Thursday, November 29, 2012

Impacts of Photography

Many people are all of a sudden (or so it seems) are starting to realize that nature photography may have adverse affects on the animals who are the subject of the pictures. I think one can compare the epiphany to the realization that smoking is bad for your heath. Everyone smoked and never thought twice about what they were putting into their body and how they were harming themselves and those around them. The photography issue is almost the same thing. No one really thought about what it is doing to the animals and how they are changing their behavior (like in the article with the study on anoles.)

Now I didn't quite understand that particular study too well (and had to Google what an anole is) since I am more of a creature of English and Literature rather than Math and Science and I really didn't try to understand the graphs too hard  since they looked rather intimidating (sorry for that btw) but I got the gist that their behavior changed some, just like how the breeding patterns have changed in certain animals and the  feeding patterns have changed as stated in the Wiki article due to the presence of photographers.

The Wiki article talks about how the bears in Yellowstone's diet was that of mostly what the campers had left behind and when the park cracked down on people leaving things behind the bears weight, height and litter size was drastically changed. In another article the photographer guy doesn't say were he specifically takes his pictures due to the fact he doesn't want people flocking to that spot and disturbing the animals. But it's not all bad.

Many of the places where people go to take photos depend on tourism and the money all of the people bring in and donations to the parks and safaris and things of that nature.

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