Joanie’s Safari | Featured local animals

(Saint-Jude) Aboard her colorful jeep, Joanie Lamoureux travels across Quebec to introduce children to local animals. The beaver, the wolf as well as many lesser-known species, such as the Arctic tern or the saw-whet sawfly, are the stars of this show which won a Gemini award in September. Last fall, The Press attended the filming of an episode.

On this sunny autumn day, the film crew of Joanie’s Safari is passing through Montérégie. The animal she will try to observe today? The vulture. In the afternoon, she will go to Otterburn Park in the hope of seeing this bird of prey in its natural habitat. But first, she stops at Chouette à voir, in Saint-Jude, where Vanessa L. Beauregard is waiting for her.

The naturalist from the Quebec Union for the Rehabilitation of Birds of Prey is well supported. Gregory, a black vulture, and Shaun, a turkey vulture, are a few steps away, in their respective cages.

Alors que les caméramans s’installent, Joanie Lamoureux s’émerveille devant les deux spécimens. Il faut dire que cette amoureuse des animaux a un faible pour les bêtes à plumes. Lorsqu’elle n’est pas en tournage, elle s’occupe d’une quinzaine d’oiseaux de proie à la ferme pédagogique Guyon, à Chambly, en plus d’avoir deux crécerelles d’Amérique chez elle.

Celle qui détient une technique en santé animale et qui a travaillé plus de 15 ans au Parc Safari maîtrise très bien le sujet de l’épisode d’aujourd’hui. De fait, elle avoue ne pas avoir préparé de questions pour sa rencontre avec Vanessa L. Beauregard et ses compagnons ailés. « Pour ce matin, je n’ai rien lu sur l’urubu. Je le connais, l’urubu. Je vais poser mes questions comme mon cœur le sent », a-t-elle confié en entrevue avec La Presse, avant le début du tournage.

Cette spontanéité est, selon elle, un des éléments qui démarquent Le safari de Joanie des autres émissions jeunesse du genre.

« On est vraiment dans l’authenticité. Tout ce qui arrive, on le met dans l’émission. Mes pires réactions et mes pires jeux de mots, on va tout mettre dans le show. […] We are really into humor, with a sometimes ironic, sarcastic tone. Young people like that,” believes the woman who has participated in a few television series, including The furry ones.

Unpredictability

Since the stars of the show are animals, it happens that the imagined scenes are not the ones filmed, of course. The team is forced to juggle unpredictability. This is the case this morning as Shaun, the turkey vulture, extends his sunbath rather than flying from station to station, an exercise intended to stimulate his sense of smell. “There are a lot of elements that bother him,” the host hypothesizes, naming the presence of the cameras.

The challenge is even greater when the film crew goes into an animal’s natural habitat. There is no guarantee that she will be able to see and film it. In two seasons, have they ever returned empty-handed from an adventure? Quite rarely, fortunately, answers Joanie Lamoureux. “During the first expedition to the black bear, we couldn’t see anything anywhere,” she reveals, however. A second expedition was necessary.

In the case of the coyote, the team had to be inventive since they were unable to see the canid in nature. “But seeing a coyote up close is not necessarily what you want,” jokes the host. We are happy that our coyotes are shy and stay away. »

“We found prints, poop, hair, so we knew we were in coyote territory, but we didn’t see any,” she continues. Additional filming was organized at Parc Omega to take images of coyotes in captivity.

Focus on Quebec species

Joanie Lamoureux traveled to the four corners of Quebec for the show. Why was it important for her to focus on local animals? “We talk to young people about the rhino, but we don’t tell them about the chorus frog which is disappearing from our marshes. There are some animals here for whom things are really bad, but it’s very rare that we discuss these subjects. The mountain salamander is less cute than the panda. »

If the opportunity presented itself, she would still be up for filming a season of Joanie’s Safari elsewhere in Canada… or even in Africa. “All animals and their situation are important,” says the woman who grew up listening to the Kratt brothers and their popular show Zombomafo.

After filming a few flights of the two turkey vultures and discussing with naturalist Vanessa L. Beauregard, the team leaves the refuge to continue observing turkey vultures in the wild. Will the safari be successful? The response in March when the episode aired.

Joanie’s Safari will be back on Télé-Québec airwaves on Friday, January 10, at 5 p.m. Episodes are also available on the broadcaster’s website and app.

Visit the show page