AFTERLIFE: Hippo on Animal Planet
MANILA, Philippines – For seven days and seven nights, in the heart of Africa, one of nature’s great events has been recorded in unrivaled detail.
On AFTERLIFE: HIPPO, experience as an entire ecological system including dangerous predators, opportunistic scavengers, brutal birds and insects devour the enormous carcass of an adult hippopotamus. An unparalleled celebration of life, death, survival and the natural evolvement of the great animal kingdom, AFTERLIFE: HIPPO is a stunning documentation of the powerful role that the fiercely aggressive hippopotamus plays, and how easily it is reduced to mere splinters of bone in just a matter of days. The feasting on AFTERLIFE: HIPPO begins Sunday, October 7, at 7:00 p.m. Encores on Monday, October 8 at 9:00 a.m., Thursday, October 11 at 2:00 p.m. and Sunday, October 14 at noon (1200 hrs).
Sixty minutes of incredible footage, AFTERLIFE: HIPPO takes viewers on an amazing journey to the banks of the Luangwa River, Zambia, one of the richest wildlife areas in Africa. The sheer size, strength, and its hostile nature set the hippopotamus apart as one of Plateau Continent’s deadliest animals; and when this formidable creature dies, an astonishing chain of events begins. Minute by minute, hour by hour, be prepared to witness the most comprehensive illustration to date of nature’s food chain in action.
Join AFTERLIFE: HIPPO host Mark Evans and a team of scientists and wildlife experts as they attempt to elaborately chronicle the wonders of how nature removes and recycles the now lifeless animal. From the time that it was still alive to its very last breath, from the first few days after it has been dead to the point that nothing but bones remain, get ready for a series of fierce showdowns between the smallest and biggest rivals such as the mighty lions, scheming hyenas, precarious leopards, lurking crocodiles, vicious vultures, thousands of maggots and much more, as they fight for their share of the of meat, muscle, protein and fats.
On AFTERLIFE: HIPPO, uncover the different eating mechanisms of the various animals, and watch gripping footage from the dens of predators, staked out by a specialist wildlife cameraman. So who will be the first to indulge? Will the lions or hyenas, the only animals with the bite power to tear open the five centimeter thick hide of the hippopotamus, be the first to relish the easy meal? Will it be the notoriously ferocious honey badgers or the humble maggots? Will it be marabou storks or the wakes of hungry hooded vultures circling high above the skies? Will it be the army of Nile crocodiles or the stealthy hunting leopards, especially with Luangwa being home to an abundance of these solitary wild cats?
