Hinterland Who's Who

Hinterland Who's Who is best known as a series of 60-second public service announcements profiling Canadian animals, produced by Environment Canada Wildlife Service and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in the 1960s and 70s, and re-launched by the Canadian Wildlife Federation in the 2000s. While the word "hinterland" refers to an area near a coast line or river bank, the series explores wildlife throughout Canada in general, regardless of location.

The Hinterland Who's Who series was commissioned in 1962 by the Canadian Wildlife Service, as a way to generate interest in Canada's wildlife through a series of short, one-minute vignettes, broadcast during commercial breaks. The series, produced for the CWS by the National Film Board, has been airing on Canadian television since 1963.

In the original announcements, a distinctive refrain of flute music (John Cacavas' Flute Poem) opens the ad, and is accompanied by the low-key style of the narrator, John Livingston (originally the executive director of the Canadian Audubon Society), describing the animal over footage of it taken in the wild.

The end of each message, where viewers were reminded to contact the Canadian Wildlife Service for additional information, varied. The earliest instalments from 1963 concluded with, "For a more complete story on the [animal], why not contact the Canadian Wildlife Service in Ottawa?" After the series was introduced in color, it concluded with, "For more information on the [animal], contact the Canadian Wildlife Service, in Ottawa." Newer segments in the late-1970s and 1980s ended with, "For more information on the [animal], why not contact the Canadian Wildlife Service in Ottawa?", with later instalments including its postal code, K1A 0H3. Viewers requesting information received a four-page, illustrated brochure providing more details on the featured animal.

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