Very Interesting Video.

[Gio]

Retics doing their thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9OrCvmepTI

[Bogertophis]

You couldn't pay me to go in that cave without wearing protective gear- yikes. Those pythons look very happy- what an awesome cave, & the bats do seem to need a little help with "birth control"?

[Homebody]

You couldn't pay me to go in that cave without wearing protective gear- yikes.

I agree. Let the drone do the dirty work.

[Bogertophis]

Well, you can get some "interesting" diseases from bat guano, and by doing this for the camera & pretending to be tough about it, he set a very poor example that others might imitate- & they might not have the medical insurance that I assume he does.

With cameras rolling everywhere these days, it's always important to consider the impact our actions have on the impression others get. It comes down to comparing the benefit (to education) versus harm (to wildlife), but at least the local guy didn't allow him to continue as he had been. Drone footage of the pythons would be just fine, IMO- but this is typical of the "wildlife reality shows" (& what I object to)- they push the human involvement for the "wow factor".

[ecoles5]

Thank you for sharing. Can’t believe they never protected their eyes

[Malum Argenteum]

"The reason there are so many retics here is because this cave is off limits" then goes to poke another snake. Mixed messaging there.

[Bogertophis]

"The reason there are so many retics here is because this cave is off limits" then goes to poke another snake. Mixed messaging there.

Exactly. That's why I seldom watched & didn't much care for the programs done by the late Steve Irwin- it wasn't that he wasn't very personable & fun to watch, but he'd talk about a species being protected, then catch one (for what purpose?) & take it back to mess with on camera- & did it ever make it back to the wild? Or back to exactly where it had been collected? If the right things were done, it was never made clear as it should have been, thus I considered that he mostly set a bad example, just for ratings on a tv show. (Sorry for all of you that were fans.)

The more we (those that care about herps & their continued survival) turn a blind eye or don't think critically about the impacts being made with these kinds of shows, the worse the future looks for them. Most wild creatures are living "on the edge" (ie. barely surviving), which is why being chased or handled by humans for the fun of it can result in their death- it doesn't take a lot of stress to be cause huge impact in their lives- they're just not as tough as we like to make them out to be. They have many unseen factors working against them, including poachers, pollution, parasites, diseases, predators, climate & loss of habitat, & insufficient prey due to various factors, & they do best without humans hanging around.

[Malum Argenteum]

I was going to make a comment about Steve Irwin (that I liked the Sir David Attenborough approach better, and the videos under discussion lean way toward the former) but thought it might be taken as sacrilegious.

I agree about people putting pressures on wild populations. I think a possibly even larger harm is done by the 'wow' approach when it prioritizes amazement (and a kind of vulgar amazement at that) over education. Imagine if all the 'wow' reptile videos instead taught about natural history and conservation issues, and actual in depth explanations of care techniques rather than pulling open tubs and yelling 'look at that paint job!'.

[Snagrio]

Had a feeling it was Dav Kaufman before clicking on the video and yep, there he was. You all need to watch his ball python "documentary." It is um, quite something.