To think the film crew should have fed the dying elephant (sad)

[Ebayaholic]

I accidentally watched 'Africa' last night on BBC1. I appreciate that it is a great wildlife programme reflecting a tough world however there was a mother elephant with her cub (?) and the cub was dying of dehydration. The rest of the herd were migrating and the mother had to choose between staying with her dying cub or remaining with the herd. She chose the cub. As it was dying she kept putting her hoof reassuringly on it then after it died the camera panned in on on her face and she actually looked really upset before she set off to try and find her herd.

AIBU to think the film crew could have given it some milk? I have been upset about it all day.

It was so sad. Circle of life.

Thanks larks guess my only watching a snapshot then turning over wasn't the best idea. The extra information some of you have provided makes total sense.

I am sorry but I would have sneaked it milk and clearly I am not cut out to film such things. Sob

I watched a documentary with an ex friend and this pack of wolves were hunting and killing some animal and she got so angry that the crew didn't stop them (hmm) so the wolves should have died because it was so 'mean' that the poor weak animal had to be 'eaten alive'!

I had to get DH to switch channels. Found it too upsetting (wuss).

But PPs are right: humans can't and shouldn't intervene in a situation such as that. And, at the end of the programme (when I'd plucked up courage to switch back) the cameraman did explain why they'd not intervened- would've distressed the mother and calf too much and wouldn't have solved the bigger problem of drought and no food.

Sad viewing though.

This is the sort of thing which made me stop watching wildlife programs. I know animals suffer and die but I can choose not to watch.
I read an interview where DA said that they had to have ever more dramatic and amazing things happen as people had seen it all now.
It's non stop killing, dying and shagging out there

I once saw on a wildlife programme a baby orphan elephant being pushed away by a herd then at night hyena's started to round up on him and the elephants came back and saved him. I have tears in my eyes thinking about it (and they seemed to then adopt him)

I have seen a camera crew intervene once. They were following migrating birds and they land in particular lake the mud set on one birds feet the others managed to break the mud off but this bird couldn't all the others flew off so they helped this one and he went and joined his friends though they did say it is something they usually never do

I'm just starting this on catch-up now.

A few years back I watched a programme (Might have been 'Blue Planet') There was a herd of elephants, a mum & baby got seperated.
The mum rejoined the herd, but the baby caught her scent and started to hurry in the opposite direction because he was lost in a dust storm.

I did wonder if the film crew on the ground drove over to guide/push/chase him back

I could hardly watch it for feeling sad too but as others have said, these type of programmes do tend to anthropomorphise, use clever editing in the process and at the end, there was a good explanation of why they didn't intervene to help. It would have been far too distressing for the mother and the baby wouldn't have survived anyway.

I thought it died because of dehydration, not lack of food. So very sad but was good to see the later footage of the same area after the rains had been.

ifancy

Oh! Yes I thought that about the tear! I thought you meant her general distress was purely editing.

I struggle to watch wildlife programmes sometimes, though I do understand why the film crews can't interfere, it is still incredibly sad to watch.

OP if you want to read about a couple of happy endings, look at some of the orphan profiles on here. It's a charity that tries to rescue elephant calves that have been orphaned, and release them back into the wild eventually, they have had some successes with even tiny calves. I think there was a BBC documentary about them years ago. I look at it sometimes after seeing wildlife documentaries as a reminder that sometimes there are happy endings!

If anyone does look on that site be warned that the profile for "Quanza" has some horrific photos of the elephants mother that was killed for ivory (specifically what is left of her face after the poachers were done). It really is quite graphic and upsetting, but as far as I know the other profiles just have nice photos of the calves.

thing is how much milk would it take to rehydrate an elephant? And then at what point would it be ready to rejoin its herd, a herd which by that point will have moved on, thus sentencing the calf (and mother) to a lifetime of solitude as they wouldn't be able to join another herd.

This is nature, one of the reasons why the planet is in the state it is with animal extinctions and urban wildlife becoming a pest etc has a lot to do with humans' interfeerence with nature. The African Savanna is not the place.

I need therapy after watching the elephant die

They explained at the end why they didn't help, mostly because the mother would become very distressed and it would possibly stop her going on to join the rest of the group.