Into the Wild
As a veterinary doctor, Nielsen Donato is no doubt a champion for the animals. And when he decided to take on hosting an environmental and wildlife show, he knew he had to be a champion for health and fitness as well. After all, how else can he last trekking up and down a mountain for 12 hours or stay out in open waters for five days in a row and still get the job done episode after episode. Learn more from the wildlife preservation advocate himself in this exclusive interview for Manila Bulletin Lifestyle’s Wellbeing.
Earlier we asked you if we could take a photo of you holding a bird but you refused because you said you didn’t want to send the wrong message. Can you elaborate?
I used to be involved in a group called My Zoo. The concept is bringing the zoo [closer to people] and educating them, mostly children in schools. But, I realized that people don’t comprehend what we’re trying to advocate because what they see is me holding a bird even if it’s a rescued bird, and they perceive it differently. It gives them the idea that it’s okay to have it as a pet and there are a lot of people who want to keep wildlife as pet. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a big differentiation between wildlife and exotic pets.
What is the difference?
Exotic pets have permits. They are bred in captivity. Wild animals are the ones in rescue centers. They are victims of illegal wildlife trade. When you say exotic, it means, this animal is not native to our country. For example, blue and gold Macaw, rabbits, chinchilla, tortoises like sulcata, those are considered exotic animals and they come with a care sheet so you’d know how to take care of them.
Speaking of care, what can you say about animals being able to help in the wellbeing of people?
In different aspects, yes, they help like domestic pet dogs and cats. Our parents give us pets to become more responsible. I gave my 11-yearold daughter a Maltese when she was around nine. I was surprised to see her being responsible, like she tells me if we need food for the dog, she gives her dog a bath, and when she notices a wound on the dog, she would ask me if we can bring it to the clinic. Sometimes when I’m at a shoot, she’ll ask the driver to bring her. That is being responsible.
Number two, they take away stress from people. If you had a bad day and you come home, the dogs and cats, by mere vibrations, the sound of your car’s engine, the sound of your footsteps, they already know that you’re a few meters away. You can see that by the movement of their ears, their eyes—in recognition that their master is already there. And the first individual that will approach you is your pet, mas mauuna
pa ‘yan sa anak mo.
But are there scientific evidences that can prove that?
I also volunteered for Dr. Dog. It’s spearheaded by the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) and they have dogs that are trained to visit patients with cancer. This is only an adaptation of what Dr. Dog is doing abroad like in the U.S. and Europe. It lifts up the spirit of the patient. By just touching them it brings down their blood pressure. It makes them smile. There are studies showing that a patient’s condition improves when they have interactions with animals.
Even I, when I watch documentaries on animals, just seeing them in the wild, it feels different. It’s so different when I do trekking and I try to look for endangered animals. If you see them in the wild, you’d jump for joy, you can do body slams. It’s not very easy to see what we look for especially with our forests depleted. These animals have suffered poaching and hunting. When you see the last remaining species of endangered wildlife, wow!
How would you describe that feeling?
When we were kids, we were always brought to the zoo and just seeing them is amazing. But as you grow up it starts to become boring. There’s no thrill of searching for them, there’s no thrill of trekking, and being able to say, “You know I captured this photo in the wild.” How many of us can do that? Not only to take a photo but film it, and express how you feel at that moment when you see a Komodo dragon or when you’re in the marshland and you see a wild crocodile.
What was the most difficult shoot
you ever did for the show?
One of the most difficult, and I always remember this one, was the one we did in General Santos. We were at sea for five days looking for Tuna. We were on a small boat, there were two cameramen, one segment producer, one director. At night, you can feel the boat sway roughly and in the morning you’d wake up all wet. Although we have fresh water, we have to conserve it. And then we didn’t get to see a single Tuna. That's how we discovered that General Santos, the Tuna capital of the Philippines, no longer has Tuna. Our fishermen would risk getting caught in the waters of Indonesia.
With all that expedition that you’ve been doing, how fit are you?
When I joined the show my weight was around 86 kilos. Now I’m 79 to 80 kilos. When we were starting I already noticed that I need to be physically fit because aside from
trekking, we also have to be strong in water. Most of time we shoot at sea and on the mountains. Our average trek is two to three hours but we’ve already done a 12-hour trek. We got to our destination on top of the mountain in the evening but we need to go down right away to catch our trip home the next morning. So there was no time to sleep. We just walked with our head lamps and trekking pole. So how do you keep yourself fit?
I train. I need to run 20 to 30 minutes a day. I got a personal trainer to do cross fit, boxing, and gym. At my age, I’m 47 right now, I want to be like Jeremy Wade. Even when my hair is all gray and I’m wrinkled, I can still trek. That’s the goal that I want to achieve. I can’t wait to be 50 and still be trekking. I’ve been doing it for two years now. When we are on location and we’re shooting late in the morning, I’d wake up early and jog around the hotel for 30 minutes to an hour. I have to maintain that or else, if you have that long lull, you’ll have difficulty starting again to exercise. What are your eating habits?
I have to watch what I eat but it’s difficult especially when we’re on location for shoots. Whatever is there, you have to eat it. When we’re trekking, we have to bring trekking food like canned goods. We need to eat a lot of rice for energy. When I’m in town, seldom do I eat rice. When I do, I eat red rice or brown rice. Have you always been conscious about your health?
No. Only when I reached my 40s. I used to do house calls before I had a clinic and when you’re doing house calls, they feed you anything. They’ll give you cake, ice cream, and soda. So I really gained weight. It was good but as I got older, since our family is also prone to heart disease and diabetes, I already anticipated that if I’m not going to take care of myself and I’m at this age, I can easily get it. Luckily I’m still diabetes-free, my cholesterol is still within the normal range. How about the health hazards of doing the kind of job that you do, going into the wild and exposing yourself to bites from all sorts of animals, what precautionary measures do you have in place?
The program has always been very careful about that especially with me. Sometimes I get excited and I forget about safety. It’s not that I’m over confident but it’s like an adrenaline rush for me when for example I see a cobra. And because of that, they always make it a point that they have antivenin. Whoever gets bitten we have that antivenin ready. And when we’re going to different places, we have experts, we have divers with us also because it’s important to have them in case there’s an accident. Can you remember how many times you’ve been bitten on the show?
A lot of times. I think later on we will have a compilation of the ‘oohs’ and ‘ouches’ we encountered. Don’t you ever get afraid?
No. Sometimes I just laugh it off and add it up to my battle scars. We’re more afraid of the mosquito bites on our faces because how are we going to face the camera if we have a swollen eyelid. Here’s a silly question, which is scarier, the snakes found in the forests or the so-called snakes found in the city?
I was asked the same question in a show. Metaphorically, the politicians are being compared to the crocodiles and I said I have to defend the crocodiles because the crocodiles will eat only what they can. But the crocodiles that they were referring to [like policemen, the politicians], they’re already full but they still want to eat more. The snakes, hindi talaga sila nang-a-ahas ng ibang relasyon. The snakes only bite because they are defending their territory. I don’t know why they compare those people to these animals.
Born to Be Wild airs every Sunday, 9:30 a.m. on GMA-7.w
‘Domestic pets take away stress from people. If you had a bad day and you come home, the dogs and cats, by mere vibrations, the sound of your car’s engine, the sound of your footsteps, they already know that you’re a few meters away.’