Charlotte Uhlenbroek | |
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Born | 16 May 1967 56) London, England | (age
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | University of Bristol |
Occupations |
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Spouse | Daniel Rees (2006–present) |
Charlotte Jane Uhlenbroek (born 16 May 1967) is a British zoologist and BBC television presenter.
Her Dutch father was an agricultural specialist with the United Nations who took his English wife and their family round the world with him. Uhlenbroek was born in London, but her parents moved to Ghana when she was only ten days old. Between the ages of 5–14 she lived in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Uhlenbroek attended Oakham School in Rutland, and then gained a BSc in Zoology and Psychology in 1988, followed in 1997 by a PhD in Zoology, at the University of Bristol. [1] She spent six months in Burundi helping primatologist Jane Goodall set up a conservation project for chimpanzees, followed by four years in the forests of Gombe Stream National Park in Western Tanzania on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, studying the communication of wild chimpanzees. [2] In 2007, Uhlenbroek was awarded an honorary degree from Oxford Brookes University for her work. [3]
Spotted by the BBC Natural History Unit, Uhlenbroek made her UK television debut in the series Dawn to Dusk, presented by Jonathan Scott, in an episode on the chimpanzees of Gombe Stream National Park. She went on to present the BBC Two programme Chimpanzee Diary as part of the Animal Zone during 1998 and 1999. Uhlenbroek subsequently presented a number of documentaries (both series and one-off programmes) for the BBC, including: Cousins (2000), Congo's Secret Chimps (2001), Talking with Animals (2002), Jungle (2003), Secret Gorillas of Mondika (2005). In 2004, she was one of the subjects of the short documentary series The Way We Went Wild , about television's natural history presenters.
Uhlenbroek visited the Mefou National Park in Cameroon in 2006 to provide narration for Animal Planet's Going Ape TV series, based on the charity Ape Action Africa. [4] [5]
In 2007, she presented Safari School, a twenty-part BBC 2 "reality" series in which eight celebrities had to learn to become game rangers at the Shamwari Game Reserve. [6] In 2009 she was associate producer for and presented Among the Apes, a four-part series on Five, each part concerning a different primate species. [7]
In recent years she has made minor appearances on BBC nature programmes, written about elephant conservation in the Daily Mail and been involved with several conservation charities. [8]
Year | Title | Channel | Role | Notes |
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1996 | Nature | PBS | Scientific consultant | One episode, "Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees" |
1998–1999 | Chimpanzee Diary | BBC Two | Presenter | Part of Animal Zone |
2000 | Cousins | BBC One | Presenter | |
2001 | Congo's Secret Chimps | BBC Two | Presenter | Part of Wild Zone |
2002 | Talking with Animals | BBC One | Presenter | |
2003 | Jungle | BBC One | Presenter | |
2005 | Lemurs of Madagascar | BBC Two | Presenter | |
2005 | Secret Gorillas of Mondika | BBC Two | Presenter | |
2006 | Going Ape | Animal Planet | Narrator | Filmed at Ape Action Africa, Cameroon |
2007 | Safari School | BBC Two | Presenter | Reality TV |
2009 | Among the Apes | Five |
| |
The Museum of Curiosity | BBC Radio 4 | Panelist | Series 2 Episode 4 | |
2011 | The Adventurer's Guide to Britain | ITV1 | Co-presenter | |
2013 | Going Ape | National Geographic Channel | Features presenter | |
2013 | Springwatch | BBC Two | Features presenter | |
2014 | Countryfile | BBC One | Features presenter |
Since 2006, she has been married to Daniel Rees, who works as a producer for the BBC Natural History Unit.
Uhlenbroek supports Animal Aid and their campaign against primate experiments, stating: "I have yet to hear a sufficiently compelling scientific argument that justifies the suffering inflicted on primates in medical research." [9] She is also a supporter of many animal-orientated charities, including Ape Action Africa, Fauna and Flora International, For Life On Earth the Great Apes Survival Project, the Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre and Compassion in World Farming. [1]
Uhlenbroek also wrote the introduction to Wildlife Portfolio of the Year: Volume Nine, one of an annual collection of prize-winning images.
The chimpanzee, also simply known as the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close relative the bonobo was more commonly known as the pygmy chimpanzee, this species was often called the common chimpanzee or the robust chimpanzee. The chimpanzee and the bonobo are the only species in the genus Pan. Evidence from fossils and DNA sequencing shows that Pan is a sister taxon to the human lineage and is thus humans' closest living relative. The chimpanzee is covered in coarse black hair, but has a bare face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. It is larger and more robust than the bonobo, weighing 40–70 kg (88–154 lb) for males and 27–50 kg (60–110 lb) for females and standing 150 cm.
Dame Jane Morris Goodall, formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. She is considered the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, after 60 years' studying the social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees. Goodall first went to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania to observe its chimpanzees in 1960.
The genus Pan consists of two extant species: the chimpanzee and the bonobo. Taxonomically, these two ape species are collectively termed panins. The two species were formerly collectively called "chimpanzees" or "chimps"; if bonobos were recognized as a separate group at all, they were referred to as "pygmy" or "gracile chimpanzees". Together with humans, gorillas, and orangutans they are part of the family Hominidae. Native to sub-Saharan Africa, chimpanzees and bonobos are currently both found in the Congo jungle, while only the chimpanzee is also found further north in West Africa. Both species are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and in 2017 the Convention on Migratory Species selected the chimpanzee for special protection.
Bristol Zoo was a zoo in the city of Bristol in South West England. The zoo's stated mission was to "maintain and defend" biodiversity through breeding endangered species, conserving threatened species and habitats and promoting a wider understanding of the natural world".
Twycross Zoo is a medium to large zoo near Norton Juxta Twycross, Leicestershire. The zoo has the largest collection of monkeys and apes in the Western World, and in 2006 re-launched itself as "Twycross Zoo – The World Primate Centre".
Gombe Stream National Park is a national park in Kigoma District of Kigoma Region in Tanzania, 16 km (10 mi) north of Kigoma, the capital of Kigoma Region. Established in 1968, it is one of the smallest national parks in Tanzania, with only 35 km2 (13.5 sq mi) of protected land along the hills of the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. The terrain is distinguished by steep valleys, and the vegetation ranges from grassland to woodland to tropical rainforest. Accessible only by boat, the park is most famous as the location where Jane Goodall pioneered her behavioural research on the common chimpanzee populations. The Kasakela chimpanzee community, featured in several books and documentaries, lives in Gombe National Park.
The Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre is a 65-acre (26.3 ha) ape and monkey sanctuary, rescue centre and primatarium near Wool, Dorset, England.
Miranda Krestovnikoff is a British radio and television presenter specialising in natural history and archaeological programmes. She is an accomplished musician, and also a qualified scuba diver which has led to co-presenting opportunities in programmes with an underwater context.
The Born Free Foundation is an international wildlife charity that campaigns to "Keep Wildlife in the Wild". It protects wild animals in their natural habitat, campaigns against the keeping of wild animals in captivity and rescues wild animals in need. It also promotes compassionate conservation, which takes into account the welfare of individual animals in conservation initiatives. Born Free also creates and provides educational materials and activities that reflect the charity's values.
The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) is a global non-profit wildlife and environment conservation organization headquartered in Washington, DC. It was founded in 1977 by English primatologist Jane Goodall and Genevieve di San Faustino (1919-2011). The institute's mission is to improve the treatment and understanding of primates through public education and legal representation, to protect their habitats in partnership with local communities, and to recruit and train young people for these missions.
The Jane Goodall Institute (Hong Kong) (Chinese: 國際珍古德(香港)協會), founded in 2002, was established as a local registered charity involved in the promotion of the well-being of the community, animals and environment. The Jane Goodall Institute Hong Kong is one of the Asian branches of the Jane Goodall Institute which was founded in 1977 in California by Jane Goodall and Genevieve, Princess di San Faustino. With its headquarters in the US, the Jane Goodall Institute is a worldwide non-profit organization with 17 overseas offices.
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Saving THE Planet is a season of nature documentaries with a conservation theme, screened on BBC Television in 2007 to mark the 50th anniversary of its specialist factual department, the BBC Natural History Unit.
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Dale Peterson is an American author who writes about scientific and natural history subjects.
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Toshisada Nishida was a Japanese primatologist who established one of the first long term chimpanzee field research sites. He was the first to discover that chimpanzees, instead of forming nuclear family-like arrangements, live a communal life with territorial boundaries. His discoveries of the medicinal use of plants by wild chimpanzees helped form the basis of the field of zoopharmacognosy.
Ben Garrod is an English evolutionary biologist and primatologist known for his work on great ape conservation. He is also an author and award-winning television presenter who regularly appears as a science presenter on BBC programs. Garrod has been a Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement at the University of East Anglia since 2019.