The Serengeti Rules won the Outstanding Nature Documentary Emmy for the broadcast version which aired on PBS Nature.
Video of the Emmy award acceptance
NYT critic's pick piece... and preview of the film
The film Serengeti Rules, based on a book of the same name by Sean Carroll from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, documents five long term studies lasting 50 years or more. The first four by Bob Paine (Seattle), John Terborgh (Duke), Mary Power (Berkeley, and Jim Estes (Santa Cruz) show how ecosystems unravel when human interference destroys ecosystem integrity, what they call downgrading. But all is not lost, the fifth on the Serengeti by myself and colleagues shows that a downgraded system can be returned to what it was if one does the right thing (upgraded), the good news story. The title relates to the rules we found for how ecosystems work.