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a rare bird say for example a snowy owl to get the closest and most detailed photo they can get the problem is they will oftentimes get too close scare the bird and the now stressed bird will then be forced to escape the threat this sort of stress is completely unnecessary another problem occurs when photographers get too close to an animal which then prompts an attack take the bison of yellowstone national park every year tourists will get too close to one of the park s bison in an attempt to get a good photo this leads to several tourists being attacked by scared bison who view the tourists as potential threats learn the signs of stress in animals and always watch for those signs if an animal stops doing what it was doing looks at you tries to walk away or begins some kind of warning signal to you like a white tailed deer stomping their hoof move away that instant you are too close and you need to back away and leave the animal alone 3 never disturb nests or animals with young there was a well known great horned owl nest in columbus several years ago the same pair nested year after year in this one specific tree birders would go and view the nest from a safe distant each year watching the pair raise generation after generation of new owls one year someone put a ladder up to the nest in order to get close photos of the owl nestlings the great horned owls stopped nesting at that location after that taking photos of nestlings or animals caring for their young is perfectly fine as long as you are doing so at a safe distance 4 when viewing photos from wildlife photographers ask yourself if it looks like the photo was taken ethically this last point is a bit different from the previous points but is still important when viewing photos from other people ask yourself whether it looks like the photographer followed ethical guidelines unethical wildlife photography is a vicious circle good wildlife photography is difficult good and ethical wildlife photography is even harder sadly this means that people take the easy way out by taking photos using harmful techniques when these types of photos become famous it normalizes the techniques used take the various famous and viral photos of frogs riding beetles or dancing or otherwise doing seemingly entertaining things these photos were not taken naturally but instead were staged in ways that often resulted in injured or dead animals for example let s look at this viral photo of a tree frog riding a beetle the frog s hand is twisted in an unnatural manner and was probably tied up using fishing line which was then edited out of the photo the frog has his mouth open which frogs do not do unless they are highly stressed finally this is a situation which would never happen in real life a frog simply would not get on top of a beetle in a position like this which means the frog is most likely either tied or glued down to the beetle to read more about such inhumane techniques check these following links example example 2 example 3 when these types of photos go viral it encourages other photographers to utilize similar techniques don t feed bad behavior and help these types of photos go viral as that only contributes to the continued use of such detrimental techniques guidelines for ethical photography of rare species the eastern spadefoot an ohio state endangered species this was taken at an undisclosed location in athens county ohio 1 do not disclose where you took the photo or where you found the species this is one of the most important rules in this entire post when dealing with either a federally listed or state listed species you should never publicly share the location why because people might go out to this area and harass the species kill the species or steal the species this problem can be broken down into two groups the unintentional sharing of locations and the intentional sharing of locations geo tagged photos where the exact gps coordinates are embedded in a photo s metadata are being used for poachers to track down and hunt endangered animals like rhinos in this case of unintentional sharing try to ensure that you remove location metadata from a photo before sharing it intentionally sharing the location of an endangered species to someone who asks or just posting it without being asked can also lead to people then going out to poach that species for the pet trade or other nefarious reasons take for example the poachers in arizona finding out where twin spotted rattlesnakes are by being friendly with those who mean well basically if it s rare never give a more detailed location than county and you should not give a more detailed location than region or section of the state when dealing with some of the more at risk or really endangered species it s important to remember that although you may be well meaning not everyone else is don t put the species at more risk than it already is 3 do not publish a photo with you holding or otherwise manipulating a state or federally listed animal in the vast majority of cases it is illegal to touch or hold any protected animal without the appropriate permits take for example the photo above i m holding a kirtland s snake a threatened species in the state of ohio under normal circumstances i should have never picked this snake up and i definitely should have never posted a photo of me holding it i took this photo however when i was out with a wildlife biologist who was assisting with a research project on this species there were permits involved allowing those with permission to safely handle this species if i had just stumbled across this snake on my own i would have only taken photos of it in situ meaning i would not have touched or otherwise moved the snake from the position i originally found it in 4 never pick or remove part of a state or federally listed plant this should be obvious but it needs to be emphasized don t pick the flower of a rare species or try to dig a plant up to transplant it in your garden i see posts on facebook groups all too often asking how to best transplant a wild plant they found in most cases this will simply lead to the person killing the plant on accident leave the plants alone if you really want a specific plant for your garden buy ethically sourced seeds general outdoor ethics practice leave no trace principles leave no trace is a series of guidelines that attempt to minimize human impact when recreating in natural areas there are seven main lnt principles plan ahead travel and camp on durable surfaces properly dispose of waste leave what you find minimize campfire impacts respect wildlife and be considerate of other visitors to learn more about each principle please visit the leave no trace website parting thoughts the next time you re out photographing wildlife make sure you take a step back and look at the situation don t just think about how to properly take the photo or how awesome the photo is going to be ask yourself if you re taking the photo in a manner that minimizes your impact on the animal when you get home and you excitedly go to share the photo on facebook or twitter or what have you make sure you ask yourself what details should i add what details should i leave out is this photo okay for me to post you might have good intentions but the welfare of the species in question is more important than likes shares or whatever try to ensure that you don t harm the future of the plant or animal posted by kyle brooks at 3 47 pm 5 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels nature ohio photography parks photography tuesday june 27 2017 mothing at clear creek the showy on the night of june 17th i traveled to clear creek metro park in fairfield county ohio to participate in a moth night i talked about some of the drab and subtle moths of the night in my previous pos t but now i want to take a moment to highlight some of the showy species weather plays an important part when it comes to mothing as a general rule moths like warm and dark nights the darker and warmer the night the more moths you will see luckily the night was not only in the mid 70 s but was also pitch black no moon was out and clouds covered the sky the amount of moths flying and visiting the mothing sheets was incredible as the photo above shows i ll begin with the io moth automeris io the io moth is a stunning species in the saturniidae family the same family the contains other knockout species like the luna moth cecropia moth and the imperial moth the io moth is a relatively common moth across the entirety of ohio and over a dozen visited the sheets during the course of the night as you have probably noticed the wings of the io moth have two large eye spots these eye spots serve to ward off predators the io moth typically sits with its wings closed if a potential predators comes near the io moth will open its wings and flash its eye spots if everything goes according to plan the surprised predator should back off giving the io moth time to escape moths have a diverse array of anti predator defense mechanisms and not all are based on appearances take the painted lichen moth hypoprepia fucosa for example this species along with many other related tiger moths subfamily arctiinae has another line of defense when the painted lichen moth flies at night they are at risk of being eaten by various bat species the painted lichen moth is semi toxic though and relatively unpalatable to bats the problem is bats won t be able to see the red orange black warning coloration of the moth at night so how does the moth let bats know not to try to eat it they click when a bat is in the area making its own clicking noises for echolocation the painted lichen moth will hear the bat and begin clicking in defense this lets the bat know that this moth isn t a good meal and the bat will hopefully leave the moth alone this tiny moth is the orange headed epicallima epicallima argenticinctella this species inhabits deciduous forests where the caterpillars feed on elm trees the orange headed epicallima is what is commonly known as a micro moth micro moth is general name given to tiny moths there is no strict definition of a micro moth but most people seem to consider moths that are 1 2 inch long or smaller as a micro moth identifying micro moths is oftentimes a difficult process but the orange headed epicallima is one of the more easily identifiable species another showy micro moth of the night was the labyrinth moth phaecasiophora niveiguttana the caterpillars of this species feed on the mid story tree species sassafras and witch hazel this moth gave me quite the headache and this frustration underscores a problem with arthropod field guides i must have flipped through the peterson field guide to moths of northeastern north america a good 5 7 times while trying to identify this moth but i simply couldn t find it i posted a photo of it on the facebook group mothing ohio to see if someone could help within a few minutes a member id ed it for me and i soon realized why i couldn t find it in the guide it wasn t in there when it comes to arthropods there are tens of thousands of species there are over 11 000 species of moths alone in north america a field guide can not simply contain every single species with numbers like these even if that guide only focuses on one group of arthropods in one section of the continent like the peterson guide does choices have to be made on what to include and what to exclude and the authors of the peterson field guide to moths only included 1 500 of the most common or most eye catching moths in northeastern north america luckily the internet fills in these field guide gaps and facebook groups or sites like bugguide will help you out when i was a young kid this was the first moth that i learned the name of this is the giant leopard moth hypercompe scribonia the giant leopard moth along with the polyphemus moth were my two spark moths a spark animal is the colloquial term for a species that inspires a curiosity or admiration of a given group of animals in a person the individual pictured above is actually a female giant leopard moth as can be told by the loss of wing scales on the ends of the wings when giant leopard moths mate the male and female will stay attached for 24 or more hours during this long lasting session of mating the male will position his wings over the female s this results in the male accidentally rubbing off the female s wing scales leading to an appearance like this staying with black and white moths for a moment here s the neighbor haploa contigua moths have the best names don t they the neighbor belongs to a group of tiger moths in the genus haploa which are often referred to as the haploa moths haploa moths all have various black lines set against white wings and identification involves carefully studying the patterns of those black lines to see the diversity of wing patterns in the haploa moths check out this bugguide link this is the beautiful wood nymph eudryas grata the beautiful wood nymph is just one of several moth species which are hypothesized to be mimicking bird droppings imagine you re a small predator making your way through the forest in search of a meal if this moth was just sitting on a leaf out in the open you would probably be quick to dismiss it as some unsavory bird feces you would move on in search of some actual tasty food and the beautiful wood nymph would live another day this stunning moth is the dark banded geometer ecliptopera atricolorata for many this was moth highlight of the night this is another relatively uncommon species that is missing from the peterson field guide to moths typically when i write a post like this i try to find at least one neat fact to share for each species the problem is i can barely find any information on this species i did however find a quote about this moth from the famous lepidopterist and naturalist william jacob holland in his 1903 book entitled the moth book holland writes that the dark banded geometer is one of the most beautiful of the geometrid moths found in the atlantic states there you have it the dark banded geometer always a show stopper i ll end with the very last moth of the night this gigantic beauty is the polyphemus moth antheraea polyphemus due to columbus metro park rules the moth night had to officially end at midnight the night however did not end there after shutting down the mothing sheets many of the moth ers traveled down the road to a gas station that straddles the intersection of clear creek road and us route 33 why travel to a gas station you might ask well there are bright lights and these lights attract moths we might not have been able to moth in clear creek metro park at that point but we could still moth at a gas station and yes i realize how absolutely ridiculous this must sound to those of you not into moths as i mentioned earlier in this post the polyphemus was one of my spark...