Animals Should Behave Like Animals

I just read The Life of Pi. And I was impressed at their discussion of animal behavior.  He really nailed it. It was detailed and accurate, and I didn't notice anything wrong though I've worked at a zoo for over four years.

Which made it even more contrasting when I saw the new Jurassic World. Their portrayal of animal behavior was totally nonsensical from the get go. Like Owen roping a freaking dinosaur on horseback. As if a horse could hold down an animal five times bigger than itself. And then Owen had this full-on How to Train your Dragon approach, holding out his hand and petting the dinosaur's nose to automatically calm it. That worked for Toothless, because he was an intelligent dragon who understood that this boy was trying to make peace. But the parasaurolophus was a terrified animal being hunted. 

And of course, how could a handful of dinosaurs of various species come to populate an entire planet?

And then there was that long-clawed vegetarian dinosaur. I remember learning about it long ago, but I forget what's it's called. In the movie it walked right up to a deer, who completely ignored it. And then the dinosaur slashed the deer. Deer are so freaking jumpy, they would never let anything get so close.

And then when they evacuated all of the dinosaurs from the fire, all of these different species calmly walked into the arena, like kids on a fire drill. Panicking animals would not quietly walk into an unfamiliar place with a ton of unfamiliar animals, many of which were predators. 

Their approach seemed to be to throw in as many new scary looking dinosaurs as possible. Even though the actual threat of the movie was bugs. (A few years ago, I heard that this movie was originally going to be about some sort of human plague. I'll bet anything they changed it after Covid hit. Assuming the rumor was true).

It's a shame, because I might have been more interested in the plot otherwise. It was cool to have all of the old and new characters working together. This is why you do research. Because otherwise you just end up with scorn from your audience @_@