You don't need a guy like Irwin to do that. In Florida in the 70s the gator population was in serious decline. They were put on the endangered species list and prohibited from being hunt or their skins/body parts sold. Within a decade the population rebounded so well that they practically exhausted their food supply and decimated the Everglades deer population to near extinction. Now the only way to protect the gators and their food chain is to allow them to be hunted for a specific period every year. All these solutions came about without any intervention of a guy like Irwin or a program like Crocodile Hunter. It was the bonafide researchers and zoologists out in the field working in veritable obscurity that came up with the plans necessary to save the alligator.BunduBasher said:
Go back and reread my posts. I alluded to the fact that Irwin was probably a dedicated naturalist. There is no debating that. My responses concern the how and what of his form of naturalism, not the why.
Bill Haast has risked life and limb to not only further the understanding of snakes, but to develop methods to save people bitten by venomous snakes. The risks he took were in the name of science and benefit mankind. The risks Irwin took were unnecessary and did nothing but raise Irwin to the status of a celebrity. It's good that his antics brought with them greater exposure to the plight of animals, but because of the theatrics Irwin's personality often overshadowed his message. People did not tune in as much for the lesson on animals as to see what crazy stunt he would do with them next. The consequence of this is that any presentation that does not aspire to such theatrics will likely have a hard time finding an audience. It makes it that much harder for serious naturalists and zoologists to present information if they choose to show wild animals the respect they deserve. Creatures are exciting on their own, for the most part. We should want to learn more about them simply because they surround us and, in some cases, outnumber us. Why does there have to be an outrageous level of showmanship involved to gather our interest? What does that say about us as a society?
