zooophagous:scalestails:allcreatures:Yeeee-haw! A flying frog looks like a rodeo rider as it effortl
zooophagous:scalestails:allcreatures:Yeeee-haw! A flying frog looks like a rodeo rider as it effortlessly climbs onto a the back of a woodboring beetle. The photo was taken by wildlife specialist Hendy Mp in Sambas, IndonesiaPicture: Hendy MP/Solent News & Photo AgencyI stopped posting photos like these at AllCreatures quite a while ago. A friend alerted me to this article that was highlighted by Ed Yong in his blog at NatGeo Phenomena. These photos are a cottage industry in Asia, specifically in Indonesia. In short, these photos are staged which employ the use of strings, etc. to pose these animals (and are later photoshopped out). These posings may cause injury to these animals and the photographers are misleading people who buy their photographs into thinking this was just a lucky photograph taken with much perseverance (it seems to be the same handful of photographers who seem to capture these ‘lucky’ shots). In short, these photographers are not “wildlife specialists” as the caption above would make you believe. These photos are unethical and cruel to these animals. I believe this is also the case with those popular pictures of whites tree frogs on/near other animals. Just think about it: how in the world would an arboreal frog ever find and “ride” a terrestrial/fossorial beetle? These photos always rubbed me wrong. Aw -- source link