Bring 'em Back Alive: Two Popular Narratives of Wildlife Capture

In the mid-twentieth century, when the United States and Britain were building up their public zoos, they sent collectors to capture wild animals in the Global South. These collectors' narratives included both the thrill of the chase and the challenges facing animal caretakers, and became source material for popular books, television programs and films. American Frank Buck and Englishman Gerald Durrell achieved exceptional local and inter-national success, first through their written memoirs of animal capture, later in visual media, and finally through the establishment of their own zoos. While both Buck and Durrell featured their personal relationships with animals, their individual narratives exemplified contrasts between British and American humor and wildlife programing styles, as well as reflecting shifting attitudes toward wild animal captivity before and after World War II. This essay analyzes what their capture narratives meant during their lifetimes, and how they continue to impact two different strains of popular representations of human-wildlife relations-the threat of violence and the desire for friendly kinship.

關鍵字

zoos ； wildlife films ； nature broadcasting ； Gerald Durrell ； animal capture

並列摘要

二十世紀中葉，美國和英國分別派了狩獵者到南半球去捕捉野生動物，以便建造動物園。這些狩獵者的回憶錄裡既有追捕者的快感，又有如動物管理員照顧動物的挑戰，在書本、電視和電影中廣受歡迎。其中又以美國弗蘭克．巴克和英國杰拉爾德．杜瑞爾的作品為代表，在當地及國際上都非常成功，從文字與視覺媒體開始，繼而都各自建立了自己的動物園。雖然兩人都因為講述他們與動物的關係而聲名大噪，但他們的風格迴異，不僅體現了英美幽默的差異和媒體對野生動物描述之間的對比，也反映了人們對二戰前後捕捉野生動物態度的轉變。本文將著眼於比較他們的捕獲敘事在他們一生中的意義，以及他們的作品如何繼續影響人與野生動物關係在大眾媒體中兩種不同的表現－暴力威脅和友好的親屬關係。

並列關鍵字

動物園；野生動物電影；自然廣播；杰拉爾德．杜瑞爾；動物捕捉

參考文獻

Barnard, T. P. (2019). Imperial creatures: Humans and other animals in colonial Singapore, 1819-1942. National University of Singapore Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv136c5tz

Bender, D. E. (2016). The animal game: Searching for wildness at the American zoo. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/ 10.4159/9780674972759

Bousé, D. (2000). Wildlife films. University of Pennsylvania Press. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812205848

Cottle, S. (2004). Producing nature(s): On the changing production ecology of natural history TV. Media, Culture and Society, 26, 1: 81-101. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443704039494

Fuchs, M. (2018). All teeth and claws: Constructing bears as man-eating monsters in television documentaries. European Journal of American Studies, 13, 1: 1-12. https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas. 12446

主題瀏覽