Wednesday is Science Night on KLRU!
Nature White Falcon, White Wolf at 7 pm
On Canada’s remote Ellesmere Island, where June is spring, July is summer and August is already autumn, the race is on for two remarkable species to raise their families. The white gyr falcon is enormous, the largest and most powerful falcon in the world. Yet last summer, the nesting falcon pair here failed to raise any young. The rare Arctic wolves rely on every member of the pack to chase and bring down the prey that keeps them alive. Last year was good to them, and they raised three cubs. But for the wolves and the falcons, as well for as the snowy owls, musk oxen, lemmings, Arctic foxes and hares who share this fragile ecosystem with them, fortunes are always precarious.
NOVA Wild Predator Invasion at 8 pm
Over the last few centuries we have shot, trapped and skinned the predators that formerly thrived at the top of the food chain in the wild. Wild bears, wolves and big cats are all in retreat, and a growing number of scientists are discovering that by eliminating predators, we have changed the environment. Removing predators from the wild has thrown ecosystems off-kilter, triggering domino effects that scientists are just beginning to understand. In “Wild Predator Invasion,” NOVA follows scientists who are trying out a simple but controversial solution: returning apex predators –like wolves, bears, and panthers — to their natural environments. Can these newly reintroduced predators restore the natural balance of their ecosystems without threatening the humans who live among them?
Secrets of the Dead Carthage’s Lost Warriors at 9 pm
Carthage, the proud capital of the vast Carthaginian Empire, is ablaze. Marauding Romans are mercilessly slaughtering and pillaging. Any survivors face a terrifying fate as slaves on Roman galleys or in their quarries. Escaping the bloody carnage is impossible… or is it? Could some of the once-mighty Carthaginians have got away? And even more incredibly — could they have turned west on an epic journey across the vast Atlantic Ocean to new shores? Did they set foot in South America, long before Columbus ever walked the face of the Earth?