Are wildlife documentaries the reality of wild or painted pictures?
Are wildlife documentaries the reality of wild or painted pictures?
We all have fond memories of watching the fight between animals, a lion, and a leopard chasing the rabbits, knowing the world of the unknown, the battle, the love, the survival, the apprehension, the breathtaking moments of wildlife
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Do these wildlife documentaries show the real picture or a staged one?
Is wildlife always such a mess? Or is this the climax that we see? Are those breathtaking movements real or just edited, or created in such a manner that we get a dopamine release?
We all are aware that our forests and biodiversity are suffering. The environment is deteriorating loss of habitat and a very high rate of extinction. The whole forest is somehow disappearing and that leads to a growing distance between children and the radiant world of wildlife.
This wildlife documentary can be a connecting point where the younger generation gets to know about their surroundings which made the path of the high rate of wildlife documentaries.
Nowadays plenty of documentaries are made which raise the question of authenticity, realism, and the true picture of wildlife.
Initially, the documentaries are telecast, then innumerable channels on television started to show wildlife but the emergence of social media kick-started the business of wildlife documentaries at a very fast-paced people are sharing cute-looking pandas and fearless leopards on social media. These days awareness about the environment and environmental protection is also rising which leads to more interest in wildlife.
Again the question of reality and the painted pictures arises. Are those documentaries showing us the unbiased true reality of wildlife or are also running behind trends on social media? Like, dislike and the views? Only rabbits, polar bears, and pandas taking over social media? Are they the only animals in the wild?
The Ph.D. scholars from the University of Cambridge have a certain eye-opening study to showcase how biased a wildlife documentary can be, they made a list of documentaries made between 1918 to 2021. Furthermore, they reviewed every aspect of the documentaries like organisms, habitats, species, etc.
The result was showing that most of the documents are revealing the life of the wild, concentrating on biodiversity and even informing concerns about forests and wildlife. However, something more fascinating we found in that analysis, the documentary makers only focused on vertebrates, more than 81% of documentaries were filled with vertebrates (mostly mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes).
On the other hand, the mention of invertebrates(cold-blooded animals with no backbone such as protozoans, annelids, etc.) is less than 18%. The fact is those only part of 18% of documentaries are 75% in wildlife and those who occupied 81% of mentions are only 3.4% in wildlife.
Moreover, the showing of anteaters chasing ants and falling flat to show their life or showing the leopards chasing and preying always, paints a picture that they are famished animals who consume all-day long.
Instead of showcasing the dopamine hike documentaries the producer can create a realistic picture of the natural world while developing awareness among the public.
REFERENCE
X, S. (2023, March 15). Knowing your ants from your anteaters: Are wildlife documentaries
showing us the “real” natural world? https://phys.org/news/2023-03-ants-anteaters-
wildlife-documentaries-real.html
Technology, L. (2023, March 15). Knowing your ants from your anteaters: Are wildlife
documentaries showing us the 'real' natural world? Undefined.
https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-science-news/knowing-your-ants-
from-your-anteaters-are-wildlife-documentaries-showing-us-the-real-natural-world