The portrayal of animal interactions in nature documentaries by David Attenborough and Bernhard Grzimek

Abstract

Millions of people across the world have been exposed to the wildlife documentaries of David Attenborough and Bernhard Grzimek, who have thus greatly influenced the public’s views on nature and biodiversity. We investigated the way organisms’ biology is portrayed in these documentaries, quantifying different types of animal interactions shown. We evaluated 1498 (Attenborough) and 391 (Grzimek) interactions within- and between-species from documentaries covering a wide range of environments and animal taxa, first aired between 1956 and 2019. We tested whether the relative frequencies of different interactions were influenced by temporal trends as well as by the presenters and their production teams who likely reflect the given Zeitgeist in the UK compared to the European mainland. For our categorisation of animal interactions, we contrasted interspecific versus intraspecific interactions and antagonistic versus cooperative behaviour. While Grzimek’s documentaries put a stronger emphasis on cooperation and Attenborough’s on antagonistic behaviour, the trends were not statistically significant. Furthermore, these patterns show no significant change over time, contrasting with the changing view among biologists that cooperation is more predominant than considered in the traditional understanding of nature as ‘red in tooth and claw’.