Chasing Wildlife From Above

 

By Dan Rice

July 1, 2008

Anybody over 35 probably remembers a show that aired on broadcast television called “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” hosted by the late Marlin Perkins with his assistant Jim Fowler (the very same Jim Fowler who appears on TODAY).  It apparently is still on the air, now on Animal Planet but I have not seen this version.  After the last couple of days, I feel like we should start our own show, “Chopper 4’s Wild Kingdom.”

 

Recently, we were watching a bear cub in Totowa. Then, soon afterward, several bottle-nosed dolphins in the Navesink River.  TODAY had Amy Robach in Sea Bright talking about the wayward dolphins.  They asked if we could show the lost mammals during her report.  Of course the station said yes.  Normally I hate doing assignments like these.  The Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers aren’t exactly small and trying to find a dolphin or two from 1,500 feet in those large waterways is much harder than it sounds.  However, with a little guidance from Amy on the ground and the sharp eyes of my pilot, Lars, we found them. (If you know the old “Wild Kingdom,” then you might know that one of the jokes about the series was that Perkins and Fowler would go deep into the heart of an African jungle or desert where dangerous animals roamed.  Then, Perkins would send Fowler to get up close to the lion while he stayed in the Jeep to narrate and be the expert.  Sometimes I feel like the Perkins to Lars’s Fowler!)

 

Getting back to the dolphins, I started to get excited that we had found a couple of them.  As we watched I began to realize that there were more than just a few.  I have to admit that it was fun watching them swim and frolic.  Almost on cue, when Amy and the gentleman she was interviewing, spoke of the boaters needing to slow down, a boat came speeding up the river and the dolphins disappeared until the wake subsided.  When they resurfaced, there seemed to be even more dolphins.  It was quite fun to watch.  If we did not have to refuel we would have stayed longer.

 

Be sure to tune in later when Jim Fowler and I…….I mean Lars and I, go looking for more wildlife around the tri-state area!

 

June 30, 2008

It was Tuesday, May 9, 2006.  My pilot, Lars, and I were told to go to Livingston because somebody had spotted a bear in their backyard.  We arrived around 6:30am and I started to do a report about the bear sighting.  As I was about to wrap it up, Lars told me over the headset that the bear was in the video.  As I zoomed in, we followed the bear through several backyards until he disappeared.  We looked for another 30 minutes or so but he never came out.

 

Fast forward to last week.  As we took off, we were told to go Hobart Place in Totowa for a bear that was seen in a backyard.  We arrived shortly after 6am.  I started to look at the streets and a couple of police cars as Lars circled the neighborhood.  We were in the first commercial break of the 6 a.m. hour when, by luck, I saw the bear cub walking though a back yard.  Before I could tell Lars where it was, Kevin (Ford, the Assistant Director) told me we going live right out of the commercial break.  That is when we showed you the cub going through several back yards, climbing fences, looking for cover to hide.  We followed it for several blocks before he disappeared into a wooded area off of Chamberlain and Hudson.  We looked for another 45 minutes but he never came out.

 

Watching this bear reminded me of the time I had a bear in my backyard.  It was the summer of 2006 and we had just come home from a day with Jim Smith’s family.  When we pulled into the driveway I saw what looked like a large dog in our trash, behind a bush.  I started to walk closer to it and realized it was a young bear, possibly a yearling.   My wife called the local police while I went into the house and grabbed the video camera.  The officer used a bean bag shell to scare the bear and followed with a concussion shot to help condition it to not come back. It seemed to have worked!

 

As we continue to develop more and more of New Jersey, bears like the one we saw are going to be forced to roam into our backyards.  Where else do they have to go?  I live in the Northwest part of New Jersey where there are plenty of woods.  It is not all that out of place to see a bear.  We should not see them in the more populated areas like Livingston and Totowa.  Just a sign of the times. 

 

As always, you can post your comments below or e-mail at chopper4@nbcuni.com