Nature Mistakes in Movies (birds, spider, spiders, eagle)

[jtur88]

It is very common for birds and other wildlife to be out of place in movie scenes, in terms of habitat or range. Here is a website that lists some offending birds:

WebSpawner - How did that bird get there?

This is partly due to films often being shot in locations quite different from that of the story. More often, it occurs because the foley editor dubs in bird sounds to further clutter the sound track for atmosphere.

[ukiyo-e]

My degrees are in entomology and I almost laugh out loud in theaters when a tarantula crawls on someone and it's supposed to be dangerous. If you don't like spiders, it could definitely be frightening, but tarantulas are not very dangerous to humans, and the worst problem with them is that they have urticating (stinging) hairs on their abdomens that they can flick onto your skin with their legs, and the hairs are very irritating.

In The Mummy with Brendan Fraser there was a scene that had a swarm of some kind of beetles (scarabs, I believe) that were supposed to be dangerous, but the beetles shown were plant eaters.

The most obvious mistakes, though, are completely incorrect plant communities. There are an awful lot of southern California endemic plants in movies that take place in the midwest and east coast.

[pigeonhole]

In the Kubrick flick "Full Metal Jacket", Vietnam is recreated in a Hollywood studios, and it's obvious the palm trees are plastic, not only that , they are fake date trees that don't grow in Vietnam but in the Arabian deserts!
one of the reasons I didn't like thiat film.
In another (French) movie, the action is said to happen at Christmas time in Paris, and the trees have their foliage and everything is summer-green! grotesque!

[uggabugga]

Originally Posted by ukiyo-e

My degrees are in entomology and I almost laugh out loud in theaters when a tarantula crawls on someone and it's supposed to be dangerous. If you don't like spiders, it could definitely be frightening, but tarantulas are not very dangerous to humans, and the worst problem with them is that they have urticating (stinging) hairs on their abdomens that they can flick onto your skin with their legs, and the hairs are very irritating.

In The Mummy with Brendan Fraser there was a scene that had a swarm of some kind of beetles (scarabs, I believe) that were supposed to be dangerous, but the beetles shown were plant eaters.

The most obvious mistakes, though, are completely incorrect plant communities. There are an awful lot of southern California endemic plants in movies that take place in the midwest and east coast.

similarly, all the reality shows that have giant emperor scorpions crawling around on someone. you'd have 1000 times better chance of incurring harm from handling a gerbil

[CrowGirl]

I always laugh at all the birds whose calls are dubbed, often by the regal-sounding red-tailed hawk. This happens frequently with bald eagles because people seem to think their chirpy voices are somehow not impressive enough. I've also heard red-tailed hawk calls dubbed for vultures, which are all but silent safe for the occasional grunt.

[BlackShoe]

In almost every movie scene ever filmed, whenever a big cat is shown attacking, stalking, or even approaching a person it always very conveniently roars, growls, snarls, hisses, pauses, or otherwise gives apple warning of it's presence. In reality, a stalking feline in attack mode is in total deadly silence. A cat that is in a bluff or threatening mode may make noise, such as a snarling lion, but when a cat means serious business it is silent.

[High_Plains_Retired]

The OP seems to be referring more to fauna than flora but I had mentioned earlier in another forum that in the old John Ford movie Grapes of Wrath, a eucalyptus tree is seen growing alongside the road where Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) meets up with his old friend near Joad's Sallisaw, Oklahoma home. The scene was set in 1930.

[useasdirected]

Indiana Jones and Last Crusade. In the beginning scene, Indiana climbs double Arch in Arches National Park in Utah and peer down into a cave. Only problem is, there is no cave there. Only miles of flat land.

[LIRefugee]

I always join in the laughter when a Kookaburra is used to represent generic jungle sounds, especially when not in Australia. And I'll second the amusement over Red-tailed Hawk calls being used for any bird-of-prey.

[PAhippo]

Little House on the Prairie- I don't remember the episode but picking strawberries in autumn off a bush.

whoda thunk it!