January 3, 2005

Bald Eagle Days Features International Wildlife Film Festival Jan 26-27 and Raptor Viewing and Displays Jan. 29

The public is invited to view bald eagles and other wildlife along the Boise River and watch award-winning wildlife films from around the world as part of the sixth annual Bald Eagle Days presented by Boise State University’s Idaho Bird Observatory.   For the first time, Bald Eagle Days will feature the post-festival tour of the International Wildlife Film Festival on Wednesday, Jan. 26, and Thursday, Jan. 27, at The Flicks, 646 Fulton Street. Bald Eagle Days culminates with a free daylong event Saturday, Jan. 29, at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, 5657 Warm Springs Ave., that includes raptor viewing, educational displays and many other activities.   One of the main objectives of Bald Eagle Days is to support conservation and education efforts at Barber Pool, a natural area adjacent to the Idaho Shakespeare Festival that is home to bald eagles and a variety of other birds and wildlife. Proceeds from the film festival support the IBO’s efforts at the Barber Pool site.   INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE FILM FESTIVAL   Natural World Dune, a film about Africa’s Namib Desert that won the festival’s top prize, and Tears of Wood, a film that highlights biodiversity in the Indonesian rainforest and won the best independent film award, are among the award-winning entries to be screened Jan. 26-27 at The Flicks, 646 Fulton Street, as part of the International Wildlife Film Festival’s post-festival tour.   The film festival is the longest running festival of its kind in the world. It strives to promote knowledge and understanding of wildlife through excellent and honest films.   The festival includes a children’s matinee at 4:30 p.m. that showcases films especially geared for children; the same children’s films will be screened both days. The festival’s main selections will show at 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m., with a different line-up of films each night. Tickets at the door are $7.50 general and $5.50 for matinees, children, seniors and students. Here’s the schedule:   Wednesday, Jan. 26:   4:30 p.m. children’s matinee: Fast Food: A Predator’s World; Fantastic Creatures: The Sea Horse; Bearly Alike; Stories from the Seventh Fire; Alaska’s Coolest Animals 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.: Fast Food: A Predator’s World; Tears of Wood; Natural World: Dune   -more- Thursday, Jan. 27:   4:30 p.m. children’s matinee: Same films as Jan. 26 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.: Saving the Quoll  from the Cane Toad; Fantastic Sea Creatures: The Sea Horse; Who Killed Mary?; Desert Heart   BALD EAGLE DAY JAN. 29   The public is invited to learn more about bald eagles and view the birds and other wildlife at the sixth annual Bald Eagle Day from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 29, at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, 5657 Warm Springs Ave.   The free family-oriented event includes a variety of activities designed to allow the public to get “up close and personal” with America’s national symbol. Participants can take part in wildlife viewing along the Boise River with Audubon Society volunteers, see trained eagles, hawks and falcons and talk with their handlers, watch movies and slide shows about eagles and other birds of prey, and use hands-on educational raptor displays.   Bald Eagle Day is presented by the IBO in cooperation with the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. Other organizations involved in the event include the Golden Eagle Audubon Society and the Idaho Foundation for Parks and Lands.             The Idaho Bird Observatory was founded in 1993 by Greg Kaltenecker, who earned a master’s degree in raptor biology at Boise State, and Marc Bechard, a Boise State biology professor, after it was discovered that the Boise Ridge is a major bird migration flyway. The ridge above the city of Boise supports one of the largest known concentrations of migrating  raptors and migrating neo-tropical songbirds in the West, according to Kaltenecker, IBO director. The IBO is funded through donations to the BSU Foundation and other grants and provides many education, research and volunteer opportunities.   -30- Contact: Shelley Cumbridge, Idaho Parks and Recreation,(208) 334-4199 Media Contact: Janelle Brown, News Services, (208) 426-1790, jbrown2@boisestate.edu     International Wildlife Film Festival Synopsis The Flicks, 646 Fulton Street   Children’s Matinee selections 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, and Thursday, Jan. 27 Fast Food: A Predator’s World This film seeks to educate children about the interrelated systems of predators and their prey. The program explains the important relationship between the two, how the health of one group can dramatically affect the health of another along with the surrounding environment.   Fantastic Creatures: The Sea Horse This is a short children’s film on a strange fish that doesn’t look like a fish at all. The sea horse — a tiny, delicate animal — protects itself with a bizarre armor. It feeds on shrimp and courts its lovers by performing a most elegant mating dance. But the most amazing aspect of its behavior is that the male carries the young. This film sheds light on the sea horse’s mysterious life in the deep.   Bearly Alike This film parallels a day in the life of the Alaska brown bear with a day in the life of a young man named George. Watch George and the bears wake up in the morning … and fall right back to sleep. Watch George protect his sandwich from a dog, while the bears protect fish from a wolf. This light-hearted behavioral comparison was designed to help children discover similarities and differences between humans and animals.   Also showing: Stories from the Seventh Fire, Alaska’s Coolest Animals   Wednesday, Jan. 26 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.   Tears of Wood The film moves us through the Indonesian rain forest and allows us to discover its amazing biodiversity. This habitat is threatened by the wood industry, which is fueled by our consumption of hardwood products. Using music and natural sound, Tears of Wood paints a dramatic picture of what we have and what it feels like to lose the world’s rain forests to rapid timber harvesting.   Natural World: Dune Africa’s Namib Desert is a world in motion. Swept ashore by mighty winds, tides of sand are pushed from the battered fringes of the Atlantic Ocean on an epic journey across the bleak interior. This is the remarkable story of traveling sand and how it forms different dune structures, and their influence on communities of animals and plants. This spectacular 10,000-year journey is illustrated with thermal, time lapse and natural history imagery, combined with innovative graphics of marching dunes.   Also showing: Fast Food: A Predator’s World   Thursday, Jan. 27 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.   Saving the Quoll from the Cane Toad This story was shot in the remote Northern Territory of Australia, home to many unique species of fauna, including the northern quoll, a little marsupial. The quoll is falling victim to an introduced predator, the cane toad. Albeit belatedly, the Northern Territory government in 2003 decided to relocate quolls to pristine islands to the north of Australia so that they could reproduce away from the relentless onslaught of the cane toad. The story tracks the collection of quolls from the Australian mainland, their journey to the remote English Company Islands, and their release into their new haven.   Who Killed Mary? People in the small Alberta community of Hinton are still mourning the loss of a local resident. Mary was 7 years old, weighed over 200 kilograms, and everybody knew her. Mary was a grizzly bear. She was killed by a poacher’s bullet. But there are others who must share responsibility for her death.   Desert Heart Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth, but its huge desert center is no barren wasteland; it’s full of stunning landscapes and surprising wildlife. This is the land of strange lizards, wallabies that leap across sheer cliffs and ferocious little marsupials no larger than a matchbox. Huge flocks of nomadic budgerigars and mobs of giant red kangaroos flourish in a desert that is battered by unpredictable cycles of drought and flood. Here there are baking dunes but also rugged mountain ranges with lush oases and life-giving waterholes. There are even desert fish. Aboriginal people have lived here for 40,000 years, but the desert heart is so enigmatic that modern Australians are only just beginning to come to grips with it.   Also showing: Fantastic Creatures: The Sea Horse