Part 1

Animal Planet's favorite son is back traveling the globe in search of the world's most exciting animals. Each show sees Jeff explore a different element of animal life; smell, weapons, sound and speed are just a few of the subjects Jeff's ready to get his teeth into. In every case Jeff's prepared to search out the creatures that take these traits to the limit. The new series combine's the best of Jeff Corwin's on-screen style with beautifully crafted blue chip natural history sequences; specially-shot footage that reveals the biology and behavior of an incredible array of beasts.

Once again, SCUBAZOO were contracted by Tigress Productions as location/production managers for the sequences shot in Sabah, setting up and running all the logistics for this incredible shoot. From the jungles of Sepilok, to the tiny village of Lok Malom on Gaya Island, Matthew Oldfield travelled with the crew for two weeks during October. And for the first time, SCUBAZOO were hired as HD camera operators, filming the grand finale on Gaya - read on to discovery just what this entailed!

Tigress Productions is one of Britain’s best known specialist producers of wildlife, science, and adventure documentary programming. The company produces a range of series and specials for most major UK and international broadcasters. Tigress has won numerous prestigious awards for its programmes since it was founded in 1991 as a joint venture with Tiger Aspect Productions.

The company is probably best known for its highly acclaimed celebrity wildlife series, ‘In the Wild’ which it produces for ITV/BBC/C5/WNET. These award winning programmes, including such Hollywood stars as Julia Roberts, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Goldie Hawn, Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, John Cleese, Whoopi Goldberg, Meg Ryan and many more, have been seen in more than 130 countries.

Jeff's Sabah journey began at Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre near Sandakan, to film a sequence on locomotion - more specifically, to discover just what Orangutans have that makes them so good at travelling through the forest canopy. Using a system of ropes, Jeff was hoisted up into the canopy of Sepilok's rainforest to get face-to-face with the Orangutans and demonstrate how hard it really is to swimg through the trees.

The next stop for the crew was Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, again near Sandakan. Groups of these unique monkeys can be seen at close range around the sanctuary, and the plan was to shoot Jeff as he revealed the secrets of the monkey's unusual diet, as well as how other animals survive in the mangrove swamps of Borneo - giant mudskippers and elephant trunk snakes were shot in the thick mud of Labuk Bay!

The finale of the two week shoot was at the village of Lok Malom on Pulau Gaya, close to Kota Kinabalu. Here Jeff learns of a large reticulated python trapped in a chicken coop and after capturing the animal, demonstrates to the children of the village that despite their fearsome size, pythons are remarkably beautiful animals.

As well as acting as fixers, SCUBAZOO were hired as underwater HiDef cameramen to shoot what was to be THE most dramatic sequence of the entire Sabah shoot. Read on to hear Jason Isley's account here...