Ethiopian highlands, Chadden Hunter gets dangerously close to gelada baboons to study their mating habits, attempting to learn just what signals the varying shades of red on males’ bare chests are sending to receptive females. On the Montana prairie, Gail Patricelli enlists a “fembot” sage grouse — a female robot she created — to elicit the males’ ritual mating behavior, which includes acoustic and visual displays.
“What Females Want and Males Will Do” also travels to Australia, where scientists from the University of Queensland study the unmatched vocal repertoire and elaborate dance of the superb lyrebird, and where extreme photographer John Young tracks the magnificent riflebird, which boasts one of the most flamboyant mating displays of the continent’s birds of paradise.
Nature “What Females Want and Males Will Do” is produced by Pangolin Pictures WNET/New York. More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at www.ket.org.
Contact: Amanda Stroud
###
Download this release as an RTF file - 13 Kb
View or link to a public version of this release.
