Bring ’em Back Alive 403 out or the episodes are filled in with shots taken in zoos. Another issue is the imposition of the dramatic structure that begins with a wild animal fleeing or struggling and ends with a placated animal being unafraid and friendly, “almost domestic.” This is key to the whole captivity question “what is wild and why is it so important to some people to preserve it when it seems to mean ‘anti-human’?” People seem to want both in the capture narrative—pursuing the resistant creature, and befriending the subdued one; one without the other is either the diminution of nature’s mystery or the unbearable alienation of humanity. While Durrell increasingly stresses the protection of habitats, the New Zealand terrains he visits are neither pristine nor inhabited by indigenous Maori, but show signs of modernity’s impact. Seeking keas, another NZ bird, in its mountain abode, they are thwarted by the surprising arrival of a noisy bulldozer. Disappointed, they later discover the maid at their hotel feeds a flock of keas bread and butter in her yard. Thus baited, the birds delightedly converge for the camera. This staging differs from Buck’s not in its technique of using food to attract animals, but in its amiableness, showing the world to be a challenging, but friendly place. They film the flock, but in his book, Durrell also paints a vivid portrait of the birds’ famously clownish behavior: They were irresponsible, noisy, devilish and altogether charming birds, and as I watched two of them, their beaks covered with bread and butter, fight over the privilege of sliding down a roof, screaming abuse at each other, crests up and wings flapping so that the orange feathering glowed in the sun, making them look more like an animated bonfire than anything. (2016: 84) “Fascinating” and “charming” are the two words Durrell uses most frequently for animals, but his reference to the birds as “animated bonfires” casts them beyond the range of filmmakers and viewers, and reinvents them in his own artistic imagination. While being filmed, Durrell and his narrative are curtailed by the director’s
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