Niall McCann Gets the ‘Bear Facts’ in Churchill, and Much More, in Season 3 of BIGGEST AND BADDEST

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede From his home in the U.K., what are the odds that biologist and explorer Dr. Niall McCann would find a family connection in Churchill, Man., while filming an episode of his series BIGGEST AND BADDEST? “Ultra slim,” McCann said with a chuckle. “But there have been a few times where I’ve been traipsing all around the world and accidentally finding traces of my grandfather.” Okay, let’s stick to the TV show first: The Season 3 premiere of BIGGEST AND BADDEST airs Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on Animal Planet. The series follows McCann as he investigates human-animal conflict around the world, brought on by factors such as global warming, deforestation, and human encroachment into wild places. The new season begins in Churchill with a fascinating episode about polar bears, and the diligent efforts needed to keep the human population of 900 safe from the largest land predator on the planet. Polar bears converge annually near Churchill because it’s where Hudson Bay freezes early in the fall, allowing bears onto the frozen water to hunt seals. But dangerous situations arise when bears wander into town, attracted by the activity and smell of food. As McCann puts it, humankind historically has not been willing to share the landscape with predators, so animals such as lions, tigers, wolves, and bears have been persecuted. He preaches conservation, and with animal habitats shrinking, co-existence is imperative. “We need intact landscapes for ourselves to function, and dangerous species – predators – are keystone species within these landscapes,” he said. “With the removal of those, the cascade of consequences that happens afterwards can be catastrophic. Let’s just look at coronavirus right now. We have a perfect example of humanity disrupting natural systems and ending up with a global pandemic. It couldn’t be more pertinent than in this day and age.” The new season of BIGGEST AND BADDEST also sees McCann in India, examining the plight of elephants, king cobras, and leopards, about 50 of which are living in a national park in Mumbai. “They do almost all their hunting inside the city bounds, so they go in and hunt dogs and rats and other things, and live cheek-by-jowl with a population of 20 million people,” McCann said. Asked what frustrates him most about the current tension between nature and humans, McCann gave a “childlike” answer, in the best possible sense. “Adults lose their passion for nature – and I don’t really know why,” McCann said. “If you ask any child what they’re most excited by, they’ll reel off a list of amazing animals that they absolutely love, and you see them so invigorated by being in the wild. But something happens through puberty. I wish adults would retain that same excitement, and love of nature, because if they did, the world would be a much better place, because we would take care of it so much more.” Okay, now it’s time for McCann to explain his Churchill connection. “So my grandfather, my mom’s dad, was the director of the Arctic Institute of North America, and a professor of geography at McGill University,” McCann said. “I had it in my memory that he had led an overland expedition in the 1940s called Operation Musk Ox, which was to test whether or not the Russians were going to invade North America via the Arctic region. I had that in my memory loosely, but I didn’t know anything else about it.” It wasn’t until McCann got to Churchill that he decided to look up Operation Musk Ox online, and it turns out the whole operation started in Churchill. He mentioned it to the mayor, who directed him to the local museum, and after speaking to the archivist, suddenly a wide-eyed McCann was looking at photographs of his grandfather from 1946. “It was just incredible,” McCann said. “My mom had never seen these pictures, we didn’t even know they existed. So it was such a wonderful thing for me. Here we were, 70-some years later, and I’m following him around the world unwittingly.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv