Saving Planet Earth
Wednesday 20 June 2007
Watch out for Saving Planet Earth, the latest BBC series supporting animal conservation. The first documentary in the series will feature ZSL’s gorilla and ecotourism project in Gabon with celebrity Will Young, and will be shown on Monday 25th June at 7pm on BBC One.
The fundraising spectacular is a star studded tribute to the vital work conducted by ZSL and other conservation groups in protecting the wildlife of the world.
Nine celebrities each introduced a special programme on one of the world’s most threatened animals. The singer Will Young was the champion of the gorilla, ZSL’s featured creature. Viewers then phoned in to pledge sums for each animal’s future conservation. As part of his introduction to the world of gorilla conservation, Will spent time at the Mikongo Conservation Centre in Gabon, where ZSL scientists work with local people to study gorillas in the wild.
To see the gorillas, Will had to track them. ‘The sounds of the forest are very similar to a piece of music, because there are so many different elements’ he says. ‘It’s like building up a music track; you bring in different instruments and it’s just the same in the forest.’
