Well, Steve was reckless. Pure and simple. Reckless to the point of foolhardiness.
Wasn't he recently criticised for holding his young child over a crocodile pen or something?
Reckless.
Which seems to be a mark of, or rite of passage of, so many of today's "wildlife experts."
Sure, Steve worked to increase people's awareness of the world's wildlife and promote environmental issues, but his recklessness indicated to me that he did not have a proper respect for that wildlife. The type of respect that is born of awe, and is grounded in fear.
I'm afraid I don't have much respect for fearlessness, except in those instances when someone displays it in an act of selfless heroism and sacrifice on behalf of others.
This new breed of wildlife expert had its genesis in the likes of people such as Marlin Perkins of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom television series. Marlin and his sidekicks Stan and Jim were portrayed as daring he-men who grappled with dangerous beasts, all in the name of wildlife preservation. What the viewer did not know, and what the Marlin and the producers of the show took pains to conceal, was that behind the cameras there was an experienced big-game hunter with a rifle to insure the safety of those same he-men.
Yet modern urbanite viewers ate it up. Marlin's example undoubtedly encouraged an entire generation of young wildlife enthusiasts to do the same.
While these men have raised the public's awareness of vital environmental and wildlife issues they have also created in that public a view of the wild that is terribly skewed, and have encouraged reckless behavior with animals that is based on a lack of knowledge of the true nature of the wild.
Wild animals aren't cute or blessed with human virtues of compassion or ethereal notions of nobility. They are wild...and wild is dangerous. Not can be or maybe...ARE dangerous.
Uncounted millions of our ancestors were devoured by creatures of the wild. Anthropologists have found many skeletons of our hominid ancestors that were killed by leopards, who inserted two fangs dirtectly through the eye sockets into the brain. I once read an article on the depradations wrought by tigers amongst the popuplations of India. The British government estimated that during the nineteenth century, tigers killed more than a million people in India.
Witness what happened to the feather-brained grisly man and his girlfriend. I never equated what he did with bravery. He was an idiot...and his idiocy got him killed, along with his girl friend. Yet the modern media is trying to portray him as "brave" and "concerned."
Balderdash. The man was a freak...with a sense of self-preservation that had been completely neutered by modern environmental notions.
Combine that with an unbridled thrill-seeking and risk-taking mentality and you have a recipe for disaster...and a dangerous example for young people who see these twits being held up as heroes.
Perhaps I'm getting crotchety in my old age, but I have never suffered this type of fool gladly, and I won't get on the bandwagon with others who are trumpeting their bravery, or their "contributions to environmental awareness." That would just help get some other human beings killed.
Steve's death is a tragedy. I liked him and his program. He leaves behind a wife and child who will have to make sense of all of this and piece their lives back together.
But make no mistake about it....he must bear the burden of responsiblity for his own death....for he was foolish and reckless.
Regards, Shuckins
