Award-winning German naturalist Sielmann dies

BERLIN, Oct 8 (Reuters) Heinz Sielmann, a world renowned German naturalist and documentary filmmaker who earned the nickname ''Mr Woodpecker'' in Britain for his hugely successful 1955 movie about birds, has died aged 89.

The Heinz Sielmann Foundation said in a statement its founder had died peacefully, surrounded by family and friends on Friday in the southern German city of Munich.

No cause of death was given.

Sielmann was known to millions in Germany thanks to his popular television show ''Expeditions into the Animal Kingdom'' which ran from 1965 to 1991 and taught a generation of Germans about the wonders of nature.

But he gained international fame with his feature films about animal life, including award-winning works like ''Lords of the Forest'', ''Galapagos - Dream Island in the Pacific'', ''Vanishing Wilderness'' and ''The Mystery of Animal Behaviour''.

For ''Lords of the Forest'', Sielmann spent 18 months filming gorillas in what was then the Belgian Congo.

Known by the title ''Masters of the Congo Jungle'' in the United States where it was narrated by Orson Welles, the 1959 film was among the first to depict the apes as social, peaceful animals and not the violent beasts many then thought them to be.

Sielmann, who worked extensively with Britan's BBC and the National Geographic Society of the United States during a career that spanned 70 years, founded the Heinz Sielmann Foundation in 1994 with his wife, Inge.

The Munich-based foundation aims to promote a better understanding of nature and conservation among German children and protect German regions where rare animals and plants live.

Sielmann's wife will take over the running of the foundation following his death, which comes one month after Australian naturalist Steve Irwin was fatally injured by a stingray.

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