The hidden life of the seabed, the sound spectacle of the bellowing of the deer, the great migration of elk or the mating of storks: in the four corners of the world, webcams allow us to follow the lives of animals live. An ever-increasing audience is passionate about these “animal reality shows” which are good for morale.
Last summer, in Argentina, hundreds of thousands of people were passionate about an underwater expedition to a depth of 4,000 meters, broadcast live on YouTube. The images provided by the camera robot discovering the abyss and its marine creatures aroused unexpected enthusiasm, even for the scientists behind this mission.
>> The position of the robot in real time
Elsewhere, the success of live animal shows is already well established. In Sweden for example, every spring, public television SVT broadcasts live, 24 hours a day, for around twenty days, “The Great Moose Migration” (“The Great Elk Migration”). Result: nearly 9 million viewers glued to their television.
Zurich falcons
Observing nature live, even when nothing is happening: the concept is a hit even in Switzerland. In the city center of Zurich, falcons who took up residence on top of an incineration plant have somewhat unwillingly become the heroes of an animal reality show. Their adventures are filmed 24 hours a day by two cameras, one outside and the other inside the nest. Births, fights, dramas: everything happens, without editing, day or night.
Max Ruckstuhl, the municipal employee who instigated it, still can’t believe it, as he explains on the RTS show Mise au Point. “At the beginning, we only had a few thousand clicks per day. Today, we have more than 250,000. And people don’t just stay for a few seconds, they stay on the streaming for a long time.”
Proven health benefits
This craze is not trivial: several studies show that observing landscapes or birds lowers the heart rate and reduces stress. In Geneva, Jean-Charles Rielle, former national socialist councilor, has been following the life of Maurice and Mélodie, a couple of storks filmed in the small French village of Sarralbe, in Moselle. “Momo and Mélo are almost part of my family. Attending births live is fantastic,” says the retiree. “It’s something that allows us to bring a little beauty into this ugly world.”
Like him, there are nearly 300,000 people around the world who regularly watch this “tele-stork”. A community that does not hesitate to comment on the slightest actions of “Mélo et Momo” on dedicated Facebook groups.
A man is at the origin of this success: Dominique Klein alias Mr. Cigogne. A former lumberjack, it was he who convinced the town, nine years ago, to install the camera on the roof of the town hall. “Initially, we had a camera that only recorded the image, but now we have installed one that has sound so that we can hear the crackling of the storks,” he explains.
In addition to serving as an educational tool in schools in the region, this webcam has above all become a marketing argument, attracting many tourists to the village, as Guy Rossler, the deputy mayor, is delighted. “There are people who come to Sarralbe on purpose to see the storks,” he emphasizes, emphasizing the economic benefits that this represents for local businesses.
Slow TV, or slow television
The phenomenon is now of interest to the biggest television channels. This fall, France 3 is broadcasting 21 days of uninterrupted live coverage in an Ile-de-France forest. In the middle of the hours of silence where only the leaves of the trees move in the wind, a rare moment: the bellowing of a deer, captured by infrared cameras powered by solar energy.
For director Nicolas Sallé, this animal “slow TV” helps reconnect city dwellers with nature. “This can push them to go through their screen to find this living thing, go for a walk in the forest and relearn how to discover the nature that surrounds them.” The operation is already a success with nearly 250,000 people connecting to the video stream.
For specialists, it is also a fantastic knowledge tool. Charles de Reinach, director of Espace Rambouillet, sees, for example, these live broadcasts as a way to learn more, in real time, about the behavior of deer.
TV subject: Jérôme Galichet and Noémie Guignard
Text for the web: Fabien Grenon
