It’s A Jungle Out There

Cows are curious creatures. The cows at Adams Ranch in western St. Lucie County are especially curious. For three months this past summer, they’ve watched a fleet of Dodge Durangos, pickup trucks and other rental cars bounce down the dirt paths that snake through the 18,000-acre ranch. And they’ve seen elephants, chimpanzees and zebras strolling about closely trailed by a crew of cameramen, animal handlers and other strangers to the property.

Since the late 1930s, Adams Ranch has been a working cattle farm: a throwback to the Florida Cracker lifestyle. But from late April through mid-July the hardwood hammocks and open-air prairies became the backdrop for seasons 2 and 3 of the Animal Planet reality series King of the Jungle. Not quite as grueling as CBS’s Survivor and not nearly as gross as NBC’s Fear Factor, the show pits 12 contestants against each other in animal-related challenges, with a person being voted off each episode until there is one “King of the Jungle.” It’s Darwinism at its best, captured on film and broadcast into more than 85 million homes.

Read the entire article in the September 2004 issue