-Two-hour special premieres on Sunday, August 24 at 8 pm on Discovery Channel –
MAN, CHEETAH, WILD follows the true story of one extraordinary cheetah family, and the remarkable man who walked among them for a year and a half. A one-time game ranger with experience in the military, Kim Wolhuter is an Emmy Award-winning wildlife filmmaker who has an incredibly unique gift – the very special ability to befriend the animals of his native homeland, Zimbabwe. He connects with wild predators and dangerous animals in unbelievably amazing ways – living with them, drinking where they do, finding food on the move and running alongside them. Premiering Sunday, August 24 at 8 pm, MAN, CHEETAH, WILD is a two-hour special that documents Kim’s unbelievable relationship with a young family of five cheetahs and how these ruthless hunters learnt to trust and accept him as part of their family, allowing him an unparalleled and intimate access into their otherwise elusive and highly secretive world. Repeat airing will be on Saturday, August 30,2014 at 10am.
Living in the heart of Southern Africa, Kim is a third generation bush ranger from a family who has lived and tangled with deadly predators for nearly a hundred years. Kim’s bush skills have gotten him up close and personal with many species, except for the mysterious cheetah – an animal that typically bolts upon sight. In the Malilangwe Game Reserve – 200 square miles of raw beauty that is home to a vast array of wildlife – in Southern Zimbabwe, Kim attempted to locate a female cheetah that he had previously worked and established a relationship with. Following one mysterious feline in 200 square miles proved to be challenging so Kim had a vet implant a tracking device in its belly. Six months on, Kim was unsure if the cheetah was alive having not seen her for that long. When he eventually managed to track her, he was delighted to find that she was mothering a litter of five new cubs.
Despite Kim’s gift of reading animals, there is always the possibility that one wrong move could cost him his life, especially in this instance where mother cheetahs are notoriously protective of their young and would do all it takes to protect their young. Miraculously, this cheetah sensed no threat from Kim and even allowed him an unrestricted and extremely rare opportunity to live and run amongst the family for 18 months, during which he was also able to document their daily lives and upbringing of one of the rarest wild cats on the planet. The breathtaking and awe-inspiring footage is unlike any other as Kim does not merely sit in a truck to film the family; he wins their trust and runs alongside them barefoot, bringing viewers much closer into the covert world of cheetahs than anyone ever thought possible.