Life In the Wild

There's something about watching a leopard hauling a freshly killed antelope twice its size up a tree that gives one a renewed appreciation for motion detector lights. If and when lions and tigers and bears (oh my) reach my neighborhood, I'll be ready. Another good argument for civilization, Life in the Wild is about animals--animals that think nothing of mating in front of their own children (not to mention the entire neighborhood), animals that teach their children that there's nothing finer than the taste of raw meat, animals that languish in the hot sun one moment and turn into stalking serial killers the next. Of course, what's most comforting about many of these animals is that they are approximately 10,000 miles away from my front porch. Spread across two videos, Life in the Wild features segments on animals in Africa's Serengeti, the Kalahari Desert, Cameroon's Waza, Kruger National Park and the island of Madagascar in Vol. 1, and North and South American locales in Vol. 2. Like The Trials of Life and other heavily marketed nature videos, the emphasis here is on sex and violence (what you might call the naturalist erotic slasher flick category). Still, while the program never goes too long without tossing some raw meat to the viewer, side trips to look at some of the more interesting smaller animals (like weaver birds and dung beetles) make this a worthwhile choice for general collections. (R. Pitman)