America's Endangered Species: Don't Say Good-Bye

Americans love superlatives: the biggest, the best, the worst...the last. This video is about two photographers, Susan Middleton and David Liittschwager, and their obsessive quest across the continental U.S. to photograph endangered species. Some creatures--like Florida panthers--are clearly glamorpusses, but even humble beetles become beautiful when seen almost microscopically close-up. Black-footed ferrets, red wolves, Wyoming toads, manatees, scrub jays are all tottering on the brink of extinction. Saddest of all, the photographers document for prosperity the stuffed remains of a pair of ivory-billed woodpeckers (gone forever). But this video isn't all gloom and doom. One of the best (and most entertaining) aspects of the documentary are the many impassioned human champions of wildlife preservation and what they are doing to help "their" creatures along. The United States pioneered codified endangered species protection, and one dramatic result is the comeback of the American bald eagle, a.k.a. our national emblem. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: I, J, H, C, P. (R. Reagan)