World Of Discovery: Cougar--Ghost Of the Rockies; World of Discovery: Wolf--Return of a Legend

There's probably few sights more precious than seeing a baby cougar gag on his first piece of red meat. It's a big jump, as narrator Richard Kiley points out in filmmaker Jim Dutcher's Cougar--Ghost of the Rockies. You see, cougars go from being breast-fed to eating raw deer, bypassing the pureed pears stage completely. Variously known as a mountain lion, puma, catamount, or "bad news" (if it happens to be a personal encounter), the cougars profiled in Dutcher's film are a five-year-old mother and her three male kittens. Filmed over a two-year period in the Sawtooth Mountain region of Idaho, the film combines facts about the cougar's lifestyle and behavior with really exquisite footage of these magnificent creatures hunting, playing, or, in one unnerving sequence, jumping the sound man. Although one of the kittens dies, the others are safely introduced into the wild, following the mother's extensive lessons in finding, killing, and hiding prey. a good nature video.Filmmaker Dutcher and screenwriter David R. O'Dell also collaborated on Wolf--Return of a Legend. Narrated by Graham Greene (the actor, not the late novelist), the film, also set in Idaho's Sawtooth region, dispels popular myths about the gray wolf (who's had a bad rap since his less than flattering portrayal in the classic fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood"), and observes a pack of wolves growing up in a large enclosed range. Fascinating sequences in which hierarchy is established during feeding (as in "touch that thigh bone and you're history, bud"), or wolves are seen frolicking in the snow, are beautifully lensed. In addition to watching the wolves, the program checks in with some local farmers who are not necessarily eager to have the presently endangered wolf re-introduced into the area (among the many placards on display during a protest is this rather negative assessment: "Wolf is the Saddam Hussein of the animal world").Both programs are lovely and would make fine additions to a good nature video collection. But they've made me re-think my travel plans: I was going to drive to Idaho later this year to give a speech, but in both tapes, the animals were fed with large roadkill (moose, deer, etc.) on a pretty regular basis, which leads me to wonder a bit about the driving capabilities of Idahoans. (R. Pitman)