Barack Obama leaves the White House for some of the wildest places on Earth.
My colleague Rob Kelly ranked this one #4 on his list of the Best National Park Documentaries.
Trailer for “Our Great National Parks”
You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up
- In Indonesia’s Gunung Leuser National Park, orangutans use sticks as tools to pull food out of spots their fingers can’t reach. It looks a lot like fishing.
- In Kenya’s Tsavo National Park, elephants travel huge distances looking for water. During dry periods, a herd can depend on its older elephants remembering where to find water.
- In California’s Monterey Bay, sea otters wrap themselves in giant kelp while sleeping so they don’t drift away. Mothers can also leave their babies wrapped in kelp while they dive for food.
Watch “Our Great National Parks”
You can watch “Our Great National Parks” on Netflix. Check the latest streaming options on JustWatch.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 92/100
- IMDB Rating: 8.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 82/100 (Users); 100/100 (Critics)
Director’s Note: “Our Great National Parks” is a five-part Netflix series from Wild Space Productions, Higher Ground Productions and Freeborne Media. Barack Obama is both narrator and an executive producer. James Honeyborne, who worked on “Blue Planet II,” is also an executive producer. Obama later won an Emmy for Outstanding Narrator for his work on the series.
Release Date: April 13, 2022
Other Unique Stuff
- Chilean Patagonia contains 24 national parks. The episode shows how a huge part of this wild landscape has been protected instead of developed.
- Gunung Leuser is one of the most important stops. The Indonesian park protects some of the most endangered animals on Earth, including the Sumatran tiger.
Wrap Up:
“Our Great National Parks” is a reminder that animals get very weird when we give them enough room to be animals. Come for Obama and the huge landscapes; stay for the tool-using orangutans, kelp-wrapped otters and elephants that seem to carry a map of the desert in their heads.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc