Watch your kids when you're photographing eagles

[Jerry van Dijk]

.. or filming them for that matter! Just came across this short movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE0Q904gtMI) of a Golden eagle trying to snatch a kid from a playfield in Montreal. Yikes :Whoa!:!

[Rachel Hollander]

The video that went viral and was on lots of news programs here has been confirmed to be a fake done for a school project.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/video-shows-eagle-snatching-baby-article-1.1223441

[Daniel Cadieux]

It has since been debunked as a fake...a school project:

http://blogue.centrenad.com/2012/12/19/centre-nad-reassures-montrealers-no-danger-of-being-snatched-by-a-royal-eagle/?lang=en

It was well made, and fooled a heck of a lot of people! They just forgot to "fix" one thing though...checkout the direction of the shadow of the person at the 11 second mark, then the shadows staring on the 13 second mark (you may need to pause the video to see)

[Daniel Cadieux]

Oops, Rachel was faster than I!!

[Jerry van Dijk]

Ha, thanks for pointing that out! They fooled me completely!

[James Shadle]

It looks so real I can't let my wife watch it!

[Andrew Merwin]

The sad thing about that video is that people will believe that it is true even after they have been told that it is fake. Read the following: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121213-fake-pictures-make-real-memories/1

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Andrew, the article is an interesting read/

[Christopher Miller]

In addition to the shadows that Daniel mentioned, there are several points where the eagle's wings partially disappear and the eagle's shadow on the ground comes and goes. Even knowing that it's a fake though, it looks very real. :eek3:

[Jerry van Dijk]

Very interesting article, Andrew, and all too true. I strongly believe that much of our childhood memories were reconstructed after the events, based on photographs our parents took and which one has seen repeatedly over the years.

All the reason to be careful when editing images of the natural world I would say. As an ecologist, I was recently involved in a discussion about nature documentaries, in which people pointed out that they are sometimes actually disappointed that some of their experiences with nature weren't as spectacular and beautiful as the wildlife documentaries and photographs about the same spot they visited, on which they based their expectations.
I sincerely believe that showing the beauty and intricacies of the natural world to others is a powerful tool for conservation, but we do need to be aware of the consequences of how we do it.

Luckily, I see that many of you already were able to point out fallacies in the footage of the eagle. I hope that with increased exposure to fake images and movies, new generations will approach imagery in a completely different way and not necessarily take for granted what they see.

[Andrew Merwin]

Very interesting article, Andrew, and all too true. I strongly believe that much of our childhood memories were reconstructed after the events, based on photographs our parents took and which one has seen repeatedly over the years.

All the reason to be careful when editing images of the natural world I would say. As an ecologist, I was recently involved in a discussion about nature documentaries, in which people pointed out that they are sometimes actually disappointed that some of their experiences with nature weren't as spectacular and beautiful as the wildlife documentaries and photographs about the same spot they visited, on which they based their expectations.
I sincerely believe that showing the beauty and intricacies of the natural world to others is a powerful tool for conservation, but we do need to be aware of the consequences of how we do it.

Luckily, I see that many of you already were able to point out fallacies in the footage of the eagle. I hope that with increased exposure to fake images and movies, new generations will approach imagery in a completely different way and not necessarily take for granted what they see.


I agree. It is sometimes surprising to me that my siblings & I have different memories of the same events. The lesson here for me is to be suspicious of videos & images that at first blush appear too good to be true.