Wintourwatch. It's when Packham and Strachan put hidden cameras inside the boss of Vogue and try to disrupt each other as they read an autocue.
Winterwatch. It's when...oh you know how this sentence ends.
Except this is the real one. Our nature lovers rock up at a Dorset reserve and tell us all sorts of interesting things about animal poop, the splendid ways predators find to kill their prey and how to read an autocue. Oh and there's that other bloke with the flyaway hair too.
It's been said that the large viewing figures for the various seasonal 'watch' programmes is a result of the British becoming increasingly alienated from rural affairs due to urbanisation. Could be some truth in the theory but I'm in a small city not so far from a highly varied natural landscape and I still find the shows fascinating. I am a country boy, though, and as such am allowed to find voles attractive. Them and my own sister.
Modern technology, whether it be motion sensitive cameras, infra-red equipment or tiny, surgical style in-the-nest camera type things, affords audiences unprecedented access to the animal kingdom. Add in slo-mo and the behavioural revelations scooped from electronic tagging and we seem to be in a golden age of possibilities for understanding and preserving the country's wildlife. Which, given how intent humans often seem on wiping out all other life unless we can farm it for food, is more important now than it has ever been.
So if you don't watch these shows you hate animals. You know that, don't you? You're a critter hater. I hope an eagle eats your face off.
No comments:
Post a Comment