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The Future Is Wild

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For the animated TV series, see The Future is Wild (TV series).
"FIW" redirects here. For Feature Interaction Workshops, see Feature interaction problem. For Family interference with work, see Work-family conflict.
The Future Is Wild
Genredocumentary, speculative science
StarringSee Scientists below
Country of originTemplate:TVUK
No. of episodes13 (list of episodes)
Production
ProducerJo Adams Television
Running time20–25 minutes
Original release
NetworkAnimal Planet
Discovery Channel
BBC[1]
(2007-present)
ReleaseApril 2 (2002-04-02) –
June 25, 2002 (2002-06-25)

The Future Is Wild (often shortened to F.I.W.) was a 2002 thirteen-part documentary television miniseries. Based on research and interviews with several scientists, the miniseries shows how life could evolve in the future if Homo sapiens became extinct. The version broadcast on the Discovery Channel modified this premise, supposing instead that the human race had completely abandoned the Earth and had sent back probes to examine the progress of life on the planet. The show took the form of a nature documentary.

The miniseries was released with a companion book written by geologist Dougal Dixon, the author of several "anthropologies and zoologies of the future" (such as After Man: A Zoology of the Future), in conjunction with natural history television producer John Adams. For a time in 2005, a theme park based on this program was opened in Japan. In 2008 a special on the Discovery Channel about the development of the video game Spore was combined with airings of The Future Is Wild.

A film version of the series was picked up by Warner Bros.[2]

Ecosystems

Twelve ecosystems were presented, four in each of three future periods.

5 million years' time

The early episodes describe a world after an ice age, when giant seabirds roam the beaches and carnivorous bats rule the skies. Ice sheets extend as far south as Paris in the northern hemisphere and as far north as Buenos Aires in the southern hemisphere. The Amazon rainforest has dried up and become grassland. The North American plains have become cold desert, and Africa has collided with Europe, enclosing the Mediterranean Sea. Without water to replace it in the dry climate, the Mediterranean has dried out into a salt flat dotted with brine lakes, as it has been in the past. Most of Europe is frozen tundra. The part of Africa east of the African Rift Valley has broken away from the rest of the continent. Asia has dried up and is now mountainous. The once warm, tropical area of Central America has been transformed into a dry area . Australia has moved north and collided with eastern Indonesia.

Profiled species
Hypothesized species
  • Babookari, a ground-living New World monkey descended from the present-day Uakari;
  • Carakiller, a giant, flightless bird of prey, descended from the present-day Caracara;
  • Cryptile, a frilled lizard that inhabits salt flats and has a sticky neck frill for catching flies;
  • Deathgleaner, a giant, carnivorous bat;
  • Gannetwhale, a large, flightless, seal-like seabird descended from the present-day gannet;
  • Rattleback, an armoured, turtle-like rodent descended from the present-day Agouti; there are two species, one in the southern grasslands, the other in the northern deserts;
  • Gryken, a slender terrestrial mustelid descended from the present-day pine marten;
  • Scrofa, a long-legged, rock-dwelling descendant of the wild boar;
  • Shagrat, a giant, capybara-like rodent which lives in herds and migrates with the seasons in northern Europe; descended from the present-day marmot;
  • Snowstalker, a large, white, saber-toothed mustelid, descended from the present-day wolverine;
  • Spink, a small, mole-like, burrowing bird, descended from the present-day quail.

100 million years' time

In the scenario for 100 million years in the future, the world is much hotter than at present. Octopuses and enormous tortoises have come on to the land, much of which is flooded by shallow seas surrounded by brackish swamps. Antarctica has drifted towards the tropics and is covered with trees, as it was 300 million years before. Australia has collided with North America and Asia, forcing up an enormous, 10-kilometre-high mountain plateau taller than the modern Himalayas. Greenland has been reduced to a small, temperate island. There are cold, deep ocean trenches. The Sahara has once again become the rich grassland it was millions of years ago.

Hypothesized species
  • Falconfly, a giant predatory wasp descended from the sand wasp;
  • Faunsa, a giant creodont-like cynodont descended from the thrinraxodon;
  • Grass Tree, a plant species of the Great Plateau, harvested by Silver Spiders to feed the Poggles; descended from bamboo;
  • Great Blue Windrunner, a giant, blue, four-winged bird whose legs have flight feathers that can act as gliding surfaces; it is descended from the present-day crane;
  • Lurkfish, a giant, big-mouthed, electric fish descended from the electric catfish;
  • Ocean Phantom, a giant descendant of the Portuguese man o' war;
  • Parpa, a giraffe-like lizard descended from Red-headed agama;
  • Poggle, the last mammal, living inside mountains;
  • Reef Glider, a giant, swimming sea slug;
  • Roachcutter, a swift species of Flutterbird;
  • Silver Spider, a large colonial spider;
  • Spikeback, a small mosasaur that hunts insects;
  • Spindle Trooper, a giant sea spider that lives in Ocean Phantoms, which they defend against enemies;
  • Spitfire Bird, a species of Flutterbird that shoots acidic flower nectar from its nostrils as a defence;
  • False Spitfire Bird, a Flutterbird species that mimics the Spitfire Bird to frighten such predators as the Falconfly;
  • Spitfire Beetle, a cooperative, predatory beetle that preys on Spitfire Birds;
  • Spitfire Tree, a flowering tree that makes two chemicals collected by Spitfire Birds, which pollinate the tree in the process;
  • Swampus, a semi-terrestrial, brackish swamp-dwelling octopus;
  • Toraton, a giant tortoise that grows to 120 tons.

200 million years' time

File:Pangaea Ultimania.JPG
Map of a hypothetical future Earth ~200 million years hence

The hypothetical world of 200 million years from now is recovering from a mass extinction caused by a flood basalt eruption almost as large as the one that created the Siberian Traps. Fish have taken to the skies, squid to the forests, and the world's largest-ever desert is filled with strange worms and insects. All the continents have collided with one another and fused into a single supercontinent, a second Pangaea. One large global ocean with a single-current system gives rise to deadly hurricanes called hypercanes, which batter the coastlines of the continent all year long. The northwestern side of Pangaea II, drenched with an endless supply of rain, has become a temperate forest. Mountains resting at the end of the coast prevent most of the rain's moisture from reaching a long line of scrubby rainshadow deserts. The very center of the continent receives no rain at all and has become barren, plantless desert. All tetrapods are extinct, leaving fish, insects, worms and mollusks to populate the Earth.

Hypothesized species
  • Bumblebeetle, a fast-flying beetle that lives and breeds inside the carcasses of dead Ocean Flish;
  • Deathbottle, a carnivorous plant living in the Rainshadow Desert;
  • Desert Hopper, a hopping snail with a modified single foot;
  • Forest Flish, a small, forest-dwelling, hummingbird-like fish that no longer lives in the oceans but instead flies like a bird (Flish being a portmanteau of flying and fish);
  • Ocean Flish, another type of Flish which relies on the ocean more than does the Forest Flish;
  • Garden Worm, an algae-filled worm that feeds only on sunlight;
  • Megasquid, a 5-meter-high, 8-ton, omnivorous, terrestrial squid; its eight arms have evolved into walking legs like an elephant's; it uses its two long tentacles for feeding;
  • Rainbow squid, a 25-meter-long, gentle, ocean-going squid;
  • Sharkopath, a bioluminescent shark that hunts in packs;
  • Silverswimmer, fish-sized neotenous Crustaceans;
  • Slickribbon, a cave-dwelling, 1-meter-long, predatory worm with a striking resemblance to the Opabinia of the early Cambrian;
  • Slithersucker, a large, predatory slime mold;
  • Squibbon, a terrestrial squid that swings from tree branches; it is relatively intelligent and the likeliest ancestor for future sapient life;
  • Terabyte, a highly specialized colonial descendant of termites;
  • Gloomworm, a primitive-looking, bacteria-eating worm.

Episodes

Main article: List of The Future Is Wild episodes

Each episode generally focuses on just one food chain within a particular ecosystem.

  1. "Welcome to the Future" (a summary of the coming episodes);
  2. "Return of the Ice" (5 million years' time, in the newly frozen wastes of Europe);
  3. "The Vanished Sea" (5 million years' time, in the Mediterranean salt desert);
  4. "Prairies of Amazonia" (5 million years' time, in the grasslands where the Amazon rainforest once was);
  5. "Cold Kansas Desert" (5 million years' time, in North America);
  6. "Waterland" (100 million years' time, in the swamps of Bengal);
  7. "Flooded World" (100 million years' time, in the shallow seas);
  8. "Tropical Antarctica" (100 million years' time, in an Antarctica which is now on the equator);
  9. "The Great Plateau" (100 million years' time, at the spot where Asia, North America and Australia have collided);
  10. "The Endless Desert" (200 million years' time, in the vast desert of central Pangaea II);
  11. "The Global Ocean" (200 million years' time, in the world's ocean);
  12. "Graveyard Desert" (200 million years' time, in a rainshadow desert);
  13. "The Tentacled Forest" (200 million years' time, in the rainforest);
  14. "The Future Is Wild and the Making of Spore" (a special on the Discovery Channel about the development of the video game Spore was combined with airings of The Future is Wild; made and broadcast 6 years later).

Production

The Future is Wild is a £5-million co-production of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Franco-German channel Arte, the German ZDF, the Austrian ORF, the Italian Mediaset, and Animal Planet and Discovery Channels Inc of the United States.[3]

The BBC intended that the miniseries would repeat the success it had with its prehistoric documentary series Walking With Dinosaurs, which attracted 17 million viewers in 1999. The program[which?] used computer-generated imagery to show the possible future of life on Earth. The 13-part series was produced in four years by independent producer John Adams, who conceptualised it in 1997.[1]

Scientists involved

Scientists involved in the project include the following:

Distribution

The Future is Wild doubled the previous ratings record for the Animal Planet channel when it was aired in the United States. The series was shown on BBC2 in autumn 2004.[1]

ZDF Enterprises sold the television rights of the series to 18 markets: Belgium, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Middle East, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia and Venezuela.[3]

Merchandise

DVD release

The series was released on three DVDs: episodes 1–5, episodes 6–9 and episodes 10–13. The three DVDs have also been released together as a set. Both the single DVDs and the three-DVD set are available for DVD regions one and two. Although the singles are available for region four, the three-DVD set is not. Magna Pacific, the company contracted to market the Future is Wild series in Australasia, originally planned to release the three-DVD set in May 2006. When asked[by whom?] in December 2005, the Executive Director of Magna Pacific said, "We have this scheduled for a May release",[citation needed] but when asked in August 2006, their National Marketing Manager said, "Unfortunately the 3-DVD set of Future is Wild has been withdrawn from release, but the singles will continue to be available, yet plans for the release of the 3-DVD set have been placed on hold with no future date set at this stage."[citation needed]

CD-ROM

An educational CD-ROM entitled The Future Is Wild was produced by Sherston Software in 2006. It is designed to fit in with international school curricula for science, mathematics, geography and history.

Book

A book version was released in 2003, published by Firefly Books.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Byrne, Ciar (30 March 2004). "Fish in trees and elephant-sized squid - the future as seen on TV". The Independent. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
  2. ^ Tezer, Adnan (2 October 2009). "Warner sees the 'Future'". Monsters and Critics. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
  3. ^ a b Mainz (26 November 2003). "The Future is Wild is ZDF Enterprises' bestselling documentary in 2003". ZDF Enterprises. Retrieved 19 October 2011.

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Future_Is_Wild&oldid=502904570"