diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/animation.py b/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
index ad3db64b5280..e12b7829b07b 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
@@ -1544,7 +1544,6 @@ def __init__(self, fig, func, frames=None, init_func=None, fargs=None,
         # used if we don't know how many frames there will be: in the case
         # of no generator or in the case of a callable.
         self.save_count = save_count
-
         # Set up a function that creates a new iterable when needed. If nothing
         # is passed in for frames, just use itertools.count, which will just
         # keep counting from 0. A callable passed in for frames is assumed to
@@ -1562,9 +1561,15 @@ def __init__(self, fig, func, frames=None, init_func=None, fargs=None,
             self._iter_gen = lambda: iter(xrange(frames))
             self.save_count = frames
 
-        # If we're passed in and using the default, set it to 100.
+        # If we're passed in and using the default, set save_count to 100.
+        # itertools.islice can return an error when passed a numpy int instead
+        # of a native python int. This is a known issue:
+        # http://bugs.python.org/issue30537
+        # As a workaround, convert save_count to native python int
         if self.save_count is None:
             self.save_count = 100
+        else:
+            self.save_count = int(self.save_count)
 
         self._init_func = init_func