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Showing posts 1 - 12 of 12, (reverse)
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07/24/2016 12:59:29 PM · #1
Konsta Punkka - calls himself the squirrel whisperer. Don't tell Wendy ;)
07/24/2016 01:34:27 PM · #2
So this means my strategy of arriving on location, setting up my tripod and bluetooth speaker, turning up a nature sounds playlist and hollering "Okay denizens of the forest! Time for your close-ups!" isn't going to work out well for me?
07/24/2016 02:15:21 PM · #3
Well, maybe in YOUR neck of the woods ;)
07/24/2016 02:26:41 PM · #4
Don't Feed the Bears: Ethics in Wildlife Photography and Filmmaking

//www.cnn.com/2015/08/18/health/yosemite-plague/

I can't control the ethics of other photographers. I've given up. All I can do is conduct myself in an ethical manner, and never harass, nor endanger wildlife.

Message edited by author 2016-07-24 14:29:24.
07/24/2016 02:57:48 PM · #5
He's only 22. I wonder what he'll be doing a decade or two from now.
07/24/2016 04:34:45 PM · #6
Seeing that video really bothered me. As a wildlife photographer that goes against everything I believe in. As a nature lover, it makes me cringe to see him feeding the animals like that.
07/24/2016 04:50:09 PM · #7
I have a hard time getting worked up about feeding squirrels and birds until they trust me. We do the same right in our own yard, with the bird feeders. A tremendous variety of birds hangs out with us now. We understand our responsibility to KEEP feeding them until they migrate away, we feed those who winter over, the squirrels and chipmunks get what the birds drop, everyone's happy.

Now, if he's baiting bears and dear and so forth, that's really hard to condone, I don't like it at all. But he DOES say he goes into the woods for weeks at a time and familiarizes himself with the place, so...

Anyway, the rodent pictures are way cool :-)
07/24/2016 07:12:12 PM · #8
This thread could go really bad really fast.

/on soapbox

The feeding of wild animals is something we should not do, no matter what the animal is. There is no difference between a song bird/squirrel/bear/deer they are all wild animals that when fed by humans start to associate humans with food or as an easy means of getting food. This is bad for animal and human alike, especially when people feed birds for x long then stop for what ever reason. Now those birds that use to have a food source no longer have that food source and their numbers (humans are the only animal on earth that will out grow it's food source) are based on that so starvation comes in until the population is stable in respects to the food source. Then 2 years later someone else has bought the house and starts feeding them and the cycle starts all over. True, feeding small harmless animals does not in any way have any kind of impact on people and most will never even notice it. Now take large predator animals like bears or even better, lets use gators because we have a good example that happen very recently at Disney World. I can almost guarantee that people had been feeding those gators for some time, I see it every time I am at one of my favorite gator photography places. They started associating that place and humans with food and probably noticed the father there and figured they would come by to see what the nice humans would throw them to eat. Well, when they arrived they found a small thing splashing in the water, instinct kicked in and a meal was almost had. That child died not just because his dad disobeyed a sign or because Disney did not label the sign properly (I don't think even a sign saying "No swimming alligators may be present" would have worked), but also because people thought it was cute or fun to feed the gators.

/off soapbox

Message edited by author 2016-07-24 19:15:24.
07/24/2016 08:53:38 PM · #9
I respect the Cornell lab of ornithology. They say that not only is it OK to feed the birds, its OK to feed through the summer when food is already abundant.

Baiting foxes, owls, Hawks, etc., goes too far, imo
07/24/2016 10:37:42 PM · #10
and regarding the chickadees feeding from his hands... I don't know if he's just taking advantage of something that happens at times. Very few times, I've walked in the woods and had birds fly at me and almost land on me. It doesn't look like he's just on his deck feeding the birds and taming them. He looked like he was walking in the woods. It takes more than a couple of hours to get an animal used to you. So I'm curious if he's simply using a lot of research and knowledge to take advantage of something cool. But then again, feeding the fox makes you wonder.

But it was pretty darn cool when a bird flew up to me on a walk. Yet it was kind of weird at the same time. :)
07/25/2016 09:55:43 AM · #11
This...I also call it "baiting for the shot" I do not have respect for those that do it specifically for the shot, especially when it comes around winter time around my lock and dam 14 with the eagles.

It is a very a bad thing for wildlife otherwise in nature what this dude was doing. Heping supporting birds and things from the back yard from feeders is one thing, I have no issues with that at all, that is fine fine with food and water and even during the winter when food is scarce for our back yard critters. Most do respect that boundary and leave it at that and I say Kudos to those who do... That is ok, and I don't have issues with ppl taking photographs from that way either, but at the same time the "space" of the wildlife is being safe and not interfering.. a lot of people know that boundary. but to intervene what this guy is doing is uncalled for and totally un-acceptable. Esp with other wildlife of bears, eagles, wolfs, and other wildlife, no way.

I have a few ppl locally that bait our local snowy owls and they are on my list and I do not respect them as photographers, nor call them photographers. but at the same time, they don't care what I think, nor will any one else. I just consider it to be, having no respect for wildlife plain and simple. I have "yet" to get a snowy owl the natural way. I may never get that shot, but I won't bait him to get it. By doing so, people literally ruin their habitat.

Also, by being a wildlife rehabber I see it all the time...we are NOT nor ever will be animal friends to the wild and those trying to "befriend" animals have no idea what they are doing when they do so, they cry when they actually get injured by wildlife, all I do is just shake my head, them idiots what do they expect. I also have alot telling me, "well I know how to raise it" then they try to keep it as a pet then when they get adults and older and they have issues due to them being aggressive and the animals are not their usually cuddly cute self but being destructive and acting how they should, they call me wanting to get rid of it, I have issues getting them back into the wild because they have been human imprinted, so I have to deal with that animal in a different way, it is not a fun thing to see these animals get ruined like this and I have seen it first hand on what it does to endanger the animal's lives because of it.

I have alot calling me the modern day Snow White due to all my animals I save and help, but my animals don't help me clean when I sing lol. They also call me a whisperer.. No, I don't do that either, I just know what my fur animals need and I give them that environment until they can be on their own. I get a lot as babies, some as adults, but even the adults we help I do not nor ever will "befriend" them nor ever try to tame them, nor gain my trust.. The moment they gain my trust, or get comfy around my dogs and cat, that is the moment that animal's lives will be endangered to them for survival especially, when they can not tell predators from "trusted friends"

I am there for them when they need me, but otherwise, we leave them be.

Nothing gets me going more than humans trying to interfere un-naturally in a wildlife world that they may think it is "cute" or "funny" or "cool" in any way, shape or form by any means. The wildlife world is just that.. Wild. A lot may have good intentions, but no one thinks of consequences to what it does to that animal in the end.

/on soapbox

The feeding of wild animals is something we should not do, no matter what the animal is. There is no difference between a song bird/squirrel/bear/deer they are all wild animals that when fed by humans start to associate humans with food or as an easy means of getting food. This is bad for animal and human alike, especially when people feed birds for x long then stop for what ever reason. Now those birds that use to have a food source no longer have that food source and their numbers (humans are the only animal on earth that will out grow it's food source) are based on that so starvation comes in until the population is stable in respects to the food source. Then 2 years later someone else has bought the house and starts feeding them and the cycle starts all over. True, feeding small harmless animals does not in any way have any kind of impact on people and most will never even notice it. Now take large predator animals like bears or even better, lets use gators because we have a good example that happen very recently at Disney World. I can almost guarantee that people had been feeding those gators for some time, I see it every time I am at one of my favorite gator photography places. They started associating that place and humans with food and probably noticed the father there and figured they would come by to see what the nice humans would throw them to eat. Well, when they arrived they found a small thing splashing in the water, instinct kicked in and a meal was almost had. That child died not just because his dad disobeyed a sign or because Disney did not label the sign properly (I don't think even a sign saying "No swimming alligators may be present" would have worked), but also because people thought it was cute or fun to feed the gators.

/off soapbox [/quote]

Message edited by author 2016-07-25 13:57:29.
07/25/2016 05:41:18 PM · #12
Originally posted by jgirl57:

This...I also call it "baiting for the shot" I do not have respect for those that do it specifically for the shot, especially when it comes around winter time around my lock and dam 14 with the eagles.


I took an eagle tour of the James River a couple of years ago. I was surprised when the captain of the boat fed the eagles. I wouldn't have thought that it would have been something that the state would sanction. (I assume the lack of action means it's sanctioned, because he's been doing it for years.)

The thing that was quite surprising was how well he knew the eagles. The ones that were just coming through wouldn't come for the fish. The local ones did. He knew from more than half way across the river which eagles were local, and which were passersby.

I honestly don't know the research enough on this. I know the arguments as to why it's bad, and I go with that assumption. But is it also just part of the cycle of things? Is the eagle feeding off the fishing kill of man any different than feeding off a carcass killed by another predator? With hunting eagles being illegal, perhaps we're just part of the chain now.

I'm not advocating this. I'm just ruminating.



Message edited by author 2016-07-25 17:41:37.
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