William, I agree with you! I thought Steve was fantastic! I know that when I was a kid I liked Jim in Wild Kingdom and so on, and he was only less funny, but just as daring. I think we need more people like Steve around to get kids psyched about nature - better than tatoos and body piercing.
I live in southern Brazil now, and have worked in Venezuela, Costa Rica and Panama (and a little in Peru). I know that when I have captured animals to show to my students, they learned a heck of a lot more than just watching them at a distance. And, the animals very rarely suffered for it. I think Steve always emphasized that what he was doing was for the animals. Cheers, Jim William R. Porter said the following on 26/9/2006 12:27: > Quite frankly, I found the Jonkel essay quoted below to be an > over-the-top, egotistical rant. Please, everyone, lighten up. > Treadwell may have been a nutcase, but Steve Irwin was a children's > entertainer, and performed a very valuable function. The ignorance > about and level of fear of normal wildlife in our mostly urban > environs is incredible. People whacking opossums over the head with > shovels thinking that they're giant rats, mothers shrieking and > calling the cops (and newspapers) at the glimpse of coyotes (notorious > devourers of children), snake phobia, ad nauseum ad infinitum. Steve > Irwin's 'antics' showed kids (and many ignorant adults) that wildlife > was not to be feared and mindlessly obliterated on sight. This message > is best presented to certain audiences, perhaps the ones that need it > most, just as Irwin presented it. We can all sit in our ivory towers > and hold up the best wildlife documentaries as the models, and > proclaim all other pedagogical techniques as tacky, but that ignores > most of the potential audience. Though not a fan of Irwin, I never saw > any animal abuse or killings, but rather respect and awe, just the > things you want to inculcate in children. Sure, he was a showman, and > the success he had is perhaps the source of some jealousy on the part > of less successful educators. > > William R. Porter > >> Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 22:55:49 +0000 >> From: stan moore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> Subject: critical essay on the antics of Irwin and Treadwell >> >> Folks -- the following essay was published on >> http://www.counterpunch.org >> >> I tend to agree with Dr. Jonkel about Steve Irwin and the late >> Timothy Treadwell. Both of these men were entertainers who used >> wildlife as their props to attract an audience and whose antics I >> believe were never in the best interest of the wyldlife they so >> claimed to love. This does not mean that science and education >> cannot be co-mingled, but there are lines of ethics that should not >> be crossed and I believe that jumping on crocodiles for entertaining >> television footage or invading the comfort zones of large bears for >> the same reason cross those lines. Paradoxically, these sort of >> human behaviors tend to get corrected by the targets of the behaviors >> when those wildlife have had enough. >> >> Stan Moore San Geronimo, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> here is the essay I spoke of: >> >> >> September 25, 2006 >> >> "People of the Croc Hunter Ilk are Worse Than the Most Bloodthirsty >> Slob Hunter" >> Save a Grizzly, Visit a Library >> By Dr. CHARLES JONKEL >> >> The mass media, wildlife film industry, wildlife filmmakers, >> Hollywood celebrities and wildlife agencies need a good dressing >> down. The proliferation of "el cheapo," entertainment-oriented >> wildlife films causes drastic impacts on wildlife species worldwide. >> As humans become ever more oriented to human creations, totally urban >> lifestyles, glitz and glitter, personalities, high-speed everything, >> oddball "moments," self-centered blogs, instant wealth at anything's >> expense, frivolous religion and politics, and endless/meaningless >> drivel and marketing, wild animals suffer. >> >> So the Croc Hunter was done in by a stingray and Timothy Treadwell by >> a brown bear. In both cases they earned their own demise, fooling >> with nature, doing goofy things with large and formidable animals >> better left alone. >> >> Steve Irwin's stupid behaviors with animals teasing them, getting >> too close, goading them into attacks not only teaches bad value and >> interactions relative to wildlife, but will be copied by thousands of >> other airheads for decades to come and has set ever lower standards >> for the media-an industry which constantly exploits wildlife with >> quick-and-dirty films, film clips, and wildlife "news" focused on the >> trivial. >> >> For 29 years I have rallied against such wildlife pornography. I >> created the International Wildlife Film Festival to set high >> standards and to promote the production of high-quality wildlife >> films. Even before IWFF, I recognized that bears (in particular) were >> vulnerable to excessive and dramatized reporting and human interest. >> I started early on (the early 1960s) to teach not exploiting bear >> "charisma" for profit and gain, or to enhance one's ego. I have >> always used bears as a medium to teach and communicate about science >> and nature, but in ways not detrimental to the bears. >> >> Likewise, for decades I have been trying to encourage wildlife >> agencies, wildlife researchers, managers, law enforcement people, and >> university-level wildlife departments to deal with extensive wildlife >> exploitation within the mass media, the wildlife film industry, and >> wildlife film marketing. Professionals, well aware of the terrible >> impacts on wildlife by market hunters early in the 1960s, have >> steadfastly remained in denial about wildlife in the wildlife film >> marketplace. Even today, almost no wildlife management, research, or >> law enforcement is practiced on, focused on, or taught about the >> enormous, deleterious effects of bad wildlife filmmaking, >> distribution, marketing or screening. >> >> I often note that hunters, fishermen and trappers are constantly >> controlled, regulated, held to high sportsman standards and pursued >> for violations. The typical hunter has a wad of papers about 200 >> pages long in his or her pocket in order to "stay legal," to guide on >> bag limits, seasons, hunting times, sex and age, closed or open >> areas, care of the meat, caliber of the rifle or type of shot used, >> etc. In the meantime, those same agencies encourage and aid countless >> filmmakers, camera crews, photographers, editors, writers, and >> whatever to go out and do whatever they want, when they want and >> where they want. Staff biologists are not encouraged to monitor, >> evaluate and speak out on, or control, wildlife productions. The >> content is basically considered entertainment for in the evening, not >> a wildlife professional's responsibility. Treadwell, for example, was >> allowed to do many things illegal for others to do. >> >> Worse, perhaps, the needed standards, ethical evaluations, impacts on >> wildlife and actions needed are not included in wildlife textbooks or >> classrooms. The whole matter is studiously ignored, as not important >> in the profession of wildlife biology, despite the 29 years that IWFF >> and the Great Bear Foundation have called for action. "Poachers with >> a camera" still mostly write their own rules. People like Irwin and >> Treadwell still do what they damn well please with animals-countless >> actions that a hunter would be fined and jailed for. Star-struck is >> for kids, not wildlife professionals. Filmmaking should not be an >> allowable way to exploit wildlife for money and fame. The National >> Geographic Society and the Discovery Channel and all of their >> defenders should hang their heads in shame for promoting stupid TV >> actions over sound wildlife biology. >> >> So why does this problem go on forever? People steal the charisma of >> the animals to boost their own ego and status, which translates into >> money. It is always the money. So far as I care, wildlife will be >> considerably better off without Treadwell and Irwin. Where are the >> other voices of the people who should object? Why should the balance >> always be stacked for the sensational, the glitz? >> >> Charles Jonkel is president of the Missoula-based Great Bear Foundation >> >> ------------------------------ > -- ------------------------------------- James J. Roper, Ph.D. Universidade Federal do Paraná Depto. de Zoologia Caixa Postal 19020 81531-990 Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil ===================================== E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone/Fone/Teléfono: 55 41 33611764 celular: 55 41 99870543 ===================================== Zoologia na UFPR http://zoo.bio.ufpr.br/zoologia/ Ecologia e Conservação na UFPR http://www.bio.ufpr.br/ecologia/ ------------------------------------- http://jjroper.sites.uol.com.br Currículo Lattes http://lattes.cnpq.br/2553295738925812
