Wild Encounters
While humans do live alongside
and in collaboration with many types of animals, we are often so engrossed in
our daily lives and our constructed society that we forget that we are
surrounded by nature and animals living in the natural environment. As
human-built landscapes continue to encroach on natural landscapes and
ecosystems, unexpected, and sometimes even dangerous, interactions between
humans and animals seem to be increasing in frequency. As we force our way into
the domain of “wild animals”, those same animals find ways to exist within our
built environments. Our archival collection provides evidence that people consider
their interactions with wild animals significant enough to capture through
photographs and video. We have a number of photographs detailing these
interactions, some of them strange and humorous, which we’ve shared below.