Seagull Not First to Steal Video Camera
Lion and turtle were movie directors, too
You may have already seen the viral video of the seagull who picks up a video camera in Cannes, France, and takes it for a brief flight before leaving it on top of a castle wall. Some have questioned whether it’s entirely authentic, but it certainly looks like the real thing … and it’s fun, regardless.
Before the seagull movie, however, there were also the lion movie and the turtle movie.
The turtle movie
Last year, Dutchman videographer Dick de Bruin accidentally dropped his waterproof video camera while scuba diving in Aruba. Six months later, the camera turned up on a beach in Florida, a thousand miles away.
De Bruin wasn’t just pleased to get the camera back; he found some unique footage on it. The camera’s strap had apparently become attached to the shell of a passing sea turtle, and the turtle had somehow turned the camera on, capturing part of its thousand mile journey on video.
When U.S. Coast Guard officer Paul Shultz found the camera on a beach in Key West. he charged up the battery and discovered not only de Bruin’s vacation photos, but also the adventure of the sea turtle.
The lion movie
And last month, photographer Roger de la Harpe was in South Africa taking photos for a book about the endangered African lion, when he saw three lions on the path ahead. He put a small video camera on the ground and moved out of the way of the approaching cats.
The lions came up to the camera, but one of them took an interest in the new piece of technology, sniffed it, licked it, and then picked it up and went off with it in her mouth.
The four-pawed videographer apparently knew how to hold a camera, because the lens was unobstructed as she walked around for the next few minutes. Then she simply dropped it into the long grass by the side of the track and walked away to join her family.
De la Harpe didn’t know what she’d done with the camera. “It was quite nerve-wracking looking for it,” he said. “The lions were only 75 meters away and the grass was pretty thick so it took quite a bit of searching before I spotted it.”
The lion’s video included some good shots of the savannah. “We were most surprised to see the footage,” he said. “It kept on filming all the time it was in the lion’s mouth.”
All in all, if you’ve ever wondered what your last few moments might be like after being picked up by a lion, you now have the answer!