Previewing Destination Wild

In a measure of full disclousure I should mention that I have never actually played Angry Birds. I think I got the Star Wars edition when some site offered it for free but never got around to tranfering it to a mobile devise let alone play it yet. But I understand that the mobile game is a cultural phenomanon. It is even getting its own tie in special on Nat Geo Wild this Sunday with the appropriately titled Real Angry Bird. And these birds more than live up to their title with the birds going wild on other animals and even some bird on bird action like one species who go one on one with what look like a female cheering them on like someone is filming a white trash family reunion. And in a rarity on these animal specials, us human beings get featured as a target o some aerial assults.

Real Angry Birds is part of a twelve week Destination Wild branded events all starting Sundays at 9:00. Here is a full down of what is airing this summer:

Real Angry Birds
Premieres Sunday, July 12, 9/8c
“Angry Birds” is an addictive game, but are there real angry birds out there? What happens when they stop being polite and start getting mad? For the aviary set, every day is a battle to survive, find food and shelter, and stay out of harm’s way. Tune in for a bird’s-eye view of our feathered friends’ fights, singing battles and dance-offs.

The Eagles
Premieres Sunday, July 12, 10/9c
Eagles are top predators that battle fiercely for survival and diligently raise their young. This eagle clan has 60 members, united by their acute eyesight, powerful wings, sharp talons and hooked beaks. We follow one eagle from hatchling to home ownership. Her fight to survive shows what it takes to be queen of the sky. In the words of another reality diva: “It’s Gone With the Wind fabulous.”

Brazil
Premieres Sunday, July 19, 9/8c (two hours)
From the rolling mountains and luscious rain forests to the scorching desert and the iconic Amazon River, meet the extreme wildlife of Brazil. And we’re not talking about an episode of “Botched.” We’re talking giant anteaters, venomous snakes, capuchin monkeys, dolphins, boa constrictors and many more.

Clever Monkeys
Premieres Sunday, July 26, 10/9c
Narrated by natural history legend David Attenborough, Clever Monkeys opens our eyes to a world filled with intelligence, love, sadness, empathy, language, lying, social manipulation, stress and humor more touching than anything you might see on Bravo! Scientists around the world are listening to monkey calls and finding language with grammar. They have even discovered lying monkeys. Some monkeys suffer from depression, high blood pressure, ulcers and stress. Come along to a monkey world that looks strikingly similar to ours.

Kings of Baja
Premieres Sunday, Aug. 2, 10/9c
There are few places on Earth more forbidding and beautiful than Baja, Mexico. That said, Laguna Beach came close in its reality heyday. Eight hundred miles long and 10 million years in the making, Baja is home to a punishing desert and the most diverse sea on the planet. Kings of Baja showcases the unique evolutionary adaptations of the flora and mega fauna to survive in their slice of the ecosystem including sea lions, devil rays, great white sharks, hammerheads, giant mantas, whale sharks and gray whales.

Fur Seal Battleground
Premieres Sunday, Aug. 9, 9/8c
If you’re looking for the ultimate survival reality show, you won’t want to miss the adventures of Ruby and Oliver, two New Zealand fur seal pups struggling to learn the secret to staying alive. From the very start, they must stay out of the way of testosterone-charged bulls so they aren’t trampled to death. Every few days the pups are left to themselves while their mothers go off to feed. Only half of all fur seal pups survive the first year of life, so these pups must learn fast if they want to beat the odds.

Lemur Island
Premieres Sunday, Aug. 9, 10/9c
Millions of years ago, hundreds of castaway creatures crash-landed on Madagascar’s rugged shores. Isolated from the mainland, evolution went into overdrive. Of the tens of thousands of species found on the island, approximately 80 percent are unique. This myriad of bizarre life forms had a huge impact on the early human settlers — lemurs in particular shaped their culture, fueling folklore and legend that still guide their lives today. Legend has it that early reality sensation Puck is descended from a lemur.

The Kangaroo King
Premieres Sunday, Aug. 16, 10/9c
The scorching interior of the world’s oldest continent is home to the toughest kangaroo on the planet, the mighty Red. You won’t want to miss extremely rare footage of a red kangaroo birth and specialized in-pouch cameras that capture an intimate portrait of Red’s development. We are also introduced to the kangaroo’s formidable neighbors through close encounters with wedge-tailed eagles, dingoes, venomous snakes and giant monitor lizards. This is a story of survival against the odds and what it takes to endure drought, heat wave and bushfire.

Alpine Underworld
Premieres Sunday, Aug. 23, 8/7c
The Alps’ lofty mountain world is a holiday destination from January to December, but there is an unknown side to the picturesque vacation spot. Using the latest technology, our cameras summit lofty peaks and dive into ice-cold lakes to reveal zones of life and death. We’re talking real-world Life Below Zero here. The lakes’ abyss includes ghostly shipwrecks complete with ghastly residents, medieval trees felled by too much snow and fascinating sea life. High up on the mountaintops we meet the animals that breathe this rare air including lynx, the poisonous asp viper and the stone eagle. This alpine tour brings an entirely new perspective to one of Europe’s most fascinating landscapes.

Wild Spain
Premieres Sunday, Aug. 23, 9/8c
Arab emirs called it the Great River; today it is called the Guadalquivir and it flows for 400 miles from the Carzola mountain range in Spain to the Atlantic Ocean. Together with a lone fox, we embark on the ultimate reality road trip along the banks of the Guadalquivir, from the snow-covered summits to the seashore, enjoying the greatest biodiversity in Europe. The fox’s goal is safer ground, and on his way he meets a motley crew of animals including an Iberian lynx, golden eagle, spider crab, dragonflies and sturgeon. This spectacular variety of landscapes and fauna is a must-see.

Elephant Queen
Premieres Sunday, Aug. 30, 9/8c
After the tragic death of her daughter, the herd matriarch must lead her elephants to safety. This epic journey will take them across an arid desert, past mud swamps, a valley of dust storms and beyond the lion gatekeepers of a forbidden kingdom, into the herds’ ancient feeding grounds in the Okavango Delta. The route they will follow is an ancient one, etched in elephant memory that stitches waterhole to waterhole in an invisible map across the dry lands. However, if Mensah loses her way, her herd could all die of thirst, or worse.

Boteti
Premieres Sunday, Sept. 6, 10/9c
Twenty years of drought has turned the Boteti River into Botswana dust. The animals that live here endure hardship to stay alive and must adapt their behavior to survive. Herds of zebra fight over water, crocodiles dig tunnels to stay cool and elephants practice water conservation. Now for the first time in 30 years, rain has fallen, sending a stream of water through the riverbed. After years of extreme drought, the Boteti has returned in all its glory, transforming the landscape and bringing dramatic changes to the resident animals. It’s like when the contestants on “Survivor” get a food reward — buckle up for a wild ride.

DISNEYNATURE: WINGS OF LIFE Narrated by Meryl Streep (NETWORK TELEVISION PREMIERE)
Premieres Sunday, September Sept. 13, 8/7c (90 minutes)
WINGS OF LIFE is a stunning adventure full of intrigue, drama and mesmerizing beauty. Narrated by Academy Award® winner Meryl Streep, this intimate and unprecedented look at butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, bats and flowers is a celebration of life, as a third of the world’s food supply depends on these incredible — and increasingly threatened — creatures.

Behind Russia’s Frozen Curtain
Premieres Sunday, Sept. 20, 9/8c
Explore the stark landscape, frigid sea and wild animals in Franz Josef Land, one of the most remote and inhospitable places on Earth. National Geographic Pristine Seas Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala leads a group of scientists and adventurers on the first international scientific expedition to Franz Josef Land. His team will work with some of Russia’s most formidable biologists, geomorphologists and ornithologists to see how climate change is affecting this untouched world. Behind Russia’s Frozen Curtain is also featured in Sala’s new book, “Pristine Seas: Journeys to the Ocean’s Last Wild Places,” on sale Sept. 22.

Land of 10,000 Grizzlies
Premieres Sunday, Sept. 27, 8/7c
Russia’s Far East is a wild and isolated realm that was closed to outsiders by the Soviet military for most of the past hundred years, but wildlife was left to flourish. Compelled by the instinct to reproduce, millions of salmon journey to Russia’s remote Kamchatka Peninsula every summer, drawing some 10,000 grizzly bears to its shores. Talk about an “Amazing Race.” Journey with us to this harsh and beautiful terrain to find Northern fur seals, the artic fox and Steller’s sea eagle.