Enjoying our Wild America: The Amazing Wildlife Documentaries of Marty Stouffer

Recently, I discovered a love for nature documentaries. There’s something really amazing about seeing footage of places you wouldn’t normally get to see, or things that are rare or impossible to observe on your every day walk in the woods. While I am really not a fan of television in general (we don’t have TV and never will), I do have a hearty appreciation for the art of good film. One day, my husband brought home a couple seasons of Marty Stouffer’s Wild America series from the local library for family movie night. He explained that it was a favorite show from his childhood, and declared Stouffer his hero. I had not seen Wild America nor heard of it, because I grew up with 12 Canadian stations and poor reception from our antenna(which was actually fine because I ended up playing outside most of the time). I am thinking now, however, that I really missed out on Wild America. After watching those episodes, we loved it so much that we got the complete 12-season set for a family Winter Solstice gift. On long rainy days, or when the kids are home sick, we like to curl up now and then, and enjoy peeks into the lives of the scarcely-seen animals around us.

I decided quickly that Marty Stouffer is a hero of mine as well. A father of two young children, he frequently brought them along to observe the critters he was filming. They even got to help their father raise and rehabilitate injured and motherless birds and a grizzly bear cub! In a society where there are very few jobs that make allowances for one’s children to participate, I was impressed that Marty Stouffer just brought his family along with him. The series covers nearly every animal, reptile, bird and fish in North America in depth, and some excellent messages of wildlife protection and habitat preservation are woven throughout. The other thing I really appreciate about the series is the background music. A lot of outdoor documentaries seem to have this heavy metal, extreme-edge, overly dramatic background music. It makes you feel like you’re at a monster truck rally, rather than watching animals out in nature. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m sure monster truck rally music has it’s place of belonging in the world. However, in this setting, it’s all wrong. Wild America always has well-suited music. Rollicking fiddle music for wild turkeys, serene piano and flute music for meadowlands and birds, and some great banjo tunes for swamp animals are just a few examples.

Marty’s own story is pretty inspiring as well. He started out filming animals with his brothers and rehabilitating animals at home, and decided to make the leap and pursue his passions rather than stay with the family business. Here’s what Wikipidia turned up: “At age 18, Marty traveled to Alaska on his own with an 8mm movie camera. He became trapped by snowfall in a remote valley, but survived by hunting and trapping local wildlife. He returned home and with the warm reception of his unsophisticated movie of his adventure in the north, decided to pursue a career in wildlife documentary making. In 1970, Marty graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in English. From there he traveled to Africa to film a new documentary. While in Africa, he was confronted with massive and wasteful killing of animals and returned to America with the intent to produce films that argued for nature conservation.”

With some patience and awareness, there are many opportunities to observe wildlife on your outdoor adventures. Even though my children tend to get very excited and sometimes loud out in the woods, we have still been fortunate to make some good critter sightings from time to time. Here are a few I’ve managed to photograph over the last few years. My kids still talk about the time we saw a black bear cub in Idaho to anyone who will listen!

So, for your next family movie night, or rainy day snuggle-up time, look for “Wild America” at your local library, video store, or Netflix. A delightful experience awaits.