Babelgum Premieres Online Wildlife Series

NEW YORK/LONDON: The original six-part web series Extinction Sucks, the first ever wildlife show produced for online, has launched on Babelgum Web and Mobile.

Commissioned by Babelgum from Off the Fence Productions, with involvement from WWF, the show follows Australian conservationists Aleisha Caruso and Ashleigh Young, who are determined to present animal-protection issues. On Babelgum Mobile, the series is available as 24 six-minute mobisodes, while on Babelgum.com it airs as six half-hour webisodes, with a new one published each week. Off the Fence will be overseeing its distribution across a number of global television platforms.

The six webisodes address the Asian Elephant (Mudamulai, India), Sea Turtle (Mapoon, Australia), Indian Rhino (Chitwan, Nepal), Asiatic Black Bear (Cat Tien, Vietnam), Tasmanian Devil (Tasmania, Australia) and Hector’s Dolphins (Akaroa, New Zealand).

"WWF is delighted to be a partner in this high-quality, full-length online production that will no doubt reach and engage a new audience," said Martin Atkin, the director of external and media relations for WWF International. "Extinction Sucks demonstrates that you can present serious environmental and conservation issues and have a bit of fun at the same time."

Valerio Zingarelli, the CEO of Babelgum, commented: "Extinction Sucks is a series that tries not only to speak out on an issue, but also to propose concrete solutions: what each of us can do to really change things. You can watch and forget. Or you can act upon the problem by doing simple things that can change the course of life in the long term. This is the most significant point made in our new original series and it will be a constant motif in our future productions."