Read this Wildlife Art Journal article

Chris Palmer's new book, Shooting in the Wild: An Insider's Account of Making Movies in the Animal Kingdom, is the most important ever written about nature documentaries.

From the generation raised on Marlin Perkins and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom to the star of The Discover Channel's Man vs. Wild "reality TV" series Bear Grylls, Palmer pulls back the veil on an industry that long has profited from conveying illusion.

If the noble objective is to educate, inspire and entertain the masses about the natural history of wildlife and its struggle to survive in the modern world, then, as Palmer points out, truth should not be a casualty;  nor, for that matter, should ethics and morals.



Citing one example after another, case after case, this veteran, award-winning producer of some of the best-known wildlife films of the last quarter century, says the public has been duped and misled, its innocent trust in the authenticity of storytelling violated by people who cut corners.  Worst of all, he says in his page-turner book, often times the animal subjects themselves have been mere models, raised in captivity under less than ideal living conditions.

Several years ago, Palmer came to the realization that it is one thing to exercise creative license and employ staged sequences to illustrate animal behavior that cannot easily be captured, but he became aghast at phony predator-prey scenes that were far fetched and resulted in animals getting injured or perishing on set. ...