The Future Is Wild

The Future Is Wild was a 2003 joint Animal Planet/ORF (Austria) and ZDF (Germany) co-production, which used computer-generated imagery to show the possible future of life on Earth. The seven-part television series was released with a companion book written by geologist Dougal Dixon, author of several "anthropologies/zoologies of the future" such as After Man: A Zoology of the Future, in conjunction with natural history television producer John Adams.

Based on research and interviews with dozens of scientists, this documentary was put together to show how life could evolve in the future if Homo sapiens became extinct; the Discovery Channel broadcast softened the harsh outlook by stating the human race had completely migrated from the Earth and had sent back probes to examine the progress of life on Earth. The show was played out in the form of a nature documentary. For a time in 2005, a theme park based on this program was opened in Japan.

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Ecosystems

Twelve ecosystems were chosen at three points in time:-

5 million years' time

The world is in an ice age and there are giant seabirds and carnivorous bats. The ice sheets extended to as far south as Paris in the northern hemisphere and as far north as Buenos Aires in the southern hemisphere. The Amazon Rainforests dried up and opened into grasslands. The North American plains shrivelled to become cold desert. Africa collided with Europe and closed off the Mediterranean Sea again. With no water to replace it in the dry climate, the Mediterranean dried out into a giant salt flat dotted with brine lakes, as it has been in the past. Most of Europe became frozen tundra.

Denizens

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 frill.

Deathgleaner, a giant carnivorous bat.

Gannetwhale, a seal-like seabird, descended from the present-day gannet.

Gryken, a slender terrestrial mustelid, descended from the present-day pine marten.

Rattleback, an armoured rodent, descended from the present-day paca.

Desert Rattleback, related to the rattleback.

Scrofa, a rock-dwelling boar.

Shagrat, a giant marmot which lives in herds and migrates with the seasons in northern Europe.

Snowstalker, a giant saber-toothed wolverine.

Spink, a small burrowing bird, descended from the present-day quail.

100 million years' time

The world is very hot, octopuses have come onto land, and there are enormous tortoises. Much of the land is flooded by shallow seas. The surrounding land has become brackish swamps. Antarctica has drifted towards the tropics, and once again it 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.

Denizens

Falconfly, a giant predatory wasp.

Grass Tree, a species of plant in the Great Plateau that is harvested by Silver Spiders to feed the Poggles.

Great Blue Windrunner, a giant four-winged bird: its legs have flight feathers on and can act as gliding surfaces.

Lurkfish, a giant big-mouthed electric fish.

Ocean Phantom, a giant jellyfish.

Poggle, the last mammal.

Reef Glider, a swimming sea slug.

Roachcutter, a swift jungle bird.

Silver Spider, a large colonial spider.

Spindle Trooper, a giant sea spider. They live in Ocean Phantoms, which they defend against enemies.

Spitfire Bird, a species of flutterbird which spits corrosive liquid.

False Spitfire Bird, a species of bird that resembles the Spitfire Bird, but is harmless.

Spitfire Beetle, a cooperative predatory beetle which preys on Spitfire Birds.

Spitfire Tree, a flowering tree that makes two chemicals collected by the Spitfire Birds, which in the process pollinates the tree.

Swampus, a terrestrial octopus.

Toraton, a giant tortoise, grows to 120 tons.

200 million years' time

The world is recovering from a mass extinction caused by a flood basalt eruption almost as large in size 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 into one another and fused into a single supercontinent, a second Pangaea. Unlike the cephalopods of 100 million years ago, such as the Swampus, which were amphibious, the cephalopods this day, such as the megasquid, no longer have to return to the water to live. At this time, mammals, reptiles, birds, and amphibians are all gone.

Denizens

Bumblebeetle, a flying insect which lives and breeds inside the carcasses of dead Flish.

Deathbottle, a carnivorous plant, residing in the Rainshadow Desert.

Desert Hopper, a hopping snail with a modified single foot.

Forest Flish, a bird-like fish that no longer lives in the oceans, but instead flies like birds.

Flish, another type of Flish that relies on the ocean more than the Forest Flish.

Garden Worm, an algae-filled worm that feeds only on sunlight.

Megasquid, an elephant-sized omnivorous terrestrial squid. Its 8 arms have evolved into walking legs like an elephant's. It uses its two long tentacles for feeding.

Rainbow squid, a giant chameleonic squid.

Sharkopath, a bioluminescent pack-hunting shark.

Silverswimmer, fish-sized neotenous crustaceans.

Slickribbon, a cave-dwelling predatory worm.

Slithersucker, a giant slime mold.

Squibbon, a terrestrial tree-swinging squid. Relatively intelligent; the likeliest ancestor for future sapient life.

Terabyte, a colonial termite that has become highly specialized.

Gloomworm, a primitive bacteria-eating worm.

Episode List

Although there are presumably many thousands of different species around at each point in the future, each episode generally focuses on just one food chain.

1. Welcome to the Future (a brief summary of the coming episodes)
2. Return of the Ice (5 million years time, in the new 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 existed)
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, in an area that was once Tibet)
10. The Endless Desert (200 million years time, in the vast desert of central Pangaea)
11. The Global Ocean (200 million years time, in, the ocean of the world)
12. Graveyard Desert (200 million years time, in a rainshadow desert)
13. The Tentacled Forest (200 million years time, in the rainforest)

DVD product information

The series was released on three DVDs. The first DVD in the series includes episodes 1-5, the second includes episodes 6-9, and the third includes episodes 10-13. The three DVDs have also been released together as a set.

Both the DVD singles and the 3-DVD set are available for DVD regions one and two. Although the singles are available for region four, the 3-DVD set is not. Magna Pacific, the company contracted to market the Future is Wild series to Australasia, originally planned to release the 3-DVD set in May. When asked in December 2005, the Executive Director of Magna Pacific stated, "We have this scheduled for a May release." However, when asked again in August 2006, the National Marketing Manager of Magna Pacific announced, "Unfortunately the 3-DVD set of Future is Wild has been withdrawn from release, the singles will continue to be available but plans for the release of the 3-DVD set have been placed on hold with no future date set at this stage."

Scientists

Scientists involved in the project

• R McNeill Alexander, zoologist
• Leticia Aviles, evolutionary biologist
• Phillip Currie, paleontologist and paleoornithologist (the study of prehistoric birds)
• Dougal Dixon, geologist
• Richard Fortey, paleontologist
• William Gilly, cell biologist, developmental biologist, and marine biologist
• Stephen Harris, mammalogist
• Kurt M. Kotrschal, zoologist
• Mike Linley, herpetologist
• Roy Livermore, palaeogeographer
• R. McNeill Alexander, specialist in biomechanics
• Karl J. Niklas, botanist
• Stephen Palumbi, marine biologist
• Jeremy Rayner, zoologist
• Stephen Sparks, geologist
• Bruce H. Tiffney, palaeobotanist
• Paul Valdes, paleoclimatologist

Children's Series

Teletoon made an animated children's version of the show. It airs in Canada on Teletoon and in the US on Discovery Kids. It features four teenagers (CG, Luis, Emily and Ethan) who study the future of the earth to find a new habitat for humanity, while learning about the futuristic creatures who inhabit it. The cartoon is made in CGI animation and is set for 26 episodes. The cartoon was developed by Nelvana Animation, and was directed by Mike Fallows. Characters and creatures were designed by Brett Jubinville.

Episode list

1. Electric Fisherman: The crew must lure and use a lurkfish to jump start the time flyer or get stuck in the Bengal swamp, 100 million years in the future.
2. Extreme Bird Watching: Ethan goes alone bird watching in an Antarctic rain forest, which has horrific consequences.
3. Sky High Anxiety: CG tries to launch a weather station 100 million years in the future, but a great blue windrunner crashes into it and now they must find a way to take care of both her and her chicks.
4. Toratonnage: While the crew's time flyer is stuck in mud, Luis stays to try to fix it while the rest of them investigate an unusual heat source.
5. Think Big: The crew accidentally knock a Toraton mom on her back and Luis becomes a de-facto parent to a pair of Toraton infants.
6. Squibbon See, Squibbon Do: While the crew is in the Bengal swamp 100 million years in the future, the always playful Squibbon runs off with the telecommunicator key which is the only way CG can communicate with her father.
7. A Poggle's Not a Pet...Yet: Emily attempts to do some girl bonding with CG in the Great Plateau 100 million years in the future, but they wind up in a situation where they're really going to be closer than ever.
8. Phantom Fear: Ethan must confront his claustrophobia and CG her arachnophobia when the Time Flyer becomes stuck underwater and the crew has to deal with an Ocean Phantom's tentacles and hungry reef gliders.

See also

• List of The Future Is Wild species
• Future Evolution
• Human extinction