Giving Birth To A Tropical Parasite [Video Not For The Squeamish]
“Why is it that an animal that is actively trying to kill us, such as a lion, gets more respect than one that is only trying to nibble on us a little, without causing much harm?” -Piotr Naskrecki Biologist Piotr Naskrecki, who traveled with me to Belize last year, returned home to find himself incubating [...]
"Why is it that an animal that is actively trying to kill us, such as a lion, gets more respect than one that is only trying to nibble on us a little, without causing much harm?"
Biologist Piotr Naskrecki, who traveled with me to Belize last year, returned home to find himself incubating several skin parasites. Piotr is a talented photographer and a reflective thinker, so the mini-documentary that emerged in the flies' wake is, of course, both stunningly filmed and narrated with unusual depth and reverence.
Do yourself a favor and watch:
This sort of project is, I hope, the future of nature documentaries. Mainstream programming has descended into fearmongering, clickbait, and outright fraud, but the widespread availability of video technology offers a modicum of salvation.
Rather than hoping against hope that cable television might occasionally regurgitate a worthwhile series, scientists now have the tools to tell their stories themselves. As Piotr's fly video shows, a real story about real nature, unembellished, can work.
The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Alex Wild is Curator of Entomology at the University of Texas at Austin, where he studies the evolutionary history of ants. In 2003 he founded a photography business as an aesthetic complement to his scientific work, and his natural history photographs appear in numerous museums, books and media outlets. Follow Alex Wild on Twitter
