國家地理攝影師 Paul Nicklen 在今夏前往加拿大 Baffin Islands 拍攝,在他眼前卻出現飢餓的北極熊,走在草地上,沒有冰,也似乎難以找到食物。攝影師把影像拍下來,於國家地理網站刊出後引起了廣泛關注。

攝影師本身是與當地保育團體 Sea Legacy 的製片人同行,目標是拍下深刻影像,去說服人們保護海洋環境,而這道影片,則呈現了一隻皮包骨的北極熊,拖著一隻可能已肌肉萎縮的後肢,緩慢地從當地漁民的垃圾桶中找食物,但最後看來一無所獲,落寞地躺在地上。情景令人非常難過,拍攝團隊包括攝影師也在哭著的拍。

有關影片如下︰

由於氣候變遷,海冰減少,北極熊的生存面臨極大挑戰。影片裏的北極熊大概在拍攝數個小時後死掉,而由於餵飼北極熊是違法的,這種看著也無能為力的境況,大概也加深了攝影師們的傷感吧。

這裏還有一張國家地理分享的照片,展示出攝影師 Cristina Mittermeier 拍攝的飢餓北極熊樣子︰

Photo by @CristinaMittermeier // This is what a starving polar bear looks like. Weak muscles, atrophied by extended starvation could barely hold him up. Our @Sea_Legacy team watched as he painfully staggered towards the abandoned fishing camp from which we were observing@and found some trash to eat—a piece of foam from the seat of a snowmobile, as we later found out. People have asked why we couldn’t help it, why we didn’t feed it. In addition to being illegal to feed wildlife, polar bears like this one need several hundred pounds of meat to survive. They primarily eat seals and they struggle when they are stranded for long periods of time on land, without a sea ice platform from which to hunt. We didn’t have a weapon and we didn’t have any food for it. There literally was nothing we could do for him as we were hundreds of miles from the nearest Inuit community. What could we have done? What we did do was push through our tears knowing that this footage was going to help connect a global audience to the biggest issue facing us as a species today. It is true that we don’t know what caused this animal to starve but we are certain that unless we curb carbon emissions, sea ice will continue to disappear and many more bears will starve. With these images, we want to wake the world up to the imminence of climate change and to how it will affect wildlife and people for decades to come. For solutions on how each and everyone can make a positive impact on this planet #follow me at @CristinaMittermeier or go to @Sea_Legacy. #nature #naturelovers #bethechange #FaceofClimateChange #StopFossilFuels #NoArcticDrilling #TurningtheTide with @SeaLegacy. With @PaulNicklen and our entire team. Thank you @natgeo for helping us try and reach the world.

A post shared by National Geographic (@natgeo) on

至於今次這位分享影片的攝影師,也曾在 TED 分享過他的攝影故事,有興趣可看如下︰

延伸閱讀︰

拍攝了在堆填區遇見熊的畫面,讓攝影師難過得一個月後才上載

Source: National Geographic via PetaPixel