The Last Paradises - On the track of rare animals
The Last Paradises book cover
Directed by	Eugen Schuhmacher
Produced by	Eugen Schuhmacher
Written by	Eugen Schuhmacher
Starring	Eugen Schuhmacher Helmut Barth Freimut Kalden
Music by	Erich Bender Günter Fuhlisch
Distributed by	Globus Film
Release date(s)	February 28, 1967
Running time	116 min.
Language	German German (with subtitles) English dubbing
Budget	DM 1.000.000 (about $ 250.000)
IMDb profile

Eugen Schuhmacher (actually Eugen Josef Robert Schuhmacher) (August 4, 1906 Stuttgart, Germany — January 8, 1973 Munich, Germany) was a German zoologist and pioneer of animal documentaries. Besides Bernhard Grzimek and Heinz Sielmann he belongs to the German documentary filmmakers with an international reputation. Image File history File links The_last_paradises. ... August 4 is the 216th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (217th in leap years), with 149 days remaining. ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Coordinates: Time zone: CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) Administration Country: Germany State: Baden-Württemberg Administrative region: Stuttgart District: Urban district City subdivisions: 23 districts Lord Mayor: Wolfgang Schuster (CDU) Basic Statistics Area: 207. ... January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... Coordinates: Time zone: CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) Administration Country: Germany State: Bavaria Administrative region: Upper Bavaria District: Urban district City subdivisions: 25 borroughs Lord Mayor: Christian Ude (SPD) Governing parties: SPD / Greens / Rosa Liste Basic Statistics Area: 310. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Heinz Sielmann (born June 2, 1917 in Rheydt [now Mönchengladbach], Germany ) is a world renowned wildlife photographer, zoologist and documentary filmmaker. ...

His movie Natur in Gefahr (Nature in Danger) from 1952 was one of the first attempts which deals with the subject endangered species and it is an alerting report of the destruction of the nature paradises and the extinction of species. But only 14 years later he should make his masterpiece The Last Paradises - On the Track of Rare Animals, a film which belongs to the milestones of nature conservation documentaries. The critically endangered Amur Tiger, a rare subspecies of tiger. ...

Personal background

Eugen Schuhmacher's career began in the early 1930s with educational and cultural shortfilms about the wildlife in South America and the German Reich. In the next four decades he made documentaries (feature length and shortfilms) about animals, the Inca culture, and the natives from North America, South America and Papua New Guinea. This movies were awarded at festivals in Berlin, Venice, Cannes and Trento. His feature film In the Shadow of the Karakoram (Im Schatten des Karakorum) received the German Film Prize for best documentary in 1955. In 1958 he discovered the German television for his work and he made one of the first television series about endangered species. 37 episodes of On the Track of rare Animals (Auf den Spuren seltener Tiere) were shoot, a series which has taken the audience on a journey to Galapagos, Papua New Guinea, Africa, and other exotic places. This series was very popular in German television. Schuhmacher has died at age 66 of cancer. His last movie Europas Paradiese (Europe's paradises) had its premiere after his death. South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... The history of Germany is, in places, extremely complicated and depends much on how one defines Germany. ... Capital Cusco 1197-1533 Vilcabamba 1533-1572 Language(s) Quechua Government Monarchy Sapa Inca  - 1197–1220 Manco Capac  - 1532-1533 Atahualpa  - 1570-1572 Túpac Amaru History  - Established 1197  - Spanish conquest 1532–1537  - Disestablished 1572 Area  - 1527 2,000,000 km2 772,204 sq mi Population  - 1527 est. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... The Berlin International Film Festival, also called the Berlinale, is one of the most important film festivals in Europe and the world. ... The Venice Film Festival (it: Mostra Internazionale dArte Cinematografica) is the oldest Film Festival in the World (began in the 1932) and takes place every year in late August/early September on the Lido di Venezia in the historic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi, in Venice, Italy. ... Cannes Film Festival logo. ... Panorama of Trento. ... Located in the mountainous regions of Gilgit, Ladakh & Baltistan, Gilgit and Baltistan are in Pakistan, the Karakoram is one of the great Himalayan mountain ranges, with many of the highest and most daunting peaks of the world. ... NASA Satellite photo of the Galápagos archipelago. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa. ...

Pioneering for the World Nature Conservation

The filming of Schuhmacher's movie The Last Paradises - On the Track of Rare Animals (Die letzten Paradiese) began in spring 1959. The movie is one of the most ambitious movie projects about endangered species to date. Schuhmacher and his cinematographer Helmut Barth (who has later worked on the Academy Award-winning movie The Hellstrom Chronicle) have gone on a 7 year travel (from 1959 to 1966) to film the most endangered animals of the world. After an animated introduction about the history of extinct species (e.g. the Quagga, the Great Auk and the Dodo) it has gone to 60 countries (e.g. Turkey, Spain, Germany, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, India, Java, USA, and Peru) on all continents and to the most famous national parks. The footage of this movie is unique. Species like the Hamilton's frog (Leiopelma hamiltoni) or the Javan Rhinoceros were filmed for the very first time and the sequences of the Kakapo, the Takahe, the dancing of the Red-crowned cranes, the fishing Kodiak Bears, the Whooping Crane, the Asiatic Lion, the Komodo Dragon, the Tuatara, the Indri, and the Birds of Paradise are outstanding and of an intensity which was never seen before. The film received awards at the Documentary filmfestival at Trento and was a worldwide success. There is also a book reference which was translated into many languages and was a huge success too. Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... The Hellstrom Chronicle is an American film from 1971. ... Trinomial name Equus quagga quagga Boddaert, 1785 The quagga is an extinct subspecies of the plains zebra, which was once found in great numbers in South Africas Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State. ... Binomial name Pinguinus impennis (Linnaeus, 1758) The Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) is an extinct bird. ... Binomial name Raphus cucullatus Linnaeus, 1758 Former range (in red) Synonyms Didus ineptus The Mauritius Dodo (Raphus cucullatus), more commonly just dodo, was a metre-high (three-foot) flightless bird related to the pigeons that lived on the islands of Mauritius. ... Java (Indonesian, Javanese, and Sundanese: Jawa) is an island of Indonesia, and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. ... This article is about national parks. ... Binomial name Leiopelma hamiltoni McCulloch, 1919 Range of Leiopelma hamiltoni. ... Binomial name Rhinoceros sondaicus Desmarest, 1822 Javan Rhinoceros Range Subspecies Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus Rhinoceros sondaicus inermis (extinct) Rhinoceros sondaicus sondaicus The Javan Rhinoceros, Rhinoceros sondaicus is one of the rarest and most endangered large mammals anywhere in the world. ... Binomial name Strigops habroptilus Gray, 1845 The Kakapo (Māori: kākāpō, meaning night parrot), Strigops habroptilus (from the Greek strix, genitive strigos: owl and ops: face; and habros: soft, and ptilon: feather), also called owl parrot, is a species of nocturnal parrot endemic to New Zealand. ... Binomial name Porphyrio mantelli Owen, 1848 The Takahē, Porphyrio mantelli is a flightless bird native to New Zealand which belongs to the rail family. ... Binomial name Grus japonensis (Statius Muller, 1776) The Red-crowned Crane (Grus japonensis), also called the Japanese Crane and Manchurian Crane, is a large crane and is the second rarest crane in the world. ... Trinomial name Ursus arctos middendorffi Kodiak Bear range The Kodiak bear (Ursus arctos middendorffi) is an unique subspecies of the brown bear. ... Binomial name Grus americana Linnaeus, 1758 The Whooping Crane (Grus americana) is a very large and endangered crane. ... Trinomial name Panthera leo persica Meyer, 1826 Current distribution of the Asiatic Lion in the wild Synonyms Leo leo goojratensis (India) Leo leo persicus (Persia) The Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica; also known as Indian Lion) is a subspecies of the lion found only in India. ... Binomial name Varanus komodoensis Ouwens, 1912 The Komodo Dragon, Komodo Monitor, Ora to the natives of Komodo[1], or simply Komodo (Varanus komodoensis), is the largest living species of lizard, growing to an average length of 2-3 metres (approximately 6. ... Species Sphenodon punctatus (Gray, 1842) Sphenodon guntheri Buller, 1877 Sphenodon diversum (extinct) The tuatara is a reptile of the family Sphenodontidae, endemic to New Zealand. ... Binomial name Indri indri (Gmelin, 1788) The Indri (Indri indri), also called the Entrina, is a large (up to 70 cm long, and weighing up to 13 kg) tree-dwelling relative of the lemur and, like all lemuroids, it is native to Madagascar. ... For the flowering plant of this name, see Strelitzia Genera Cicinnurus Diphyllodes Epimachus Lophorina Manucodia Paradisaea Parotia Ptiloris Seleucidis Lesser Bird of Paradise Paradisaea minor (c)Roderick Eime The birds of paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes, found in Oceania. ... Panorama of Trento. ...

Selected movies

• 1955: Im Schatten des Karakorum
• 1967: The Last Paradises: On the track of Rare animals (Die letzten Paradiese)
• 1973: Europas Paradiese

Selected books

• 1968: The Last of the Wild: On the track of Rare animals (with Gwynne Vevers ; Winwood Reade), Collins, London, 1968
• 1968: The Last Paradises: On the track of Rare animals, DOUBLEDAY & CO, INC. New York
• 1970: Alaska: Vast Land on the Edge of the Arctic (with Heinrich Gohl), Kümmerly & Frey Geographical Publishers, Berne, Schwitzerland

External links

• Eugen Schuhmacher at the Internet Movie Database