Human Footprint

Shane discovers why dogs are more than man’s best friend – they’ve been reshaped by evolution into the perfect partner for our species. And just as we’ve transformed them, dogs have left an unmistakable pawprint on us and the world we both share.

At the Duke Puppy Kindergarten – a “preschool” for service dogs – Evolutionary Biologists, Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods, show Shane that dogs have an unmatched ability to understand human body language.

Shane joins a “canine freestyle” class to see how dogs and their human dance partners communicate without words to improvise elaborate and definitely-not-silly routines.

They say dogs are man's best friend, but Inuit sled dogs take it to a whole new level. They're not just companions, they're the lifeline of Resolute Bay. Shane’s journey begins above the Arctic Circle, where the power and endurance of Inuit sled dogs allow a traditional way of life to thrive.

Shane steps into a land of giants at the to meet Nick Pyenson, a biologist who studies ancient (and living) whales, to find out why even the biggest animals that ever lived aren't off limits for the planet's Top Predator.

There’s a killer inside us. Our biology, culture, technology, and economy have transformed our species into the greatest predator the world has ever seen. From Yellowstone to Mozambique, Shane explores our global impact as the planet’s top predator.

From Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park to the scars left on the elephant population, Shane's research is revealing how our actions can change the course of evolution itself.

To become the world’s Top Predator, we also have to eliminate the competition. We’ve waged war on America’s wolves for two centuries. For decades, eliminating wolves was an official federal policy. Shane joins Yellowstone National Park’s wolf recovery lead, Dan Stahler, to investigate a fresh kill and learn why humans can’t replace the role that wild predators play in our ecosystems.

Donna Kalil is a professional bounty hunter. The scaly fugitives she tracks down in the Everglades grow to 18 feet long… and eat deer and alligators for supper. Shane joins Donna on a hunt to learn more about Burmese pythons. Brought to Florida as pets, many pythons were dumped into the swamp when they outgrew their owners.

Brought to Florida as pets, many Burmese pythons have found a perfect home in the Everglades, and they’re spreading fast. As the pythons gain ground, biologists are racing to understand them, hoping to find a weakness and stop the invasion.

Invasive species are reshaping the world’s ecosystems, but who’s really to blame? Shane wrestles a python, hunts Hawaiian pigs, and gets sucker-punched by a carp to answer the question: in the Age of Humans, how does our species decide what belongs?

"Human Footprint" was always meant to be a different kind of science show, from the cinematography, to the host, to the style, to the edits. But to have someone like Adrian Younge, multi-instrumentalist and legendary hip-hop producer, lending his talents to the series’ score – well, it seemed like a long shot…until it wasn’t.