Dear staff, dear members, Once more I have a question with regards to what can or cannot be posted in the gallery. In the zoo visit photo session I am currently processing I have some rather graphic photos of a bird with its food. There are some flesh, blood and dismembered animal parts involved. I am now wondering whether this kind of photos is okay for the gallery, with regards to sensitivities that might exist with some viewers and visitors of this site. I tried to look in the forum rules and photo guidelines but I couldn't really find anything beyond general prohibitions against objectionable, offensive and non-family friendly content. Can someone offer me some input on what would be appropriate in this case?
I have actually in the past posted some relatively graphic feeding photos without thinking about it and without anyone complaining, but the one I have now to me seems a bit more graphic than those I posted before, so I thought about asking before posting this time around.
It is not clear why animal feeding pictures would be classed as 'creepy'.. Some zoos do indeed make an effort to 'sanitize' the feeding of carnivores by doing so off-show or outside normal visiting hours. I'm nervous of how this squares with the education of the public and how real and full information is provided. 'Frightening the children' is the usual fear, when in fact the children are usually fascinated. We have a rather bullish response and tend to reply (only partially tongue-in-cheek), that we are zoo with living animals; and maybe a visit to a museum or a collection of plastic animals might have been more appropriate? But, maybe this approach does cost us some footfall?
Thanks for the question @KevinB and it is a very good question. The moderators largely agree that there is generally not going to be an issue here. My personal position is that these are natural creatures and they should be allowed to behave as naturally as possible despite the "unnatural" environment they are kept in. How animals eat is just as interesting as their other behaviours and while it can sometimes be confronting - it's perfectly natural. I do recall other photos of this nature that have been uploaded to ZooChat in the past - so it's not as if there is no precedent here. There is probably a point where some photos cross the line and become inappropriate - but it's difficult to define where that line is in advance and so we'll just have to make a judgement on a case-by-case basis. Please go ahead and upload and if we later decide there's a problem, we'll address it then and try and define some guidelines as to where the line between acceptable and inappropriate is.
It's a bit of a difficult line to draw, I agree. Though many zoos feed their carnivores or enrich them on exhibit, so it's unsurprising that pictures of it would enter the gallery. I've seen such photos/video on social media from famous zoos on occasion, so I'd say it's not out of place here. And really, as one who has prepared and fed out carnivore diets before (and cleaned up after) it really doesn't bother me. I would venture to guess other keepers/former keepers that have worked with carnivores feel similar, though some people never care for it and that's ok. (And given the state of the average horror movie these days, it really can't be any worse (usually much less, in personal opinion) in gross/creepy factor)
