That’s me, the chubby
little kid on the wheeled giraffe. Well, to be honest, that WAS
me about 34 years ago. I’ve changed considerably in the time
that has passed since those carefree days spent wheeling about
my parents’ house in Des Moines, Iowa. I don’t know whether or
not that giraffe had anything to do with it, but I have been
fascinated with wildlife for as long as I can remember. I think
some of the first words I spoke were the names of wild animals,
although I may have slaughtered the pronunciation a bit.
According to my mom, I used to point to the animals featured on
Quaker ™ oatmeal packages and blurt out things like “penglin!”
or “rhi-os-i-horse!” Thankfully, I was later taught the correct
pronunciations in my college ornithology and mammalogy courses.
Fast-forward 32 years, and here I am again. This time it’s the
summer of 2004, and
I am on a backpacking trip in
Yellowstone National Park.
As you can see, I look pretty mu ch
the same, except that my head is no longer a third the size of my
body and my hair is darker.
A
lot happened in the span of time
between these two photos, but
as the deer in the background
can attest, I lost none of my fascination for wild animals.
After graduating
from Iowa State
University with a degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Biology in
1995, I relocated
to the Seattle area to take a position at a large wildlife
rehabilitation
facility. I am still employed there today as a naturalist.
Being able to work with injured and orphaned wild
animals has offered me the chance to give something back to
these amazing beings with whom we share the planet. In the past
13+ years I have worked with everything from hummingbirds to
eagles, and shrews to bears and cougars. In all, I have helped
care for around 50,000 individual animals representing more than
240 different species.
My interest in photography started in the course of my job. In
the beginning, I mostly took photos of the patients in our care
for newsletters and other publications. Over time, and with a
significant equipment upgrade, I switched my focus to healthy
animals in their natural habitat. I find that after working with
so many damaged and temporarily captive animals, photographing
wild animals that are healthy and free is very therapeutic. It
also helps me in my job in that it makes it easier to identify
normal and abnormal behavior in the animals that are being held
for treatment. Best of all, by photographing the wild animals
that I encounter in the course of my life, I have the
opportunity to share the beauty of these animals with
others.
I
currently live in Edmonds, WA with my wife, naturalist and
artist Julie Stonefelt, and our cats Henry, Oliver and Otis. If
you visit my links page, Henry, Oliver and Otis are at the top of the page.
About My Photography
As stated above, over the last thirteen years I have worked with
tens of thousands of injured, ill and orphaned wild animals of
more than 240 species. In my day to day work I have made some
surprising discoveries about the differences in personality and
behavior among individual members of the same species. I have
also witnessed the ways in which captivity changes both the
behavior and appearance of these individual animals.
Freedom is an essential ingredient for a wild animal to be fully
expressed. In captivity many of an animal’s natural instincts
become irrelevant or, if acted upon, self-destructive. Animals
that survive long-term in captivity are usually animals that
have part of their inherent “wildness” suppressed through
conditioning, mutilation (intentional wing pinioning for exhibit
birds, irreparable injury for “education animals”, etc.) or by
some other means. Their behavior is no longer an accurate
representation of the species in its natural state.
Changes in behavior are not the only considerations for
captive wild animals, even their physical appearance may not be
an accurate representation of their species in its natural
state. Each species is intimately tied to its native habitat.
The way it chooses to use the habitat, the food it eats, the way
it uses available resources and the way it interacts with other
species, all of these factors play a role in defining the
animal. They also play a role in the animal’s physical
development (muscles, pelage and plumage, skin condition…the
entire outward appearance). To put this in human terms, imagine
taking a person that jogs 5 miles a day and locking them in a
10’ x 10’ room for a couple years. Even if their basic survival
needs are perfectly met, their appearance is certain to change
with this imposed restriction on their movements. A captive
wild animal has been removed from its context. It stands to
reason that it will change both mentally and physically if it is
to survive in the new context.
Fortunately, the animals with whom I work at my day job are
only temporarily held captive. They are released as soon as
their wounds have healed, their illnesses have been cured and/or
they have been raised to the age of independence. Animals that
cannot be restored to the point of surviving in the wild are
humanely euthanized.
As part of my job I frequently photograph wild patients both
during their captivity and at the time of their release. None
of these photos are featured in the pages of Goat Island
Images. If you wish to see them, and read stories of my work,
you may visit the Wild Again Newsletter archives on the PAWS
website
here.
All of the animals in the pages of Goat Island Images (except,
of course, for my cats) were photographed as wild, free-living
beings. None of the animals (including the invertebrates) were
photographed in a captive situation, and I did not use food,
decoys, recorded calls or any other artificial attractants to
lure them within range of my camera. When I take a photograph
of an animal, I want it to show the animal on his or her own
terms, not what he or she has been forced or coerced to do on
human terms. I attempt to capture a glimpse of the unique
character of each animal that I photograph, showing them not
just as a representative of a certain species, but also as a
fully-realized individual.
Biologists like me are taught to think of wild animals only in
population terms. In school I was repeatedly spoon-fed the idea
that individuals don’t matter. But individuals make up a
population, and it is the diversity among these individuals that
allows a population to stay strong and healthy. Individuality
is also what fuels the evolutionary process, and ultimately,
populations are depleted at the individual level. If we do not
find a way to care about and protect individuals, we have no
hope of saving the overall populations.
As you look at my images, I challenge you to look beyond
the species names we have given to these animals and see the
individual living beings before you.
Thanks for visiting Goat
Island Images, and please feel free to contact me with any
questions or comments you may have.
Kevin D.
Mack, 09/05/07 |
