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Portrayals of wild primates in documentary films: reason for concern?

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Abstract

Documentaries are the primary means by which many people observe the behavior of wild primates. By influencing layperson perceptions of wild primates, documentaries could impact viewer conservation-related beliefs and behaviors and, therefore, the well-being of wild primates. To investigate such portrayals, we examined documentaries depicting the four species that were most represented in documentaries: rhesus macaque, chimpanzee, ring-tailed lemur, and mountain gorilla. For each documentary, we continuously coded behavior, conducted scan samples of age-sex classes at 3-min intervals, and made ad libitum observations of inaccuracies and misleading content. We expected that representation of age-sex classes and activity budgets in documentaries would differ from those reported in the primary literature for the same species in the wild. In addition, we expected inaccurate depictions for every species. For ring-tailed lemurs, adult males were underrepresented in documentaries. For macaques, chimpanzees, and gorillas, representation of age-sex classes did not differ significantly from observations in the wild. Documentary depictions of activity budgets differed from researcher accounts of wild primate behavior for rhesus macaques, chimpanzees, and mountain gorillas, but not for ring-tailed lemurs. In general, documentaries overrepresented traveling and social behaviors such as play and grooming. Documentaries, especially docudramas, may have emphasized traveling because such footage allows storyline narration, whereas the emphasis on social behavior was likely due to the appeal of such footage to audiences. Inaccuracies were documented for all four species, with rhesus macaques having the most inaccuracies. We propose that primatologists have an ethical imperative to enhance the accuracy of primate portrayals to audiences.

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Notes

  1. Additional details about specific films can be found in Riley Koenig and Sanz (2017).

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the late Robert Sussman, who provided valuable feedback on the formulation of this project. We also thank Michelle DeLair, David Strait, Emily Wroblewski, and Talia Dan-Cohen for their helpful suggestions on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

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  1. Department of History, Sociology and Anthropology, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah, USA

    Crystal M. Riley Koenig

  2. Department of Psychology, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah, USA

    Bryan L. Koenig

  3. Congo Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo

    Crickette M. Sanz

  4. Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Crickette M. Sanz

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  1. Crystal M. Riley Koenig
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All three authors have made substantial contributions to (a) conception, design, and analysis and interpretation of data, and to (b) drafting the article and revising it critically for important intellectual content, and on (c) final approval of the version to be considered for publication.

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Correspondence to Crystal M. Riley Koenig.

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Riley Koenig, C.M., Koenig, B.L. & Sanz, C.M. Portrayals of wild primates in documentary films: reason for concern?. Primates 64, 177–189 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-022-01021-0

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