'Born to be Wild' kicks off 2013 with Sumatran Tigers & Komodo Dragons

BORN TO BE WILD kicks off 2013 with Sumatran Tigers and the legendary Komodo Dragon.  

Catch BORN TO BE WILD: INDONESIA all Wednesdays of the month, beginning January 9!  

Komodo Kingdom   

Indonesia’s famous Komodo Dragon. A Komodo can grow much larger than the average human.  

They are legendary beings—dragons that can grow bigger than humans, ancient creatures that have roamed the earth for ages. In a remote island in Indonesia, Doc Nielsen Donato comes face to face with the largest lizard on the planet – the Komodo Dragon. For a reptile lover like Doc Nielsen, a Komodo encounter is a dream come true. But Komodos are also known predators. Their saliva, said to contain thirteen kinds of bacteria, can be deadly for any bite victim.  But Doc Nielsen takes on the challenge to meet this creature and finds out why they are called the king of all lizards.   

Sumatra’s last man-eater  

Eye of the tiger, Sumatra Indonesia. Doc Ferds Recio with a baby leopard in Indonesia.  

Doc Ferds Recio travels to the island of Sumatra in Indonesia to look for what villagers call “the man-eater”.  This animal, according to locals, kills and eats humans in their community.  In 2010, a nineteen-year old girl working in a palm oil plantation was attacked and killed by the man-eater.  To uncover the mystery, Doc Ferds visits Riau Province in Sumatra.  It is here that he discovers that the so-called “man-eater” is the critically endangered Sumatran Tiger.  The Sumatran Tiger is the last species of endemic tigers in Indonesia.  The Javan Tiger and the Bali Tiger are now extinct.  But conservationists in the island believe that there is still hope, even for the fearsome tigers.  As the tension between human safety and species survival grows, Doc Ferds joins the team of experts to confirm if tiger cubs are still being born in the wild and whether these wild beasts stand a chance in an ever-growing human world.  

Join the Docs in their epic journey to the largest archipelago in the world. Born to be Wild: INDONESIA airs this Wednesday after Saksi!