Wild Shorts: A Wild Romance

One in a series of nine programs from the BBC intended to "educate and amuse," A Wild Romance consists of fifteen non-narrated, copulation-free vignettes intended to teach a specific aspect of animal reproductive behavior, each set to a well known popular song. For instance, the segment entitled "Fighting for Attention" is accompanied by "Another One Bites the Dust," "Dressing for Success" rocks to "I'm Too Sexy," and "Till Death Do Us Part" is set to "From This Moment On." As the tunes play, onscreen text and nature footage from the BBC's archival arsenal illuminate the key concepts of love in the wild, including territoriality, competition, hierarchy, display behavior, courtship, monogamy vs. polygamy, and how romance á la Cheetah very closely parallels the efforts of Tarzan to achieve the same. This light-hearted shtick is effective on its own, but is really meant to provide a springboard for classroom activities and discussion in life sciences and the humanities. A decent teaching guide, which includes a bibliography and websites, accompanies the tape, and the program is being promoted as a teaching tool for the life sciences' "Benchmarks from the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Project 2061," which is a long-term initiative to reform K-12 science education nationwide. The other tapes in this set (which are narrated, and not in the same music video vein as A Wild Romance) are: Wild Vision One, Wild Vision Two, Living Color, In From the Wild, Animal Odysseys, Zoom, First Steps, and Natural Trax, priced at $69.95 each, or $499.95 for the set. Recommended as a curriculum supplement for grades 3-8. Aud: I, J. (K. Glaser)