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There are some 64,000 wild horses running free on public lands in the Western United States. However, these horses, and the 28 million protected acres on which they roam, are increasingly under threat from public and private interests seeking to reduce their numbers in favour of livestock. The Fate of the Wild tracks the life and activism of Laura Leigh, who has devoted herself to fighting to protect the country’s wild horse population. Through interviews with Leigh and aerial footage of the helicopter roundups that drive the horses off the land and into into lifelong confinement, the US filmmaker Andrew Michael Ellis draws parallels with Leigh’s own experience of domestic abuse and homelessness. The resulting film celebrates her resourcefulness and grit, as well as the magnificent sight she’s fought so hard to protect: of horse herds running through wide open lands.
Director: Andrew Michael Ellis
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Nature and landscape
‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden
5 minutes
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Language and linguistics
Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?
9 minutes
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Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes
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Nature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
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Animals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
13 minutes
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Fairness and equality
There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa
10 minutes
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Animals and humans
Villagers struggle to keep their beloved, endangered ape population afloat
19 minutes
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Animals and humans
Are zoos and natural history museums born of a desire to understand, or to control?
57 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
15 minutes