Title
Portrayals of wild primates in documentary films: Reason for concern?
Author(s)
Koenig, Crystal M. Riley; Koenig, Bryan L.; Sanz, Crickette M.
Published
2022
Publisher
American Journal of Biological Anthropology
Abstract
Documentaries are the primary means by which many people observe the behavior of wild primates. By influencing layperson perceptions of wild primates, documentaries could impact viewer conservation-related beliefs and behaviors and therefore the wellbeing of wild primates. To investigate such portrayals, we examined 210 documentaries depicting the four species that were most represented in documentaries: rhesus macaques, chimpanzees, ring-tailed lemurs, and mountain gorillas. For each documentary, we continuously coded behavior, conducted scan samples of age-sex classes at three-minute intervals, and made ad libitum observations of inaccuracies and misleading content. We expected that representation of age-sex classes and activity budgets in documentaries would differ from those reported in the primary literature for the same species in the wild. In addition, we expected inaccurate depictions for every species. For ring-tailed lemurs, adult males were under-represented in documentaries. For macaques, chimpanzees, and gorillas, representation of age-sex classes did not differ from observations in the wild. Documentary depictions of activity budgets differed from researcher accounts of wild primate behavior for rhesus macaques, chimpanzees, and mountain gorillas, but not for ring-tailed lemurs. In general, documentaries overrepresented traveling and social behaviors such as play and grooming. Documentaries may have emphasized traveling because such footage allows storyline narration, whereas the emphasis on social behavior was likely due to the appeal of such footage to audiences. Inaccuracies were documented for all four species, with rhesus macaques having the most inaccuracies. We propose that primatologists have an ethical imperative to enhance the accuracy of primate portrayals to audiences.
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PUB27473