V
ery few rock and roll stations on the Chicago radio dial have not had the voice Mutual of Omaha is so closely associated with wildlife that some people don’ t even realize it’ s an insurance company.
“ True,” host of Mutual of Omaha’ s Wild Kingdom, Peter Gros, says with a laugh.“ They ask us if we run an amusement park.”
Since 1963, Mutual of Omaha has been the sponsor of the ultimate nature show, Wild Kingdom. The show ran on Sunday nights on NBC for over twenty years, but it never went away. Now it’ s back on NBC again, and airs on weekend mornings. The current show is very similar to the original.“ Mutual of Omaha has always been involved with conservation and ensuring the message of conservation,” Gros explains.“ This is our third season back on the air on NBC. It’ s a continuum of what they started in the 60s. The goal is to still tell stories of the importance of conservation, going to remote locations. We were in Australia, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and we get to tell stories that were originally told in the first show, for instance, the bald eagle, the black footed ferret, and wolves were on the brink of extinction. Now, the animals are coming off the endangered species list. We ' re still addressing the fact that we have problems, but I think it ' s important that we also share that we had serious problems in the past, and we solved them, and we will solve the problems for wildlife in the future.”
Gros has been part of the project for over 40 years.“ I got started early on designing freeroaming animal displays for parks and zoos and met Jim Fowler. At the time, Mr.( Marlon) Perkins was getting ready to retire, and Jim explained they were not looking for an actor; they were looking for someone with conservation and wildlife experience. He asked if I would be interested. And I thought for about three seconds. I believe I ' ve just been offered the best job in the world and, of course, I said yes. They were such experts. And wherever they traveled around the globe, they were just always interested in the people and their culture and the wildlife where they were visiting. I remember Jim and Marlon reminding me to never forget that we are guests in that country. Jim and Marlon were mentors for me, and as I worked with Jim over the years, he taught me so much about how to behave around animals. In the wild. One of my first shows, I ' ll never forget. We ' re going to Louisiana to do research on alligators. And on the way, he mentioned, there ' s really nothing to it. Just follow my lead. And when we got there, he started unpacking what looked like a miner ' s lamp. And I said,‘ What ' s this for?’ Well, you know, when you film them, you film them at night, you go out on a boat, and you silently drift along the water
By Rick Kaempfer
WILD KINGDOM: FULL CIRCLE
Peter Gros and shine light, and their eyes light up and reflect it, and you quietly drift up next to them and reach over their back and then pull them in the boat and then tag them and release them. Nothing to it. So, yes, I had a tremendous learning curve, and I ' m just honored to be able to continue the legacy of Mutual of Omaha, educating people through their wildlife show.”
This latest version of the show has also led to some exciting moments.“ One of the shows took us to Mexico to see the flamingos, who are now migrating all the way back to Florida, where they used to be. There are many remarkable stories from Australia, featuring kangaroos, wallabies, and koalas. And season three is just packed with wildlife and remarkable stories that I hope people enjoy seeing on weekend
mornings on NBC.”
I asked if he ever felt in danger.“ Nothing like those early shows, where you may have been doing a show on Lake Kariba, and part of that show was rafting the Zambezi River, which was a class five. Just below Victoria Falls, I remember being dumped out of the raft and then swimming to the shore and having one of our guides casually say to me,‘ Mr. Gros, you should swim back to the shore more quickly, because that’ s where the crocodiles lie and wait.’ One time, we went to the Yucatan Peninsula, and I was able to go out and snorkel. And in the distance was a huge feeding whale shark, the size of a school bus, that decided to swim towards me with its four-foot-wide yawning mouth. And this passed by me very close, very slowly, and I just held my breath, and was in awe. It was a bit of a dream come true for me.”
And now, after a lengthy vacation from each other, Wild Kingdom is back on NBC.“ We’ ve kind of gone full circle,” Gros says.“ It has become the number one watched weekend wildlife show, and we ' ve had five Emmy nominations as well. So we ' re just thrilled how well things are going, and happy to be continuing Mutual of Omaha ' s mission of educating the next generation about the importance of conservation.”
Mutual of Omaha’ s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild airs on Saturday mornings as part of NBC’ s The More You Know programming block. You can also stream it on Wildkingdom. com and NBC. com. Peter Gros co-hosts the show alongside Dr. Rae Winn-Grant. november 2025 illinoisentertainer. com 19