National Wildlife Federation launches animated preschool nature series

March 5, 2010 by Kate Calder

The US National Wildlife Federation’s (NWF) first-ever preschool TV series, Wild Animal Baby Explorers, is bowing on US public television stations this fall.

Based on the NWF’s preschool magazine, Wild Animal Baby, the debut season features 26 x half-hour episodes produced by NWF and Xing Xing Digital Corp. The all-new show is presented by WETA in Washington, D.C. and stars 3D animated characters combined with HD live-action footage.

NWF is the largest conservation organization in the US with more than 4 million members and supporters, and has been focused on educating kids about wildlife and wild places for over 50 years with magazines as Ranger Rick, Your Big Backyard and Wild Animal Baby. NWF’s mission is to inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future.

Every episode of Wild Animal Baby Explorers takes kids on an interactive adventure. The show features five engaging wildlife characters including Benita the beaver, Skip the rabbit, Izzy the owl, Sammy the skunk and Miss Sally the salamander. Additionally, the eps include the visual thoughts of the characters, which often portray a child’s literal and often humorous thought process. Together, the explorers travel far and wide, by land and by sea, to enable viewers to soar with eagles, dive with dolphins, bellyflop on ice with penguins, swing on vines with kinkajous, and greet the sun with sunflowers.

The series is an expansion of the highly successful DVD initiative NWF launched in 2006 under the Wild Animal Baby name, which has sold more than 250,000 units to date.