Operation Maneater

Gr 5 Up—This work focuses on using technology to make interactions between humans and wild animals safer for both parties. The host, Mark Evans, is a former veterinarian who, in the first episode, travels to Namibia to see if wild crocodiles can be aversion-trained using electric shocks and ringing bells to scare them away from riverbanks where people live. In the second segment, he visits the town of Churchill in Manitoba, where he tries using a military acoustic device to keep polar bears away from a small town. In the third, Evans experiments with a high-tech camera to see if sharks can be spotted early enough to warn swimmers away from western Australian beaches. The host tends to ask questions that make him sound like a tabloid reporter. "Did you feel that the polar bear was trying to kill you?" "After the crocodile ate your son, were you angry?" And while using state-of-the-art equipment is actually the point of the series, the way Evans describes events comes across as sensationalistic. "These might be the first images ever taken of a croc using sonar!" This DVD certainly brings to light the troubles caused by humans encroaching on wild animals' habitats, but there is not a lot of hard science here. If the technological solutions are adopted, it might be noteworthy to revisit these locations in a few years to see how effectively they reduced human and animal violent interactions. As it is, the programs are mainly entertaining, and might bring some awareness of issues humanity has with wildlife.—Geri Diorio, Ridgefield Library, CT