15
butterfly survival had been illegally cut down in just one year. Al-
though the felled trees were located outside the primary monarch
wintering area, the logging almost completely wiped out a section
known as the buffer zone. This area helps maintain the climate
that is suitable for the butterflies’ survival, protecting them from
the extreme heat during the daytime and cold temperatures at
night. Noted monarch researcher Lincoln Brower, who has studied
monarch butterflies in Michoacán since 1977, called the loss of
habitat “a catastrophe.”
10
Although Brower was aware that illegal
logging was taking place at the reserve, he had no idea how bad
the problem was until he saw the drone photos. He hopes that of-
ficials from the reserve will take measures to stop the deforestation
before the monarch population is gone forever.
THE DOWNSIDE OF LIVE FEEDS
High-tech photography involving webcams has been invaluable to wildlife re-
search. While sitting at their computers, scientists can spot and monitor trou-
bling activity or changes without disturbing wildlife. The ability to live stream
those images has also proved to be of great interest to the public. People can
log on to the websites of national parks or wildlife organizations and watch
wildlife in action. This has one downside, however: Nature is not always kind. In
fact, to humans nature can seem cruel at times. And some people who witness
nature’s cruelty become very disturbed by it.
This was shown to be true in 2014 when wildlife enthusiasts were watch-
ing an osprey family near the Massachusetts seashore. A Woods Hole Ocean-
ographic Institution webcam was trained on the nest. Viewers had seen the
mother laying eggs, incubating the eggs, and helping the chicks hatch. Then
the mother began to neglect and attack her chicks, and people became agi-
tated, with some demanding that the institution intervene and save the chicks.
After the same thing happened in 2015 and the comments became threatening,
Woods Hole took down the webcam. On its website was a short explanation:
“Regrettably, the cam will not be operating this season due to the increasingly
aggressive actions of certain viewers the last two years.”
Quoted in Karin Bruilliard, “People Love Watching Nature on Nest Cams—Until It Gets Grisly,”
Washington
Post
, May 19, 2016.
.
