Subtitles (157)
0:04I'd like to introduce you
to this comedy wildlife competition.
0:09Now no one’s day will ever be as chill
as that of a raccoon.
0:13Indeed, life throws bad days at all of us.
0:16And sometimes things can get worse.
0:19You can wake up with a bad hair day.
0:23Now the pictures you're seeing today
0:24are the result of a wildlife
photography competition
0:27that we created to recognize
the positive values of wildlife
0:31and how it impacts all of us.
0:34Now as the competition developed,
0:35we started to receive
thousands of photographs,
0:38more than we'd expected.
0:39And these photographs began to communicate
with us in many different ways,
0:44ways we might have expected,
0:49But we began to appreciate
0:51the qualities and charm of these animals,
0:57and we began to put
pictures together that told a story.
1:01They can fly, which everyone knows,
1:03and everyone knows that cheetahs
are the fastest mammal on the land,
1:06but no one knows they're terrified
of being caught speeding.
1:12While we're on the subject of speed,
1:13woodpeckers make
a rather unexpected appearance
1:16because they believe
they're the fastest birds.
1:20But as we know in life, self-belief
is about 95 percent of the job.
1:25Away from the speed merchants,
you've got the sport jocks
1:29who maybe go out
for a round of golf or not,
1:32depending on the round.
1:35Then you've got
your left brains, the creatives,
1:38the ones that maybe focus more
on their music, air guitar in the wild.
1:44And then maybe like dancing
as if nobody was watching.
1:49Beyond that, you have the superheroes,
1:52the ones that influence the Marvel Comics.
1:54The Jedi squirrel,
the most powerful Jedi in the world.
1:57He controls all the nuts.
1:59And then, probably
even more frighteningly,
2:02you have the animal that can become
completely invisible in any habitat.
2:06So what you're finding funny
about these pictures, hopefully,
2:10is a little bit different to your neighbor
2:12and to the neighbor next to them
and so on and so forth.
2:15And the result is that it's
unconditionally personal, your reaction,
2:20which makes these pictures
very accessible to everyone.
2:23But it also makes them
cross-border and multicultural,
2:26which is why this competition
has succeeded.
2:29This could be you and your best friend
laughing till you cry,
2:35but it could also just be
a very casual backhanded slap.
2:38It depends how you see it.
2:41And this? Well, this might be
the morning after the night before.
2:45Exam time, could be anything.
2:48We started to see some more similarities
as we looked at these pictures.
2:52This is the same family row
that we all have.
2:55And within these families,
2:56you have partnerships
with mature and intelligent adults
3:00who talk and understand each other.
3:03And those partnerships are normally
made up of a talker ...
3:06and maybe a listener.
3:10The children also seem to show
similarities to us humans.
3:13They need little or no supervision.
3:17They share without being asked,
which is lovely.
3:20And fortunately they never, ever squabble.
3:24And then you have the teenage years.
3:26Well, the teenage years,
3:29they do the same thing.
3:30They have no awareness whatsoever.
3:34They have the very, very common traits
of the staying-in-bed-all-day illness.
3:40TS: And then the even more common trait
of too much screen time.
3:47And if they're not picking their nose
on the screen or in bed,
3:51that's the cool kids, and they're
out the back having a cigarette.
3:56Someone said, duck smoking quack,
3:59(Laughter and applause)
4:03But if you put a camera on these guys,
they react like all of us. They love it.
4:08And if they love it that much,
they start doing photo bombs
4:11even when you don't expect it.
4:13But at the end of the day,
they stay friends
4:15and they come together
for the most brutal of all things --
4:18the family portrait session.
4:22Comedy Wildlife, our organization --
4:25that's the three of us there,
you'll recognize me on the left.
4:29We came together because
we wanted to use a positive force
4:32to influence human behavior.
4:34We wanted to use humor to address
the serious topic of conservation,
4:39and in so doing,
encourage people to look up
4:42and appreciate
what they get from wildlife.
4:44Too many messages are negative
about conservation.
4:47We wanted to do it the other way.
4:49The heroes of this competition
are the real photographs
4:52of wildlife doing funny things.
4:55The success of the competition
is based on authenticity,
4:58and the amount of AI talk is great
5:01because this means that we're
slightly different to everyone else.
5:04Actually, the success of the competition,
the pictures have to be funny.
5:08Fortunately, life is filled
with these moments
5:10just waiting to be captured.
5:13This is our 10th year, and each year
we get tens of thousands more entries,
5:18and they get better and better
and harder and harder to judge.
5:21But we do get there eventually.
5:24Cartier-Bresson, French photographer,
talks about the decisive moment,
5:27that moment when you see an image
through your camera
5:31and you press click and you take that shot
and you make it permanent.
5:34This young lion would discover
what a decisive moment could also mean.
5:39But as I said at the beginning,
life is not all good.
5:42We have our bad days. That's my favorite.
5:46TS: But the bad days mean that life
is also full of joy and wonder,
5:50and sometimes that joy and wonder
converge onto the absolutely ludicrous.
5:55Our culture over the years
5:57has grown to create a divide
between us and wildlife.
6:00The halcyon days of coexistence
are now long gone.
6:04But we believe we can change that balance
6:06just by changing the narrative
from negative to positive.
6:12rather innocently
and surprisingly sweetly,
6:15said he thought these pictures made
the animals feel more human, more equal.
6:20In my mind, more relatable.
6:22And I agree with him.
6:24These images raise our spirits.
6:26They create a positive emotion.
6:28That positive emotion leads to empathy,
6:31and it's empathy which leads
to attitudinal and behavioral change.
6:37The pictures I've shown you today,
6:39which are a tiny fraction
of the thousands that we have,
6:42are a reminder to us that it's our job
to be custodians of these tender moments.
6:48That we should accept coexistence
rather than separation,
6:52complete separation from wildlife.
6:55And finally, that ...
6:57diversity on the planet
is a privilege that we should cherish.
7:02However, we may have to
be honest with ourselves
7:05and accept that some species
may already have had enough of us.
