On a visit to Etosha National Park in Namibia, photographer David J Slater captured this high action shot of Cape Ground Squirrels fighting over bits of food the photographer tossed to them. After placing a little snack in front of his camera lens, a curious squirrel would come over to have a bite, only to be pummeled by another squirrel wanting the food for itself:
Kung-Fu Squirrels (Via Imgur. Click to see full size.)
The image above is part of a collection Slater captured, which can be found on his page. While Slater’s photo shoot ended well for him, it’s not recommend to bait wild animals for both your safety and the well-being of the animals.
“Such close encounters with wildlife is what I really enjoy. However, there were some people who objected to me enjoying these animals so closely and made uncomfortable remarks and even confronted me stating how these animals are dangerous, carry rabies, and so on.”
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Russell: Good point. And hummingbirds will fight over food. From what I’ve read, hummingbirds will fight over anything. Putting food out to incite a fight seems wrong, however. And there are other adverse effects from feeding rodents as opposed to birds. Not as simple a matter as i first thought.
Curious – where do you draw the line – 2 days ago this website published photos of hummingbirds by a person who was attracting them by feeding them at an artificial feeder. There were no adverse comments about this practice (which would seem to be more common place and therefore a greater concern because of the lager numbers involved). Is it ethical to feed wild birds but not wild rodents to get a good photo – I think not. Any comment applied to this article should equally apply to any other form of ‘wildlife’ photography where a bird or animal is attracted by a human placed food source.
See my previous comment as jtvern99 supporting Pat G and intent to unsubscribe from PictureCorrect for the above ethical reason.
PatG : I completely agree. This behavior is not ethical and should not be tolerated. My next step will be to unsubscribe from PictureCorrect.
This photographer is unethical, plain and simple and your website should not have published this photo because it violates every tenet of good nature photography and encourages such unethical practices. Both the photographer and the editor who approved this for publication should be ashamed of themselves.