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A new documentary series looks at life behind the scenes at The Wild Center

logo from The Wild Center documentary "Wild Tales"
Image provided by The Wild Center
logo from The Wild Center documentary "Wild Tales"

The Wild Center in Tupper Lake is debuting a new documentary series chronicling the behind-the-scenes life of the animals living at the center and the staff who care for them.

“Wild Tales” takes a look at how animals like albino porcupine Bianca, Norris the woodchuck, river otter Scarlett or hundreds of fish live their lives at the Wild Center.

Wild Center Assistant Curator of Animal Care Chelsie Corcoran explains they had delved into digital programming during the pandemic and daily programs were popular. She says the animal care staff saw an opportunity to educate people about what’s done behind-the-scenes.

“There’s a lot of work behind the scenes and we wanted to bring people into our world for a glimpse of what we do every single day working with the animals here.”

Corcoran adds that their animal ambassadors are the stars of the six-part documentary series.

“We have about 60 different individual animals that we count as part of our ambassador animal collection. So these are the animals that are truly featured in Wild Tales. They come out for short periods to teach people but for most of our visitors, even people who have been members since we opened more than a decade ago, they don’t know what the rest of those animals’ days look like.”

The first episode introduces the Wild Center, and Corcoran says subsequent episodes focus more on the animals and the natural world.

“The following five episodes all have one kind of key story featuring one of our animal ambassadors that we really zoom in on each episode. And then throughout that whole series there’s also one larger story arc that features our North American river otter Scarlett that you’ll get peeks into that bigger story every single episode. So we talk about animal training. We talk about the husbandry, what it takes to care for these animals and even see some really cool medical procedures. So it’s truly everything that we do every single day but bringing folks along to join us on that.”

While Wild Tales features their animal ambassadors, the remaining resident critters aren’t ignored, according to Animal Care Department Biologist Nicole Morin.

“The otters, the owls, the turtles, the snakes, you name it, they’re going to be stars on the big screen. One of the following actually focuses on our fish as well so people can get an even greater appreciation for all the native species that we have here.”

Morin notes most people see the animals during public programs when staff bring out porcupines, owls, or other animals. She feels it’s important that the public understands the staff works to assure the highest quality of life for the animals.

“It’s a lot more than just creating diets and meals or picking up the poop and doing the fun educational programming. It’s also the emotional rigor of caring for 600-plus animals here at the Wild Center from fish to otters to turtles. And that journey and the growth that we have had as a staff I think is something that will be highlighted in this series and show our commitment and dedication not just to our wildlife ambassadors but to our conservation message as a whole in the Adirondacks.”

The first episode of Wild Tales will be released Saturday. The remaining installments will be released weekly on Thursdays on the Wild Center’s You Tube channel.

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