Escape from Extinction

This documentary from American Humane organization may have a particular point of view about the role of zoos in battling mass animal extinction, but it's sobering and persuasive.

“Escape from Extinction” is one of those documentaries that assails you with a sense of urgency about the human impact on the Earth: three football fields of the Amazon forest disappear every minute. One million species current face the threat of being wiped out entirely.

In the spectrum of documentary filmmaking that exists today, on one hand we have the quickly disappearing traditional kind where they introduce a topic, immerse you in the details of it and let the audience make up their own minds. Then there is the more common sort these days, where the filmmakers have very much made up their minds — and want you to, as well.

“Escape” is of the latter kind. It’s produced by the American Humane organization and takes the position that zoos and aquariums — at least, the upstanding kind — are a vital part of the fight to protect and preserve threatened species. This stands in stark contrast to much of the environmental activism outlook today, which labels such places as cruel captors of animals who should be all abolished, the cages flung open and the tanks all drained.

Naysayers may dismiss this documentary as just agitprop to protect large monied interests. Since American Humane is one of the chief accreditors of zoos and aquariums — and presumably derives significant revenue for this service — this claims should not be easily laid aside.

If it is propaganda, then it’s the extremely well-done and persuasive sort.

Oscar winner Helen Mirren narrates, and the doc — directed by Matthew R. Brady — boasts incredible footage of animals both in the wild and in captivity. Incredible hues and shapes of every imaginable kind are a feast for the senses, and the excellent production values tell you this wasn’t something just slapped together to spur donations.

The film starts off with a strong overview of the mass extinction event that scientists say we are currently in. Increasing human populations are pushing the natural world of creatures to the edges, soiling their habitats and interrupting their food chains. Of the eight million known species currently on the planet, a million of them are already endangered or threatened.

From there we move onto various case studies of specific species that were saved through conservation efforts. These include the whooping crane, the bald eagle, the black-footed ferret, the gray wolf and many more. In some cases the animals were reduced down to a total number in the teens — and have been revived to populations in the hundreds or even thousands.

Much of this work is rooted in direct human intervention, and a lot of the innovation and financial support for that comes from zoos, the documentary argues. Annually such institutions contribute $350 million toward efforts to protect threatened species, and their scientists are the ones who produce the innovations and protocols necessary for breeding in captivity and reintroducing animals into the world.

When it’s done wrong, the results can be catastrophic. After the financial success of “Free Willy,” a popular campaign was launched to raise pressure and funding to release the orca whale that starred in the film, Keiko, into the wild. But when an animal has lost all its natural instincts, it can be ill-suited for a sudden return to its natural habitat. For Keiko, it resulted in a long and tortuous death.

Some of the successful methods the scientists have come up with to make reintegration work well are quiet interesting. Gray wolf pups bred in captivity are snuck into the new litters of wild adults, who then raise them as their own. 3D-printed eggs are switched out for the real thing of flightless parrots, even fooling the parents with lifelike sounds and motion while the real eggs are incubated in a lab and then swapped back in, dramatically increasing the rate of viability.

“As a zoo, you aspire to be the best but are judged by the worst,” one scientist laments.

The film even takes the controversial tact of including officials from SeaWorld, perhaps the most lambasted of all such facilities, and allows them to advocate for their conservation efforts. You can judge for yourself how earnest their advocacy is.

The documentary also touches on the illegal trade of animals, both as pets and food, such as the cruel practice of cutting the fins off live sharks and throwing them back into the water to suffer a horrifying death. Even though jellyfish and bees kill far more humans each year than sharks, we’re told, people hunting up to 100 million of them annually, due in part to “Jaws” and other popular entertainment demonizing them.

In another controversial bit of inclusion, the suspected involvement of exotic animal food markets in China is attributed to the Covid and SARS epidemics.

One of the great early successes of repopulating dying species from captivity was the American bison, once hundreds of millions strong and then hunted to near extinction by the turn of the last century. William Hornaday, a taxidermist and early patron of the Bronx Zoo, took it upon himself to breed them in captivity and then return them to the wild. Today, they roam large expanses of the American West once again.

Even though “Escape from Extinction” comes from a place of advocacy rather than pure observation, it’s still a documentary that will illuminate a critical issue — as well as offering its own compelling call to action.

“Escape from Extinction” is now available on Peacock or for rental on most streaming platforms.