'Beast Tracker,'
full of good information
Discovery series is one of those rare reality shows that informs
By Tom Conroy
Feb 1, 2012
Among the meanings of the noun “dramatization” are “the re-creation of a scene for filming in a documentary” and “the treatment of something as more dramatic than it really is” Many TV documentaries indulge in the first; most are guilty of the second.
Discovery’s new nature documentary series “Beast Tracker” opens with a disclaimer that says, “This program contains dramatizations and hunting scenes that may be disturbing to some viewers.” But in fact the show generally avoids overdramatization, favoring instead actual information about its subject: the confrontation of human beings with the fierce animals that share our ecosystem.
This approach, along with a genial host who seems to know his stuff, makes for a pleasant hour that doesn’t cause one to feel stupider after watching.
In the premiere episode, airing tonight at 9, the host, an Australian biologist named Andrew West, visits Florida and Louisiana to report on the population explosion among alligators and the increasing amount of dangerous or violent encounters with people living near their habitat.
West, who says that his primary job is working on the problems caused by feral pigs in Hawaii, starts out with the good stuff: re-created scenes of horrible alligator attacks. He says that alligators recently have been “claiming more lives in the U.S.A. than sharks.” Actually, in his Australian accent, this last phrase comes out more like “climbing mo loives in the U.S.I. than shacks.”
In one attack, a young aspiring model is dismembered and partially eaten near a canal. In another, an 18-year-old boy loses an arm during a late-night swim in Lake Okeechobee.
Scary without being too graphic, these segments are really an appetizer for the wholesome main course, an examination of the ways that state and federal authorities are controlling the alligators’ numbers. Since the creatures have gone from endangered to ubiquitous in the last 50 years, an alligator that is reported as a nuisance will be killed rather than relocated.
Florida also controls the alligator population by allowing trophy hunting. West goes out at night in a boat with a hunter who uses a crossbow, a harpoon and a blast stick to administer the coup de grace. The carcass is given to a meat and hide processor.
Later, West accompanies a full-time alligator hunter on his rounds in Louisiana. Those hoping for furious battles will be disappointed to learn that the hunter simply sets out baited hooks and waits for the gators to bite.
West admits that he has mixed emotions about these methods of wildlife management, but he is willing to concede that they seem to be working.
In the second episode made available for review, which will air next week, West tracks tiger sharks in Hawaii, where they are a greater threat to humans than are great whites. The re-creations are scarier in this episode, especially the one that involves a woman and her young grandson on a paddleboard.
The tracking segments, however, are a little duller. West is trying only to tag sharks, not kill them. When we see a shot of one of West’s crew members after he falls in the water near a hooked shark, the sight loses its impact after we realize that no one seems worried about the underwater cameraman.
But the episode has some cool footage and some interesting theories about what might cause shark attacks and how to avoid putting oneself in danger.
Sadly, documentaries that rely on research and reporting are increasingly rare on TV. If only for respecting its viewers, “Beast Tracker” deserves respect in return.
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