Discovery Channel Airs Wild Recon/, an Entertaining Herpetology Show

Not too long ago I started watching a show on Animal Planet (a branch of the Discovery Channel) called Wild Recon. It is a really interesting show that involves a herpetologist who travels to several exotic locations around the world. He hunts a variety of animals including snakes, sting rays, sea turtles, sharks, monkeys, and more. He does not hunt them as in killing them, but instead he collects various DNA samples from several animal species so that they can be put into a national database. Also, he collects venom from a variety of poisonous snakes including Mambas and rattlesnakes.

The host of the show is herpetologist Donald Schultz. Since I started watching his show, I found him to be very similar to animal expert and herpetologist Jeff Corwin, host of The Jeff Corwin Experience and Corwin's Quest (for more on Jeff Corwin, click here). They are very similar in that they work exclusively with snakes and travel the world and deal with dozens of animal species.

Donald Schultz was born in South Africa. He still frequents the area today when he goes in search of dangerous reptiles. He is a herpetologist, a venom expert, and a photographer. Like Jeff Corwin, Donald had an interest in reptiles starting at a young age. According to Animal Planet, he started working with reptiles when he was only 13 years old. He moved to the United States in 2002 and studied veterinary medicine and worked at the Veterinary Specialty Hospital in San Diego. According to Animal Planet, Schultz "has caught venomous snakes on five continents and crocodiles on three." He has helped write a number of scientific papers and even spoke at the International Herpetological Symposium. In addition to all of these accomplishments, he has been published in five magazines that are read internationally.

The show Wild Recon is exceptionally entertaining. After just watching a couple of episodes, I have seen him work with venomous cobras, sting rays, sea turtles, and howler monkeys. Just a couple of weeks ago, he traveled to Las Vegas and sat in a glass enclosure for 10 days with some of the world's most venomous snakes (100 total snakes to be exact). I remember watching it live on Fox 5 News a couple of weeks ago and thinking- who is this guy? Now that I know he is the host of Wild Recon and a reptile professional, I know he was not just some nutcase in a glass box with venomous snakes (OK, he is still crazy as heck!). Believe it or not, the enclosure was only 16' by 20'!

So far I am impressed with what the show has had to offer. Herpetology seems to be a dangerous yet very interesting profession. Tune in to Animal Planet on Tuesdays at 9 PM for brand new episodes. To visit the Wild Recon page on Animal Planet, click here.

Sources:

"Man Living With Snakes on Vegas Strip," Fox 5 News.

Animal Planet, http://animal.discovery.com/tv/wild-recon/donald-schultz/