This thread got me to thinking about the dangers faced by wildlife pros like those mentioned above. Even going back to Marlon Perkins, we see them in sometimes very dangerous situations.
Admittedly, these are only sometiimes, but there is always some element of risk even for highly experienced pros.
So, my question is, do any of their crew ever carry high-power rifles when they’re interacting with big and dangerous animals? I’ve never seen this and have never heard it referred to. I also understand why someone like “Steve-O” would NOT want this to be common knowledge; I’m not saying it may be deception or anything like that. I’m just curious.
Did Marlon Perkins actually ever put HIMSELF in danger? My favorite moment of every show was Marlon safe in the Land Rover in his spiffy tropicals (or better yet, back in the studio) saying “Let’s watch Jim tackle the raving wildebeest.”
Good point. I remember someone doing a comedy skit on that, to the effect of, “Now we’ll watch while Jim subdues and ties up this leopard…OH! DAMN, that’s gotta hurt!”
I would assume that they would follow normal wilderness protocol (if there is one) with respect to having guns. There are very dangerous critters there, and the crew includes a whole lot of people other than the danger loving hosts. It doesn’t matter what they’re out there interacting with, so much as the inherent danger of being in the wilderness where large, unpredictable animals live.
As much as they love animals, come up on a sick, hungry lion, you need a rifle to protect yourself.
I don’t know about Irwin or Corwin, but keep in mind that, over the years, a LOT of wildlife footage in movies and on TV has been staged tp create artificial drama.
Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom” often put different animals together, hoping to make them fight. Sometimes, if the animals showed no interest in fighting, the crew would re-stage the encoutner, and provoke them into fighting.
Why? Because, as most nature lovers can tell you, nature is pretty boring! Think about it- if you went out into Yellowstone with a video camera, what are the odds you’d get to record anything exciting enough to put on TV? Pretty slim. And it’s the same for wildlife TV shows, which are under pressure to come up with 30 minutes of entertaining footage every week.
So… my guess is, even now, a lot of the wildlife shows stage scenes. I mean, Steve Irwin and Jeff Corwin seem to find snakes under the first rock they move. How likely is that? In reality, it might take hours to find a snake in the wild, and a camera crew doesn’t have that kind of time. I’d bet that a crew has planted snakes in the desired locations ahead of time.
Or they go out in the bush turning over rocks until they find a snake, then put the rock back on top of the snake, walk backwards a few steps, and start filming.
IIRC, it was Leno way prior to his current gig. “While Jim wrestles the wild rinosaurus, I’ll be safely in the helicopter above, mixing another pitcher of stingers…get him Jim!”
