Tap, drag, scroll,
swipe and pinch your way through a series of quick-fire mini-games to
reveal the identity of some of the world's most endangered animals. It's packed with factoids and some of ARKives excellent images, but you'll have to survive to see them.
"What a brilliant idea! It’s a fun
way to learn about endangered species – though I have to admit I was too
slow to beat my eight-year-old goddaughter.” - Mark Carwardine, zoologist and wildlife TV presenter
Give the gift of life this Christmas, adopt a Gorilla to help the Dian Fossey Fund continue their critical work
I have just received this 'Gorilliant' infographic from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. It helped to remind me that as our human population shoots past 7 billion, the numbers of one of our
closest relatives - the mountain gorilla, still hangs on to less than 800. It's a sobering thought to think that without the help of organisations like the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund we might already have seen the last of them.
The most famous encounter with mountain gorillas was by Sir David Attenborough when he visited Dian
Fosseys sanctuary in Rwanda whilst filming 'Life on Earth' in 1979. His words reflect on their similarities to our own species.
"There is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance
with a gorilla than with any other animal I know. Their sight, their
hearing, their sense of smell are so similar to ours that they see the
world in much the same way as we do. We live in the same sort of social
groups with largely permanent family relationships. They walk around on
the ground as we do, though they are immensely more powerful than we
are. So if there were ever a possibility of escaping the human condition
and living imaginatively in another creature's world, it must be with
the gorilla. The male is an enormously powerful creature but he only
uses his strength when he is protecting his family and it is very rare
that there is violence within the group. So it seems really very unfair
that man should have chosen the gorilla to symbolise everything that is
aggressive and violent, when that is the one thing that the gorilla is
not — and that we are." - Sir David Attenborough
So what's bothering our hairy brethren?
The Mountain Gorilla live in Uganda, Rwanda and
the Democratic Republic of Congo amongst some of the highest human population densities
and lowest adult life spans, literacy rates, and standards of living in
the world. Ultimately, human poverty is their greatest threat. They face
habitat loss when
their forests are converted to farmland and pasture, poachers’ snares
set for other animals such as antelopes, diseases probably transmitted
by humans, and poaching for the
gorilla infant trade.
To help combat these threats and continue their work, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund are running a campaign urging people to spread some Christmas cheer to our hairy pals. Adopt a Gorilla and help them continue their great work. You can find out more about the Eastern Gorilla, and the other Gorilla species that they are working to save, on their website.
Remember, a Gorilla is for life not just for Christmas.
When managed well ecotourism can do wonders for wildlife and their environment, but when the thirst for money outweighs welfare it's a slippery slope. I was unfortunate to experience this when I recently visited the Pantanal. For the best part of three weeks I saw jaguar every day. In fact, we saw them so often that we didn't film unless the light was perfect - it was a real privilege so spend so much time watching the worlds third largest cat, and undoubtedly one of the worlds most beautiful animals. Sadly this was not to last...
(Photo: Paul Williams)
(Photo: Paul Williams)
(Photo: Paul Williams)
Ecotourism or Ecoterrorism? A personal account
It was August and adults were roaming their territories on the look out for a mate. We had found the perfect place to see them - along the banks where three slowly meandering rivers merged. If we sighted a jaguar we would keep our distance and head for the opposite bank (the camera lens focal distance was up to 1000mm). This was for our own safety and to do everything we could to prevent our presence from influencing their behaviour - our goal is to observe wildlife and not to direct it. Tourist boats would spot us and realise that a jaguar had been sighted, they would slow down and for the most part all would remain hushed and respectful. Many of these people are keen and experienced wildlife watchers. Sadly, egos and derterminism were to get the better of some of them, and much of the blame lies with the boat drivers. As the numbers of boats increased they became more aggressive towards one another, cutting each other up to get closer and closer until they were too close for comfort. This would often result in blocking the path of a jaguar who was trying to cross the river. My cameraman called this 'ecoterrorism'.
Our guide said that many of these boat drivers had no training in good practice and did not realise, or care about how there behaviour influenced the animals. It is likely that were paid more money to go closer. While this area is officially protected it is not officially policed and so it is down to common courtesy and an unwritten code between guides. With more companies setting up in the area this code seems to have been lost amongst many but the old guard.
Four Jaguar Fighting
Early one morning we spotted four jaguar close together - a female and three large, but immature, males. We knew that something special could happen. We slowly pulled up on the opposite bank and waited. The air was electric, we were tense with anticipation. Sure enough the jaguar started fighting. Powerful and majestic, it was something that we could have only dreamed of filming and would look sublime in slow motion.
Unfortunately, no sooner had we started rolling than did an armada of 10 tourist boats zip, at full throttle, into view. Their giant lenses and heads jutting into our frame as they rapidly encroached on the unsuspecting felines. They blocked our view of this rarely observed behaviour and in so doing denied the pleasure of this spectacle to the worlds wildlife TV audience.
From that moment on we rarely saw jaguar again. I believe that the cats had found the event so stressful that they decided to move on.
Everyone has the right to experience nature and wildlife, but the organisations and companies who manage this have a responsibility to ensure that the welfare of the wildlife is paramount.
Tourists block a female jaguar from crossing the river (Photo: Paul Williams)
Jaguar fight as tourists creep too close for comfort (Photo: Paul Williams)
In recent years there have been a spate of high profile projects aimed at turning bees into conditioned field agents. Their objective, to create an inconspicuous line of defence against terrorism, able to quickly detect a wide range of substances from TNT to Uranium. In order to train a bee it's a simple case of rewarding them with an intoxicating nectar of caffeine and sugar laced with the chemical that you want them to detect. After as few as five runs the bees become conditioned, and have learned to associate that chemical with food. They are ready to become field agents.
Thereafter, when a bee encounters a desirable scent, its reflexes cause it to extend its proboscis in a bid to feed – essentially sticking its tongue out. A British company, Inscentinel Ltd, has used this method to train bees to sniff out narcotics, plastic explosives and more than sixty other dangerous substances. Three bees are placed inside a small 'sniffer box', into which air is sucked in and wafted gently over the bees. All that their human partners need to do is watch for the 'tongue' signal. They might not be as a cuddly as a sniffer dog but bees are a lot more accurate - hitting the mark 98 per cent of the time, rather than 71 per cent for dogs, and bees only require 10 minutes training.
Another ingenious system has been devised by the University of Montana to detect landmines. Honey bees fitted with GPS microchips are sent out into the battle field. As they zip around, the electrostatic charge from their bodies attracts TNT residue from landmines. Once they return to base, this is detected, and the GPS data reveals the location. Honey bees are also being used as early detectors of lung and skin cancers, diabetes and TB, as well as to monitor fertility cycles and confirm pregnancies.
Even before bees were eyed-up to be high-tech field agents they were seen as a keystone species, of fundamental importance to ecosystems and to the survival of humans - Einstein is oft quoted as saying “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”
So with all this in mind, isn't it a global tragedy that millions of bees are dying worldwide - honey bees are being hit by colony collapse disorder (CCD) - a phenomena that we barely understand but could be caused by a parasitic mite from South-East Asia. Bumble bees and solitary bees face a different problem, mostly the loss of suitable habitat. Many species collect nectar and pollen from a restricted range of plants - usually wild flowers which were traditionally abundant in flower-rich meadows, but in an age of intensive farming and pesticides these are now far and few between.
All over the world, species are on the brink of extinction. Springwatch presenter and wildlife TV producer Martin Hughes-Games, brings us a heart-warming series exploring their plight and meeting the babies born against the odds. For some species captive breeding is their only hope.
Episode 1 saw Martin begin his journey in China with the pin-up of the
natural world, the giant panda. Without the extraordinary advances in
reproductive science, it's possible that these bamboo chewing balls of fluff would be extinct. He also followed the story of
the pied tamarin - a tiny and tenacious monkey teetering on the edge, and a chunky baby one-horned Asian rhino who's adult horns are still tempting prizes for poachers. The episode was a 60 minute cute-fest but more importantly it gave a real insight into the work of extraordinary people around the world who's dedication these babies depend on.
WARNING - This video may cause men to vomit and women to go mushy.
Prepare for cuteness overload it's a bably animal montage.
Baby panda at the Chendu research base, China (Photo: BBC)
In episode two Martin meets arguably one of the most beautiful and rarest cats in the world - the amur leopard. There's estimated to
be less than thirty five surviving in the wild - a result of poaching and deforestation in their native eastern Russia. Martin visits the last place they can be found and discovers how zoos around the world are attempting to breed them in the hope that they can one day be safely released into the wild. Other cute miracles of human intervention featured in the episode are baby elephants
in an orphanage in Kenya, and
an incredibly rare
barbary lion, extinct in the wild, whose first breath could also have
been her
last.
Martin Hughes-Games meets captive bred amur leopard cub (photo: BBC)
Primatologist Erik Patel recently sent me Trouble in Lemur Land, a film that he has produced to raise awareness of an ever increasing threat to Madagascar's unique and diverse wildlife (watch the film below). The crisis at the heart of the film is the illegal logging of Madagascan hardwood, and in particular the devastating effect of the wide scale loss of Rosewood on the enchanting silky sifaka lemur, one of the rarest mammals in the world. Erik, who has been studying sifakas for 10 years, told me that less than 2000 these sifakas remain in the wild, and only in a small region of northeastern Madagascar. None have ever survived in captivity.
Fuelled by international demand, illegal logging of rosewood, ebony, and pallisandre has emerged as one of the most severe threats to Madagascar’s dwindling rain forests. 2009 was a year of political upheaval in Madagascar due to an undemocratic change of power, this allowed an unprecedented level of illegal logging, several hundred thousand trees were slashed from several UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Masoala, Marojejy and Makira Natural Parks.
Since the 2009 coup d’etat, all forms of habitat disturbance have surged as international aid has been cut. Poverty has increased, forest monitoring has declined, and corruption has risen due to a weak central government.
Can't see the trees for the wood
The Madagascan hardwood is extremely valuable. Rosewood can sell for U.S. $5,000 per cubic meter, more than double the price of mahogany. Harvesting these extremely heavy hardwoods (each two meter piece can weigh 200kg!) is a labor-intensive activity requiring coordination between local residents who manually cut the trees, but who receive little profit (about $5 per day). The bulk of the progit goes to a criminal network of exporters, domestic transporters, and corrupt officials who initiate the process.
The impacts of such selective logging include violating local taboos (e.g. ebony is sacred for some Sakalava) as well as ecological consequences such as increased bushmeat hunting, likelihood of fire, invasive species, impaired habitat, and loss in genetic diversity.
Where the wild wood goes
It is now well established that approximately 95% of Madagascar’s illegally logged rosewood and ebony is shipped to China for luxury Ming Dynasty style furniture including single rosewood bed frames which sell for 1 million dollars each. Some of the largest furniture chains in Shanghai and Beijing have entire floors selling only rosewood furniture sourced from Madagascar and several other Asian nations. Roughly 5% of the exported rosewood and ebony is purchased by musical instrument companies in United States and Europe.
Madagascan Rosewood
A glimmer of hope
Currently, several environmental organizations are working with the government of Madagascar to gain international trade protection for Madagascar rosewood, ebony, and pallisandre under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
For more details and a reference list, see Erik Patel’s National Geographic Blog: Madagascar’s Logging Crisis: Separating Myth From Fact.
I can't believe it. All that hard work and effort, and now they're going to make it extinct! What a waste. Having worked with a number of projects supported by the BBC Wildlife fund, as well as helping with the broadcast of 'Wild Night In', I am especially saddened by the announcement of the BBC executive board that the charity is to be closed as part of cost-cutting measures. As The Guardian points out, it's a legally separate charity, so abolishing the fund will not save the
BBC, or the license fee payers, any money, so why do it?
A BBC Spokesperson gave this response:
"The BBC has a clear commitment to a number
of charities and we are proud of our achievements in support of the
Wildlife Fund," "However, as with the many
difficult choices we currently face, we must focus our efforts in areas
where we can have the most impact. We have therefore regrettably
concluded that we can no longer support fundraising programming around
our wildlife output but will instead focus our appeals around Children
in Need, Comic and Sport Relief. We remain committed to working with the
Wildlife Fund's Trustees to find other ways to support wildlife and
conservation charities."
Now IUCN-UK has launched a
campaign to reverse this decision. A letter strongly urging the BBC not
to close its Wildlife Fund was sent to the Chair of BBC Trustees, Lord
Patten, on Monday 1st August and an online petition has been launched at
www.savebbcwildlifefund.net.
Just consider the Wildlife Funds brief history...
I remember the launch of the BBC Wildlife fund in 2007. It
was the 50th anniversary of the BBC Natural History Unit and a chance for us to give something back following
years of producing wildlife films which celebrate the diversity of life
on earth. We had all witnessed an alarming decline in the populations of
many of the animals that we had filmed and yet we were frustrated about
how little we could do to help. The Wildlife Fund was an opportunity
for us to be more active about conservation. It offers us an unique
opportunity to capitalise on the creative skills
of the BBC and to engage a wider audience in the plight of
wildlife - using the magic and power of TV to help save wildlife. Brilliant!
Our first live appeal was 'Saving Planet Earth', which raised £1 million on the night, and this was added to by donations throughout the year raising a total of just under £2 million. This appeal was supported by a raft of TV personalities. Edith Bowman travelled to Cambodia on the trail of the very rare Siamese crocodile, Jack Osborne reported on the plight of the desert elephant in Namibia, and Graham Norton discovered that encroachments by the human population threaten the Ethiopian wolf's survival. These were the poster animals for the campaign - Orangutans, Tigers, Gorillas, all the animals we've come to love and admire on our TV screens. Each story sent a powerful and poignant message that wildlife around the world was under threat. But the charity is about much more than just the fuzzy, cute and mighty. It's about helping biodiversity and some of the less glamorous animals too such as the conservation of an endangered caecilian (worm-like amphibian) in Kenya, or the solenodon of Haiti. The fund now supports 87 projects around the world.
The donations were distributed through grants to programmes which have a track record of saving our species - 80% to UK charities working to conserve wildlife outside the UK and 20% to UK charities working on projects on our doorsteps. Our latest live appeal in June 2010 'Wild Night In' raised another million. Bear in mind that this was in comparison a very low key affair, it was hidden in the schedules and with hardly any publicity, yet per viewer it raised more than Children in Need!
'The range of conservation projects funded by the BBC WF is impressive. The fund has helped finance the work of people committed to making a difference to wildlife'.
- Renowned conservationist Dr Paul Jepson or Oxford University.
David Attenborough with a photo of the highly endangered Panama Golden Toad. BBC Wildlife Fund.
David Attenborough joined the 'Wild Night In' team to talk about his experience and passion for the natural world now and over the past 50 years. As a great traveller, he has seen the world change and he shared his favourite moments and showed us what we stand to lose if we don’t act effectively, and fast. David also provided his own personal testimony to dramatic the changes he has seen within his lifetime including the extinction of the golden frog in Panama, as well as the decline of the species with which he will be forever linked – the mountain gorillas of central Africa.
Chris Packham learns about vital work to save the scarlet macaw. Photo: BBC Wildlife Fund
For 'Wild Night In' Chris Packham travelled to the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the biggest in Central America, to see how a conservation project, supported by the Wildlife Fund, is helping put scarlet macaws back on the map. Only 30 years ago, the wild scarlet macaw population was estimated in the thousands; in 2009 the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) conservatively estimated that just 160 wild scarlet macaws remained in Guatemala.
Last week I was at the premiere of the WWFs new film 'Astonish Me', where I met Bill Nighy who stars in this 5 minute gem, and Stephen Poliakoff, who wrote it (read more on my previous post). I'm pleased to now be able to show you the film (albeit on the very small screen), which has just been released on the WWFs website.
'Astonish Me' was created with two intentions, firstly to raise awareness of the WWF in their 50th year, and secondly to send a 'wow nature is awesome' message to the audience - primarily the 1.5 million Odeon cinema viewers who will see it ahead of the main feature this summer.
WWF decided not to dwell on extinct or endangered animals but instead to focus on the wonder of discovering new species and the tantalising thought of what else there might be out there.
As Poliakoff told us "We've seen it a hundred thousand times, that animals are endangered. What astonishes me is that in the 21st century we're still discovering new animals. A wild cat, big lizards, the colossal squid - even bigger than the giant squid. There's a strong possibility that a new bear lives in Bhutan. I thought that that would be a way to inspire people - that there is so much that we don't know"
Colin Butfield, of WWF UK, followed by saying "There's 1.5 million species described by science and we only know about 10% of what is believed to exist - we've only touched the surface, it's a really exciting time"
Colin went on to say that "unfortunately most of the images of these new species are from scientists working in remote locations, and facing extreme challenges - they don't usually have the right light, or a good view - it's not the glossy images that we've come to expect from watching BBC wildlife films"
This was one of the biggest challenges than Stephen Poliakoff faced "the footage is so rudimentary, so how to make that for the cinema. It's the way a child sees it. That is what makes it so magical"
They did give away one simple trick that they used to get the most out of this material. Many of the animals you see in the film are still images, photographs, but a subtle animation has been added so that they appear to be slowly moving. It works for me.
2011 is the 50th anniversary of WWF, or the World Wildlife Fund, one of the world's largest independent conservation organisations. The WWF supports a global network of more than 1300 conservation and environmental projects in over a hundred countries. Next Tuesday I'll be in the company of some of these inspiring conservationists for the world premiere of 'Astonish Me', a unique film that has been produced to highlight and celebrate their critical work.
Starring Bill Nighy and Gemma Arterton, and Written by Stephen Poliakoff, 'Astonish Me' takes viewers on a journey to encounter some of the world's lesser known or recently discovered species. From a multitude of colourful birds and massive insects, to colossal squid and fish with transparent heads. It showcases a small, but thrilling, selection of the 15,000 new species that are discovered every year, and it's appropriately set in the Natural History Museum, London, where much of the work of identifying and naming these species take place. This film inspires us by the knowledge that there are still more wonders waiting to be found, but reminds us that we are also losing species and habitat at an alarming rate. Just consider the Amazon, where many species that scientists discover are already on the verge on extinction.
'Astonish Me' will be screened in Odeon cinemas from the 29th July 2011
“It's extraordinary in the 21st Century there are so many animals out there that we're seeing or discovering for the first time.. I was adrenalised when I found out just how much had been discovered over the past 10 years. I hope this film will get people exhilarated by the natural world.”
- Stephen Poliakoff
“'Astonish Me' shows that the natural world is every bit as magical and surprising as the fictional world you might see in a Hollywood film. We know about less than a tenth of the species that we suspect are out there and I really hope this film inspires a new generation of conservationists to be curious about the natural world and to want to protect it.” - Colin Butfield, Head of Campaigns, WWF-UK
If you want to see powerful storytelling that has captured the hearts and emotions of the worlds top wildlife producers then watch this incredible film: 'Green The Film', Winner of this years Prestigious Wildscreen 'Golden Panda'.
Produced, Directed, Filmed and Edited by: Patrick Rouxel
"Her name is GREEN, she is alone in a world that doesn't belong to her. She is a female orangutan, victim of deforestation and resource exploitation. This film is an emotional journey with GREENs final days. With no narration, it is a visual ride presenting the devastating impacts of logging and land clearing for palm oil plantations, the choking haze created by rainforest fires and the tragic end of rainforest biodiversity. We watch the effects of consumerism and are faced with our personal accountability in the loss of the worlds rainforest treasures." Watch the entire film here.
A film by John Liu. Theatrical screening at COP15 - the UN Copenhagen Climate Change Summit - "..the most important meeting in human history.." http://www.350.org/
Airing globally on BBC World November 27, 2009. Directed by Jeremy Bristow, Produced by Louise Heren, Music composed by Al Lethbridge.
Please take a look at www.hopeinachangingclimate.org on Monday 30th Nov, where the film of the same name will begin screening, or if you get BBC World or will be attending Copenhagen in early December, then see below.
"Hope in a Changing Climate" will be aired globally by BBC World on November 27, 2009, and screened at the COP 15 climate change summit in Copenhagen from December 7 - 18. This documentary demonstrates that it is possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems, to restore ecosystem functions in areas where they have been lost, to fundamentally improve the lives of people who have been trapped in poverty for generations, and to sequester carbon naturally. This approach has been dramatically proven on the Loess Plateau in China, the highland area spanning some 640,000 square km in north central China. It is the birthplace of the Han Chinese, headwaters of The Yellow River and home to a new environmental and economic paradigm; a degraded ecosystem of more than 35,000 square km of land now teems with life and supports the sustainable economic, social, and agricultural activities of its people.
"Hope in a Changing Climate" is the latest documentary produced by the Environmental Education Media Project (EEMP), an organization dedicated to placing ecosystem restoration at the center of the global discussions on climate change, poverty, and sustainable agriculture. Shot in stunning HD on location in China, Ethiopia and Rwanda, the film features a diverse collection of interviews, from world leaders such as president of Rwanda HE Paul Kagame, to local people telling their own stories. "Hope in a Changing Climate" is directed by Jeremy Bristow, producer of the award-winning BBC documentaries featuring Sir David Attenborough, "Are We Changing Planet Earth?" and "Can We Save Planet Earth?"
The film is presented by John D. Liu, an environmental filmmaker and ecological field researcher who has produced and directed documentaries for CBS, National Geographic and the BBC. Financial support for the film is provided by International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)-The Netherlands, Open University, The Rockefeller Foundation, the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, and The World Bank.
Nalaka Gunawardene writes again about the importance of filmmakers putting planet before profit at SciDevNet:
Films and television programmes about climate change should be made freely available beyond their initial broadcast.
Films and television programmes about climate change should be designated a 'copyright free zone'.
This was the call made by broadcasters and independent film-makers at an Asian media workshop held in Tokyo last month (October).
For years, broadcasters have dutifully reported on evolving scientific and political aspects of climate change. They have also made or carried excellent documentaries analysing causes of, and solutions to, the problem. But these are often not widely available, because of tight copyright restrictions.
Limited distribution
Most media companies hang on to their products for years, sometimes long after they have recovered their full investment.
Even when film-makers or producers themselves want their creations to circulate beyond broadcasts, company policies get in the way. In large broadcast or film production companies, lawyers and accountants — not journalists or producers — decide how and where content is distributed.
It isn't just climate-related films that are locked up with copyright restrictions. Every year, hundreds of television programmes or video films — many supported by public, corporate or philanthropic funds — are made on a variety of development and conservation topics.
These are typically aired once, twice or at best a few times and then relegated to a shelf somewhere. A few may be released on DVD or adapted for online use. But the majority goes into archival 'black holes', from where they might never emerge again.
Yet most of these films have a long shelf life and could serve multiple secondary uses outside the broadcast industry.
Beyond broadcast
Communicating the need for social change is a slow, incremental process. Broadcasts can flag important issues, but real engagement happens in classrooms, training centres and other small groups where screenings stir up deeper discussions. Combining broadcast and 'narrowcast' outreach vastly increases the chances of changing people's attitudes and, ultimately, their behaviour.
But if moving images are to play a decisive role in the climate debate, television programmes and video films on the subject need to be more freely available, accessible and useable, as argued at the Tokyo workshop.
Read the entire article at SciDevNet here. Many thanks to Nalaka Gunawardene for bringing this issue to the public eye.
"It's very heartening this year to see so many films with a strong environmental focus – it seems at last the environment is going mainstream, and is on everyone's agenda," said Joanna Lumley, the host of this year's Oscars of the wildlife film industry.
The Gala Panda Awards in Bristol took place last month amidst a week of seminars, debates and discussion at Wildscreen, the leading wildlife film festival. It attracts delegates from around the globe who work in film, television and the press, as well as those actively involved in working to conserve the environment. Over 420 films were entered.
A definite buzz filled the air at this year's Festival and the big 'C' word was on the lips of most producers, commissioners, cameramen and NGOs. A swear word on the tongue of some and the planet's only hope in the voice of others, the big 'C' in the wildlife film industry stands for Conservation.
Every film-maker wants the audience to care passionately about their story to the extent that they feel moved to take action and make a difference, but from Sir David Attenborough and James Lovelock to the Director of Google Earth, it seems everyone is perplexed as to why environmental films with strong conservation messages are not making it to the light of day. Sadly, those that do are destined for the ghost slots, late nights on channel Z while prime time TV is sandwiched with big teeth, blood and fear.
One character that almost always comes worse off in these adrenaline documentaries is the shark. A never-ending series of natural history films (perhaps natural history entertainment is a more apt description) portray sharks as man-eaters. By perpetuating the 'Jaws' myth these films do nothing to promote shark conservation and the cruel fact that man is killing 100 million of them each year, pushing sharks toward their final cut – extinction.
In one giant step towards promoting natural history films that tell the whole story and engage viewers with the big 'C', the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) took home the most prestigious award in natural history filmmaking – the Panda Award – for its campaign film 'Rethink the Shark'.
Image: Chris Clarke, Executive Director of SOSF, accepting Wildscreen's Panda Award for our Rethink the Shark campaign
A great campaign film considers the audience, provides a key message in a compelling way, and hopefully challenges preconceptions. According to the judges SOSF's 'Rethink the Shark' did this with "a sharp eye for detail, extreme wit and good humour."
SOSF, in partnership with Saatchi and Saatchi's Cape Town division of the global advertising agency, created a film that ends the stereotypical view of 'Jaws'- with an ironic twist. Drawing from its scientists around the world SOSF's HD films are based on cutting edge research and designed to educate, delight and inspire the audience to take action and conserve our marine environment.
'A summer's day on a crowded beach: shrieks of delight and joy sound the air as children splash and play in the ocean. The happy, family scene turns sour as a woman screams and panic ensues. People swim frantically for the shore, there is a stampede on the beach and a baby, almost trampled in the chaos, cries.'
An ominous shape appears – a toaster floats towards the panicked spectators, its triangular edge bobbing above the surface, and the audience gasps as reality hits the screen: "Last year 791 people were killed by faulty toasters. Only 4 by sharks. Rethink the Shark".
The film, part of an awareness campaign driven by the SOSF, urges people to 'Rethink the Shark'. It challenges the media-driven public perception of sharks as man-eaters to looking at these key ocean predators in their real light.
SOSF is a non-profit research and education organization that is dedicated to raising awareness about the state of our oceans and highlighting the negative consequences of removing sharks and rays from the marine ecosystem.
Cape Town, where the scene was filmed, is home to the Save Our Seas Shark Centre, which promotes the protection and conservation of sharks worldwide by developing scientific research projects and global education and awareness projects that target the general public, fishers and children. So, next time you crisp your bread spare a thought for the sharks out there that are rapidly becoming toast due to over-fishing and finning.
For more information or to download 'Rethink the Shark' visit: www.saveourseas.com
Give the gift of life this Christmas, adopt a Gorilla to help the Dian Fossey Fund continue their critical work
SIGN THE PETITION!
If you want to see powerful storytelling that has captured the hearts and emotions of the worlds top wildlife producers then watch this incredible film: 'Green The Film', Winner of this years Prestigious Wildscreen 'Golden Panda'.
In one giant step towards promoting natural history films that tell the whole story and engage viewers with the big 'C', the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) took home the most prestigious award in natural history filmmaking – the Panda Award – for its campaign film 'Rethink the Shark'.
