Wildest Dreams

Just recently me and Mr M have become hooked on the new BBC wild life programme 'Wildest Dreams', where Nick Knowles and James Honeybourne take nine contestants and try and turn them into wildlife film makers. We love it. Not only is it filmed in Africa, which in itself has the most breath taking scenery you could ever wish to see, you also get to see the most amazing wildlife in their natural habitat.

Every week the contestants are split into groups and given a specific animal to film and then whoever fails to gain the correct footage/behave appropriately is eliminated (think of it like a wildlife apprentice!) This week's task was to film under water and one of my favourite animals - the Dolphin. Not only had the contestants have to capture footage of the dolphins, they were also coached on approaching them in the correct manner and learning to pull out of filming if the dolphins became threatened in any way (unfortunately the dolphins were also a major tourist trap and the contestants were having to compete with the many vessels full of tourists trying to capture footage as well).

Which brings me quite nicely to my list and the fact it has been amended some what. For the eagle eyed readers I have now dropped 'swimming with dolphins' and replaced it with 'rescuing an animal from captivity'. When I really stopped and thought about it and actually read what damage this could do to the dolphin and also watched on this week's show the amount of over zealous tourists that were potentially harming the dolphins, my decision was made. Born Free are currently running a campaign challenge the European Dolphinaria industry - please visit their website to add your support.

I believe in the Born Free concept of 'wild animals should live in the wild'. I don't visit zoos for the simple fact I can't abide the fact that an animal is living behind bars purely to entertain humans and don't even get me started on the amount of animals that are kept inhumanly. So my task has been amended to convey my feelings and I look forward to reporting back to you, when I've managed to complete it. I will climb back down off my soap box now.