Killer instinct
Watched Blue Planet--Seas of Life Part 4 yesterday. Rather, it was on in the background as I scanned slides. I have that distinctly male fascination with nature documentaries (maybe I'm being sexist, but while my guy friends often confess to watching documentaries on the Discovery Channel, I've never had any of my girl friends express a similar habit).
One reason these documentaries are so fascinating is the same reason conservatives decry video games and movies: they depict a healthy dose of murder and violence. Somehow it's acceptable to watch other species displaying the same brutal tendencies. Still, I feel the same sense of voyeuristic embarrassment and horror when shown animals ruthlessly attacking each other.
The "Tides" episode scored low on the violence scale, though I didn't realize that ocean snails would emerge from the sand to surf the tides onto beaches to feed on the flesh of dead fish. The sight of a dozen snails crawling all over the body of a dead fish was like something out of a disturbing arthouse movie.
"Coasts" had an insane body count. Hawks snare seagulls out of the air. A sea lion grabs a penguin and drags it out to sea to thrash its victim violently back and forth to, get this, skin the penguin. A pod of Orcas attack some naive young seal pups, snatching them from the shallow water along a beach. One shot shows a seal pup screaming in pain as an Orca tosses it up and down violently with its mouth. Then, the killer whale drags the still living seal pup out to sea and uses it like a volleyball with the other members of its pod. They take turns picking up the panicked, bleeding seal pup in their mouths and tossing it through the air. After the seal pup dies, the whale uses its tale to launch the limp corpse 30 to 40 feet out of the water through the air.
A day later and I'm still traumatized. That poor seal pup. Is it cruelty if there is no conscious intent?
One reason these documentaries are so fascinating is the same reason conservatives decry video games and movies: they depict a healthy dose of murder and violence. Somehow it's acceptable to watch other species displaying the same brutal tendencies. Still, I feel the same sense of voyeuristic embarrassment and horror when shown animals ruthlessly attacking each other.
The "Tides" episode scored low on the violence scale, though I didn't realize that ocean snails would emerge from the sand to surf the tides onto beaches to feed on the flesh of dead fish. The sight of a dozen snails crawling all over the body of a dead fish was like something out of a disturbing arthouse movie.
"Coasts" had an insane body count. Hawks snare seagulls out of the air. A sea lion grabs a penguin and drags it out to sea to thrash its victim violently back and forth to, get this, skin the penguin. A pod of Orcas attack some naive young seal pups, snatching them from the shallow water along a beach. One shot shows a seal pup screaming in pain as an Orca tosses it up and down violently with its mouth. Then, the killer whale drags the still living seal pup out to sea and uses it like a volleyball with the other members of its pod. They take turns picking up the panicked, bleeding seal pup in their mouths and tossing it through the air. After the seal pup dies, the whale uses its tale to launch the limp corpse 30 to 40 feet out of the water through the air.
A day later and I'm still traumatized. That poor seal pup. Is it cruelty if there is no conscious intent?