| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (52 min. 29 sec.) ; 314731126 bytes |
| Summary |
*This program includes scenes of animals hunting and eating prey*They look like dragons. Armed with sharp teeth, tearing claws and a whip-like tail, these fearsome creatures are not only powerful, they're also smart. Top predators with intelligence, that learn as they hunt, and that use their brain to track down prey, no matter what. Sounds like these cunning hunters should be a big-brained mammal, but these creatures are reptiles, members of a family that evolved when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. They are the largest lizards still walking the planet, the monitor lizards - the Lizard Kings.Ranging in size from the 3-metre long Komodo Dragon to the 20-cm short Pygmy Monitor, this huge scale range within a single genus - roughly the difference in body mass between an elephant and a mouse - is unmatched by any other group of terrestrial animals.Australia is the 'Land of the Lizards'. Half of all known monitor species live here. Yet finding them is no easy task. Natural loners, and always on guard, they sense anything or anybody from hundreds of metres away. It takes an expert hunter to track them down. Enter the 'Lizard Man', renowned US biologist Professor Eric Pianka, the undisputed world authority on lizard ecology. Tall, silver-bearded and sharp-witted, this self-proclaimed 'true desert rat' has spent decades tracking these elusive creatures. And this is the first time that Eric and his research have been filmed for television. This charismatic and passionate scientist takes us into Australia's red heartland, to his favourite 'lizarding ground' in Western Australia's uninhabited Great Victoria Desert. PRODUCTION DETAILS:Produced, written and directed by Gisela Kaufmann. It is a Kaufmann Productions film |
| Notes |
Closed captioning in English |
| Event |
Broadcast 2010-07-18 at 19:30:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: G |
| Subject |
Animal behavior -- Research.
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Lizards -- Behavior.
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Lizards -- Ecology.
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Monitor lizards.
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Predatory animals.
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Wildlife conservation.
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Australia -- Great Victoria Desert.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Kaufmann, Gisela, director
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Schwerdt, Berynn, host
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