Hey all you guys.  I’ve been loving this twitter thing.  Its the first time in a while that i have been able to be in such immediate contact with people who share the same interests as i do.  I have never gotten into any of these things before because i can’t keep up with them.  I get started then head into the bush.  So you will have to forgive me when the blogging and tweeting goes on hold.  But for now, its fun

     i have been trying to reply to as many posts as I can.  The photos that everyone sent of thier animals are so great.  I really think it is fun to get to know some of you out there.  I will try to keep it up as much as possible.  You guys keep tweeting and posting along with me. 

by the way, one of you hockey loving tweeters told me that my username is wrong on this blog.  So for clarity my username on twitter is “davesalmoni”

rock on team!

I found out today that Brutus is dead. 

    For you who don’t know he was the dominant male lion of the pride, from my new series that is coming out August 13 called “into the pride”.  You will all get to know him very well over the course of watching that series.

     I was contacted today to be told that he died.  Brutus was a good friend and an awesome lion.  For those of you who think its odd to have close relationships with animal, you can stop reading, this is way over your head, you wont understand.  I spent 6 months last year living alone in the bush with Brutus and his pride.  Brutus was the one cat that allowed me access into his pride.  For someone who meets animals all the time, every once in a while one animal stands out in your life.  Brutus will stand out always.

  Brutus was a very large dominant male when we met.  He was the most dangerous animal for me in the pride when I arrived.  The first night I spent in the tent in the bush he came in the middle of the night and roared close enough that my tent shook.  Over the course of 6 months I acomplished more with him than I had ever done with any wild lion.  He allowed me to share meat from his Eland kill, we celebrated my 33rd birthday with a song and some cake while we sat 15 feet from each other, we walked alone together and had a picnic.  He was awesome.  However, much like another great lion in my life (Rock on Bongo), he tried to kill me.  A number of times Brutus and I stood our ground, looked each other in the eye and tested each others will to fight. 

   Brutus taught me a lot.  I enjoyed every moment I spent with him.  He was a great cat that I will miss.  As I left in December, his condition was deteriorating.  When I said goodbye, I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to last much longer.  A while ago, Brutus broke his leg, and I feel like that was the final blow in an old warrior’s life.  He just didn’t recover from that injury. 

   Miss ya buddy

 Its Canada Day today so I have a few extra minutes to sit in front of the computer.  So I guess the best use of my time is to give you an update on what is happening with me.

     The most exciting news for me is that “Into the Pride” is almost done and ready for air.  I have a few more little things to do for it, and then we are finished.  The air date is set for Aug 13 on Animal Planet.  I hope you are as excited as me.  This is a real special show for me.  It is one of the best representations of me that any of my shows have delivered to this point.  You wont see much “hosting” in this show, its just me being me with some bad ass lions.  Get ready!

   I am starting a show called Savaged in a few weeks.  I am looking forward to that.  It is a derivative of my old show After the Attack.  We have added a whole bunch of new stuff to really dive into the subject of attacks.  It should be both interesting and exciting.  Get ready for some seriously slow motion animals.  It will let us see the power of animals in a whole new way

     I have also been discussing a new show that I am doing called “Worlds Most Deadliest Towns”.  We are going to be looking at the life of people who are living in places where they are not the top of the food chain.  I want to go and find out what its like to live in a town that you are constantly being hunted by some of the worlds best predators.  I think it will be a humbling experiance meeting people who are dealing with this kind of threat on a daily basis.  How do you live and do your normal everyday tasks while looking under every bush and in every puddle, trying to find every hiding space that a predator could use in case you are being hunted?

     I have also really been having fun with Twitter.  For the first time in a long time I have had access to fans of my shows.  Its been so fun getting to read everyone’s replies and getting feedback from everyone.  I know I have a bunch questions that i am due to answer I just don’t have them in front of me.  I will try to spend a day going through them all and blogging my reply.

     Give you animals a hug!

     DAVE!