The thing a lot of you guys don't seem to understand is that nature doesn't waste anything.

Nature is extremely proficient at making use of any decomposing organic matter. The nutrients in those caribou might have been a first meal for a starving mother grizzly - just out of hibernation - looking for nutrients to supplement her milk production for her 2 cubs, or fast-forward 400 years, and they might have gone to spur the growth of a seedling that's now a tall tree, supporting an entire ecosystem itself, offering shelter to hundreds if not thousands of macroscopic life forms, or whatever...

I'm sure any journalist working for Nat'l Geo is at least versed in the basics on ecological biology, and that helps him commit to the whole "noninterference" thing.

Besides, the animals' behavior - whether they live or die - might provide people back home with a better understanding of some detail of nature... and who is the journalist to interfere with that? Would you have the cameraman filming hundreds of lemmings jumping off a cliff to their death run out there and wave them all back screaming "Don't do it! It's nto worth it!!"?

Yeah, I hear you, man... not sure it's for me either, but maybe for different reasons.

After hearing what some of those guys had to live through just to get the right shot for "Planet Earth".... 2 weeks at the top of some frozen mountain... living in a giant mountain of bat dung... driving all over the uninhabited parts of China for a month with no resupply... I'm not sure if I could cut that.

I'll follow my conscience.

I would watch...the way Cannon sees it

Case by case. If I'm filming a documentary to show viewres what nature is like when man isn't around, I'd record it without interfering. If I'm on my own and I see some animal in distress, and I can help it (without risking my own life - such as helping a bear or other large animal that may just eat me after I save it), I likely will.

I met a guy who shot for National Geo, he now shoots glamour. He told the best stories and lots of scary shit, him and his guide being chased by a bunch of pissed baboons.How when National geographic sent you out for a shot,you better come back with the shot no excuses.

i would, unless they are endangered ..

A man in trouble is one of your own, it would be like an other turtle coming over to flip the turtle over. Although that turtle is probably on its back because it lost a battle with said turtle already, who would you be to give one turtle the upper hand over the other? Sure its cruel, but its the way it is.

What if that stuck caribou was injured and got a disease, and by you helping it get untangled you helped spread that disease to the whole herd....

They only observe because everthing they do ripples down to something.
The only time they will help is if they caused the problem.

by helping them you are really hurting them, because you can't be there everytime.

One bright morning a boy rushed to get up and get out to the beach. There had been a terrible storm the night before and he could just imagine all the treasures which had washed ashore during the night. When the boy got to the beach he was amazed to see the beach covered with thousands of starfish. They had been washed way up onto the sand and were starting to dry out. The boy knowing that they would die began to pick them up and throw them back into the water. A man who was strolling on the beach watched the boy frantically rushing to throw the starfish back into the ocean. The man approached the boy and said, "You know you can never throw all of these starfish back into the ocean. There are too many and they are already dying. Your throwing them back won't make any difference." The little boy carrying another starfish in his hands, stopped and looked into the man's eye thoughtfully.. then tossing the starfish into the waves he replied, "It makes a difference to that one!" and he rushed off to try and save more of the dying starfish.

*edit*

The point would be lost on you.

And dont tell me... That boy was you!

Perhaps they were 'Chocolate Starfish' ???

I'm a animal lover and would try to help the best I could..

why? i have a lot of respect for smokey, and my thoughts are that the "well, i shouldnt help any if i cant help them all" is silly

id like to hear your point, promise it wont be lost on me

how could you look that turtle in the eyes while you were walking away?

Believe it or not, animals die all the time.

At least thats the rumor i've heard.

Word

....

I make it a point to never look something in the eye that I may be forced to eat someday.

I was addressing your starfish story. Throwing them back only disturbs the food chain.

As stated above by the very intelligent D, nothing goes to waste. While you may not see it, there are critters out there that depend on storms tossing starfish onto the shores. Did it occur to you that the starfish that got tossed were the weak ones that could not hold their own (literally)?

Now, the herd(?) of starfish are endangered due to overcrowding or any of a number of possibilities because you did not let nature take its course.

that post made me signup for your program - good one mate :thumbsup

see, i can understand where you are coming from on this. and i understand that there are many degrees of examples that can be thrown out, but myself, i would feel like an asshole if i left something to die where i could have helped it. if for nothing else but to feel that, hey, i did something good today

i understand other people are not exactly like me but dont but dont treat me like a moron with your "the point would be lost on you," comments.

very nice, we will take good care of you

You dont FUCK with Nature...You observe if dip shit Steve Irwin had remember that he'd be alive today