Smartphone cameras are curse on wildlife

WILDLIFE --  It's no secret how skilled wildlife photographers live in harmony with the wild creatures they photograph.

It's called a TELEPHOTO lens, which allows them to keep a distance that affords comfort for the animal and safety for the photographer.

The advent of the smartphone camera may be the worst thing to happen to wildlife since market hunting.

Everybody has one of the bloody things and millions of people out there have no ethics in photographing anything, least of all wildlife.

A woman was attacked by a bison in Yellowstone trying to get a selfie of her and her daughter with the beast just 15 feet behind them.  Luckily the kid was uninjured. 

In most cases, for liability reasons, wild animals are dispatched if they become aggressive to humans, regardless of whether it's the humans' fault.

Even if you get away with it, getting close to photograph wildlife -- raccoon, deer, moose, bear or whatever -- could trigger an attack or make the animal less wary of people and more likely to charge or attack the next person that comes along, wildlife experts say.

Today a yearling cow moose had to be euthanized after being struck by a motor vehicle in northwest Spokane.  Wildlife officials say it's likely that the unrelenting crowd of people that moved the animal around last night as they tried to get really bad photographs likely played a role in the moose's collision with a vehicle. The moose suffered multiple leg fractures.

More people tried to get close for photos as the moose suffered this morning before wildlife staffers arrived.

"There have always been people who are clueless about wildlife," said Madonna Luers, the Fish and Wildlife Department's spokeswoman in Spokane for more than 30 years. "The difference today is that technology encourages that same clueless percentage to do things that can have even worse consequences, including Tweeting, Facebooking and Instagraming pictures and GPS locations of situations instantly to more clueless people, which helps create clusters like we saw today."

If you love wildlife, get a real camera and telephoto lens and give them some space if you need a photo.  Without the proper gear to shoot images from a distance, try living in the moment for a change and simply enjoy the sight of a wild critter.

Harassing wildlife is illegal. It's every bit as lethal to the animals as poaching with a .30-06, and the clueless act ought to be similarly and more regularly punished with a ticket.

Source: Smartphone cameras are curse on wildlife