Wildlife Expert Breaks Down Animal Scenes From Movies

Hollywood likes demonizing animals. There, it’s said and it is defensible since good movies aren’t always made by showing a nice buddy flick that pits animals and humans together and allows them to settle their differences. By demonizing animals there is a very negative message sent that certain animals are insanely dangerous and will actively seek out human beings as prey. Rebecca Hawkes of The Telegraph has more to say in her own words. Listening to a wildlife expert however dispels a lot of the notions that animals can pull off even half of the things they do in the movies since this is a person that happens to know something about the animals that are being represented. What this does for the viewer, those who choose to watch at least, is clear up a lot of misconceptions that they might have from the movies that Hollywood pushes so often and thereby give them a better understanding of the world around them and the creatures we have to live around. One thing is pretty clear, if the animals of the wilds that still exist were any smarter and DID act in the ways that we’ve seen it’s kind of obvious that the wilds would be a much more dangerous place to visit since when it comes to physical attributes and being able to survive, wild animals are far better equipped than humans are when the playing field is leveled.

There are movies in which the behavior of certain animals is accurately portrayed but if you’ll notice a lot of those moments tend to go by the wayside in favor of moments during which an animal is acting aggressive, harmful, or in some way that could be deemed as ‘evil’ towards human beings. It’s kind of laughable really when a human is caught in the wild in a movie and the animal is seen to be the aggressor and instantly becomes the bad guy. There are dozens of cues that could lead to the animal being seen as just another organism trying to survive or protect their own, as in The Revenant or even The Grey. When Hollywood chooses to demonize and vilify animals it sends a very bad impression and as you can imagine it upsets a lot of people that have already come to realize that many wild animals depicted in movies are simply not as aggressive as the movies make them seem. Will wild animals defend themselves and their pack? Of course they will, but not often will they go out of their way to seek out a vendetta against a human being, as many wild animals will seek to get away from possible harm before they ever move towards it. Unlike humans a lot of wild animals won’t actively seek conflict unless there’s no other choice. For instance, if they want to flee and you’re in their way and trying to stop them there’s a good chance that they’ll mow you down just enough to get away, but with a wild animal there’s a good chance this means putting you down at the same time. Scott Weinberg of Mental Floss has something interesting to add to this.

From bears to snakes to sharks to wolves Hollywood has never really shied away from showing just how dangerous each and every animal can be. They’ve made it a point of showing just how majestic they can be as well and how impressive, but people tend to spend money on the movies where the animal is the aggressor, the villain, and is the deadly force that needs to be stopped. Jaws did this, and thanks to the overwhelming lack of understanding about great white sharks people were terrified to go into just about any large body of water, even if it wasn’t an ocean but a large lake. The fear that the mechanical shark put into people was so great that fishermen went out of their way to hunt great whites for a while. The same can be said of wolves. The wild canines can be dangerous, there’s no doubt of this since they’re pack hunters and don’t fight one on one, but they’re also not nearly as dangerous as people make them out to be as in The Grey since thinking that they were actively hunting a group of humans is kind of silly to start with, not to mention that there had to be other food sources around. Animals are not like humans, as many of them will not seek to ‘even the score’ or go ‘eye for an eye’ as is shown in the movies. Wild animals are out to survive, to take care of their own, and don’t tend to think the same way as human beings. While Hollywood has made a heap of money and several stars have made their reputations with various animal movies, the truth of the matter is that what we see on the big and small screen is often a fantasy that has little if any truth to it.