Your Job May Have You Swamped, but Every Man Holds His Own in the Wild

Nat Geo Wild Follows Professional Swamp Men Who Rescue, Relocate and Rehabilitate Wildlife Deep in Florida's Everglades

"This is part of the Everglades. This is a dangerous place.
If you ain't careful, you could get hurt real bad out here." — Ed Woods

In the Everglades' Big Cypress Swamp, more than 1,600 animals roam wild on thousands of acres in a park run by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Best described as controlled chaos, the Billie Swamp Safari offers visitors face-to-face encounters with ostriches, American bison, African elan, wild alligators, venomous snakes, wild hogs, raccoons and virtually every other animal found near the swamp. The goal is to immerse visitors in the wild, in accordance with the Seminoles' love of harmony with nature, but sometimes these close encounters can mean trouble for people and wildlife. It's up to the park's director, Ed Woods, and his tough team of self-described Swamp Men to patrol the land, relocate animals from dangerous situations and rescue animals in need.

Nat Geo WILD's new series Swamp Men rides along with Ed and his staff as they work to maintain safety at the Safari. They are considered among the best wild animal wranglers, and each day brings new tests of their skills with bears, alligators, wild hogs and panthers that inhabit the Everglades. Ed's dedicated staff includes Paul, expert alligator catcher; Cory, animal trapper; and newbies Matt, Lawrence and Shea. All share a passion for wildlife and a willingness to get down and dirty, as they face new swamp adventures every day.

Premiere episodes include
Swamp Men: Croc Escape
Monday, May 10, 2010, at 10 PM ET/PT
Houdini is a 9-foot-long Nile croc who earned his name from being a renegade on the loose for more than 12 years! Ed and his team head deep into the swamp in an all-out effort to catch this legendary escape artist. Their plan includes blocking his escape by building a fence along a canal bottom, even as they dodge rattlesnakes and a 700 pound bull gator. Then, Shea, Lawrence and Matt are finally initiated into the Swamp Men team — but not before spending the night alone in the swamp with only a knife and one other item each. Watch the boys learn from Ed as they build their own shelter and fire, and scavenge for "survival stew."

Swamp Men: Break-In Bear
Monday, May 17, 2010, at 10 PM ET/PT
The staff at Billie Swamp Safari is faced with the challenge of capturing a black bear threatening the food source for other animals in the reservation. When the bear doesn't fall for a bait of peanut butter and molasses, Ed has to up the ante to attract the hungry menace. Then a dangerous cold front means animal wranglers John and Hans must move tropical reptiles indoors, which is no easy feat with a monitor lizard that lashes out with formidable claws. Finally, the team must work together to relocate a herd of ornery American bison due to a population explosion.

Swamp Men: Panther Down
Monday, May 24, 2010, at 10 PM ET/PT
Ed gets an emergency call regarding one of the swamp's most endangered predators, the Florida panther. Field officers worry that the panther might be in distress from its radio collar, or may have died from a lethal encounter of another sort. Across the park, a barred owl has been hit by a car and rushed to the nearest clinic with multiple life-threatening injuries. Back at headquarters, the nuisance hogs are at it again — destroying property and vegetation, and gorging on animals' feed. Cory and the guys try to catch them, but instead find their traps attract a massive bison that wasn't part of the plan.

Swamp Men is produced by Spectrum Productions, Inc., for Nat Geo WILD. For Spectrum, executive producer and director is Guy Nickerson. For Nat Geo WILD, executive producer is Noah Morowitz; senior vice president, development and production, is Geoff Daniels.

About Billie Swamp Safari
Billie Swamp Safari is a wildlife park of the Seminole Tribe of Florida located on the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation in the heart of the Florida Everglades. It encompasses 2,200 untamed acres of Florida Everglades and offers airboat rides, swamp buggy eco-tours, animal and reptile shows and more. The staff cares for more than 1,500 native and exotic animals, from alligators, panthers, bison and venomous snakes to African elan, ostrich, nilgai and crocodiles. For more information, call 800-GO-SAFARI or 863-983-6101, or visit www.billieswampsafari.travel.

NAT GEO WILD
For more than 30 years, National Geographic has been the leader in wildlife programming. Now the animal kingdom is taking center stage on a brand-new network, Nat Geo WILD. Offering intimate encounters with nature’s ferocious fighters and gentle creatures of land, sea and air, Nat Geo WILD and Nat Geo WILD HD will draw upon the cutting-edge work of the many explorers, filmmakers and scientists who have long-standing relationships with the National Geographic Society. Nat Geo WILD is a joint venture between Fox Cable Networks (FCN) and National Geographic Ventures (NGV) ― the same partnership behind the National Geographic Channel (NGC), which launched January 2001 and has since been one the most successful new networks on the landscape. Nat Geo WILD launched globally more than three years ago and is the fastest growing channel among the international portfolio of National Geographic networks.