Hollywood doesn’t always get wildlife and wildlife management right. Check out a few of our favorite “that’s not how that works” from movies and TV below:
What does the eagle say?
In many a western and the opening sequence of the Colbert Report, an eagle will fly by, a symbol of freedom and patriotism, and out of its beak will come . . . the call of a red-tailed hawk. You can’t blame the filmmakers. Red-tailed hawks have a distinctive keen that just fits the image of triumphant soaring. Eagles on the other hand, well, their calls are a cross between an angry squirrel and a rusty door hinge. Not exactly inspiring. Both of these raptors are common in Wyoming, so enjoy seeing their majesty when you are out in the hills, no matter what you hear.
Beary Inaccurate Fight Scenes
From The Revenant to Cocaine Bear, the idea of man vs nature lends a lot of drama, but is that really how bear attacks work? First off, we’ll need to go back to sound. Bears will huff or pop their jaws when upset, but roaring outside of a territory dispute? Not so much. It is also very rare for a bear to actively hunt humans. Bear attacks in general are relatively rare. Bears will usually try to avoid a confrontation and most attacks happen when a person threatens a food source or a mother’s cubs (thumbs up to The Revenant on this one). Other areas where Hollywood gets it right? Bears can climb trees and move very quickly (Cocaine Bear). Bears will chase if you run away (The Edge). Have your bear spray handy (Backcountry). Finally, you shouldn’t fist fight a bear (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy).
Call of the Wild
Keeping with the toothy theme, wolves loom large in movie culture, most recently in The Grey and Alpha. The protagonists are in the woods and suddenly there is an ominous howl, the wolves are after them. In the modern age, there are almost no incidents of wolves hunting people, although they might tangle with your dog. Wolves do use howls to communicate, but the people on film could probably just chill. Adding to the misinformation pile, wolves in movies are often referred to as alphas. This dates back to the work of Dave Mech, who almost immediately realized that this hierarchical classification wasn’t accurate and spent the rest of his career trying to get people to let go of it. Alpha isn’t really a thing, for wolves or humans. For a more accurate take on wolves, check out 1983’s Never Cry Wolf.
Oh Deer
Setting aside that members of the deer family are regularly misplaced on film, sometimes by whole continents (looking at you red deer), there are a few other areas where we could be a bit more accurate about our cervids. Deer are most common in the animated sphere and where better to start than the classic Bambi. Unfortunately, the biggest problem here is that deer are not very hands-on dads. Generally just a few of the most competitive bucks win the breeding lottery and father most of the fawns. After the breeding season, bucks are pretty much MIA and it is up to the doe to raise the fawn. Honorable mention in deer mistakes goes to the truly ridiculous CGI deer/elk/reindeer hybrid instigating a home invasion in Grownups 2, because . . . impressively no on almost all fronts. Deer do occasionally end up in buildings by accident and the best course of action is to turn out the lights, use red cellophane over flashlights to see, and help escort the animal to the exit. Deer cannot see red light and will likely move towards the natural light outside in a dark building.
