EXTRAORDINARY ANIMALS FROM AROUND THE WORLD UNITE FOR NEW SERIES ON ANIMAL PLANET THAT SHOWCASES AMAZING TALENT

-- Emmy Award-Winner William Shatner Narrates Summer Series Beginning Friday, June 13 --

SILVER SPRING, Md., June 2, 2008 � The next time you're thinking about purchasing a painting for your living room, you may want to consider a new breed of art � the work of an Asian eight-year-old elephant Hong. Looking for some new piano music? Check out Nora, the incredible kitty on keys! This talented tabby's music has been remixed into a Latin dance track and was played in a London club!

Hong and Nora are among a slew of incredible animals � both domesticated and wild � that have surpassed typical cognition and behaviors. A dolphin in Sweden is able to order her own lunch by communicating through sonar! A loveable schnauzer accurately has predicted the deaths of nearly 60 nursing home patients and has stayed a faithful companion by their sides until they've passed away.

Over the course of 17 half-hour episodes, Animal Planet tells these fascinating stories in EXTRAORDINARY ANIMALS, premiering Friday, June 13, at 9:30 PM ET/PT. Narrated by William Shatner, who is an avid horse lover and breeder and is notorious for his wry humor and love for animals, EXTRAORDINARY ANIMALS stories are told through an entertaining lens.

Each episode in EXTRAORDINARY ANIMALS focuses on individual animals that have amazed humankind. Whether it's impressive intelligence, incredible intuition or just uncanny super-animal ability, these creatures thrill viewers with jaw-dropping stories each week.

THE EXTRAORDINARY ANIMALS:

The following is a list of some but not all the episode premieres:

Pachyderm Picasso premieres Friday, June 13 � Hong is a six-year-old Asian elephant who can paint with her trunk.

Cerebral Sea Lion premieres Friday, June 20 � Rio is the first animal able to demonstrate a form of logic, once thought to be limited to humans.

Orangu-Can premieres Friday, June 27 � Azy, a 30-year-old male orangutan, uses more than 70 symbols to communicate his thoughts and desires and has demonstrated incredible recognition skills and long-term memory.

Sit, Stay, Die (Air date TBD) � Skamp, also known as the Grim Reaper Dog, is not your typical four-year-old schnauzer; Skamp has a nearly 100 percent accuracy record in predicting death among nursing home patients.

Luna, the Super Sonic Dolphin (working title; air date TBD) � Luna is a six-year-old dolphin who can communicate by using sonar to respond to a direct question.

Bird-Braniac (Air date TBD) � Griffin is a genius parrot who can reason in action, a trait not found in other parrots. Griffin, whose brain is the size of a walnut, can identify colors, shapes and foods in direct response to a question.

Chimpan-Genius (Air date TBD) -- Ayumu is a seven-year-old chimpanzee who can play a numerical memory game perfectly by memorizing location of numbers in sequential order.

Calculating Canine (Air date TBD) � Maggie is a not-so-typical Jack Russell terrier who can do basic mathematics. When given a number, Maggie confirms the number by tapping her paws the corresponding amount of times.

Purrfect Pitch (Air date TBD) � Nora is a Cinderella story; she's a stray cat turned piano prodigy. Nora has recorded her own album and even makes live appearances.

PRODUCTION DETAILS:

EXTRAORDINARY ANIMALS is produced for Animal Planet by Blink Films UK. Executive Producers for Blink Films UK are Dan Chambers and Justine Kershaw. Barbara Lee is segment producer. Executive Producer for Animal Planet is Mick Kaczorowski.

About Animal Planet

Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 94 million homes in the US; online assets AnimalPlanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com, the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption; PetsIncredible, a major producer and distributor of pet-training videos and includes web service PetVideo.com; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising extensions.