AllMovie

For the documentary Explore the Wildlife Kingdom: Cougar - Ghost of the Rockies, wildlife filmmakers Jim Dutcher and Dr. Morris Hornocker spent over two years the Rocky Mountains of eastern Idaho, clandestinely filming the Puma concolor - the cougar, an evasive and seldomly glimpsed carnivore. Cameras in tow,Dutcher and Hornocker study a five-year-old cougar as she cares for three of her kittens over the course of twenty-four months, and thus provide a visual document of the animal in various phases - from hunting mode, wherein the beast can attack, pin down and drag a creature seven times heavier than itself, to its nurturing abilities, to its aggressive territorial instincts. What emerges is an unforgettable portrait of one of the world's most awesome, terrifying, and graceful felines.