It has been revealed that the production team of NHK's popular nature program "Darwin Comes!" will receive the "2026 Zoology Education Award" from the Zoological Society of Japan.
The Zoology Education Award, established in 2011, recognizes individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to the dissemination of zoology to society through active educational activities. The award is not limited to researchers, but encompasses a wide range of fields including education, exhibitions, and video production. This is the first time a television program has received the award. The award ceremony is scheduled to be held in Sapporo on September 4th.
The program was recognized for its long-standing efforts to convey the charm of living creatures to a wide audience, covering various regions both domestically and internationally since its launch in 2006. Furthermore, its contributions to the academic aspects of zoology, including collaboration with researchers, were also acknowledged.
The reasons for the award are as follows:
◇Reasons for awarding the prize by the Zoological Society of Japan
NHK's nature documentary program "Darwin's Coming!", which began airing in April 2006, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Focusing on living creatures both in Japan and abroad, it has aired nearly 1,000 episodes, covering more than 70 countries and regions overseas. Airing during prime time on Sunday nights, it is a widely beloved program, conveying the appeal of biological science, particularly zoology, to millions of viewers each time. It has made a significant contribution to the popularization and education of zoology, and it is presumed that many people have been inspired to become zoologists by this program, and that it has produced many individuals who have chosen careers related to nature and living creatures. In recent years, there have been many reports of collaborations with researchers leading to research results (writing papers), such as the exhibition of a consultation booth during the conference proposing research cooperation and collaboration on high-precision video shooting. In particular, their collaborative research on the fish-eating behavior of Japanese macaques in Kamikochi, Shinshu, resulted in publication in an international journal, and the film crew played a central role as co-authors of the paper. This demonstrates a significant contribution not only to education but also to the academic aspects of zoology. This series of activities has played an extremely important role in the popularization and education of zoology, and we have evaluated it as worthy of the Zoology Education Award.
