Back on June 29 one of the CONE Welder users emailed me to report that a White-tailed Deer fawn had died, and players had been photographing its body with the camera. In her email she sounded upset, and wanted to know if I knew anyone’s phone number at Welder so they could be alerted to the situation.
I forwarded her email to Dr. Selma Glasscock. She replied shortly thereafter saying she would check it out, and mentioning that she doesn’t monitor the camera regularly. She also wrote the following:
One thing that ‘watchers’ should be aware of is that this is not a ‘park’ where animals are protected against nature. It is a wildlife refuge where nature happens. I wish there was some way to educate the public about the realities of nature.
I know I’m as guilty as the next person of anthropomorphizing the cute little “Bambis” that have been wandering around the camera the last month or so, and I’m sad to see that this one died. But I think Dr. Glasscock has a point, and I’m not sure it’s wrong of people to have photographed the dead fawn.
I didn’t see any of the images of this until after the fact, when I noticed that we had a new ID in the game: Turkey Vulture. Here are some of the images users took. I’ve taken the unusual (for me) step of putting some of these images (ones that include the dead fawn) “after the break” below; you’ll need to click through to see those images, if you want to. That way users who would prefer not to see them can avoid doing so.
Oh, but first, I wanted to post the following images that were taken this morning by vanilla:
So life at CONE Welder goes on, and while it’s certainly sad to be confronted by the reality of death, I remind myself that it’s part of the natural cycle that includes us all.
Anyway, here are some shots of the Turkey Vultures. The first is by avatar99, the second is by rafa:
Additional photos (including the dead fawn) after the jump, below.
These images are by txbird, avatar99, and kryptonkay, respectively:
