Natural World: Moose on the Loose

Wednesday, 9pm
1.9 million, 8.3% Audience Share

RadioTimes:

From the episode title - Moose on the Loose - this looks like a film about moose but it isn't, quite. Don't worry, though: there's everything from gangly legged calves to great big horny bulls, filmed wandering about and getting into scrapes in the suburbs of Anchorage, Alaska's capital. And that's the real story: in Anchorage, there's an experiment going on to see if people and wildlife can coexist. The city's rubbish bins and trees attract not just moose but any number of black and brown bears. Affable biologists Rick Sinnott and Jessy Coltrane do their best to keep the wandering wildlife from killing itself or humans - not an easy task. Watching them trying to manhandle panicky moose has an enjoyably slapstick feel.

There's more incidental comedy, too, including one moose caught up in a necklace of Christmas fairy lights and another whose amorous impulses are hopelessly misdirected. And there's clever use of music throughout: who'd have thought 70s funksters like Maceo and the Macks would work so well on a natural-history film? RT reviewer - David Butcher