Birds & Animals Unlimited is a company which provided film and television productions with trained animals. It was founded by animal handler Gary Gero. Gero and his company worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and trained and handled the Somali cat who played Spot for the fourth season episodes "Data's Day" and "In Theory" and the guinea fowls for the fifth season episode "Ensign Ro". One of the cat trainers was Scott Hart.
Gero and his company are probably best known for the animal supervision on the Harry Potter films Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009). [1] [2]
Gero and his company provided and trained birds, hawks, wolves, bugs, dogs, cows, and Orang Utans for films such as Never Cry Wolf (1983), Birdy (1984), Ladyhawke (1985), Pretty in Pink (1986), Prince of Darkness (1987), Back to the Future Part II (1989, starring Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Thomas F. Wilson), Dark Shadows (1991, starring Jean Simmons and Ben Cross), Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), Batman Returns (1992), Death Becomes Her (1992), The Crow (1994), The Jungle Book (1994), 101 Dalmatians (1996), Dr. Dolittle (1998), Small Soldiers (1998, with Kirsten Dunst), Inspector Gadget (1999), 102 Dalmatians (2000), Casino Royale (2006), Thor (2011, starring Chris Hemsworth and Idris Elba), and J.J. Abrams' Super 8 (2011).
Among their television resume are series such as Two and a Half Men}}, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Revolution, Mike & Molly}}, The Office, 90210, The Closer, The Big Bang Theory, One Tree Hill, All My Children, Days of Our Lives, Frasier, Game of Thrones, Monk, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and Malcolm in the Middle.
Later projects include Zookeeper (2011), The Smurfs (2011), We Bought a Zoo (2011), The Dictator (2012), The Campaign (2012), This Is 40 (2012), Oz the Great and Powerful (2013, with Bill Cobbs and production design by Robert Stromberg), Man of Steel (2013), and River of Fundament (2014).
External links[]
- BirdsAndAnimals.com – official site
- Birds & Animals Unlimited at the Internet Movie Database