Hi everyone,
We’re an investigative group called The Wild Truth and we wanted to introduce our work to this community, as it may be of interest to those concerned with animal welfare and the ethics of how animals are represented in media.
Our focus is on animal welfare concerns within the wildlife filmmaking industry, particularly where animals are used in ways that may not be transparent to audiences.
We have documented what we believe to be serious welfare and ethical concerns across multiple productions by Lion Mountain Media, a Johannesburg-based production company. This includes National Geographic series such as Africa’s Deadliest and The Hidden World of Snakes. Our findings are based on detailed analysis of broadcast footage, production credits, behind-the-scenes material, and other publicly available information.
We initially reached out to the companies involved to raise these concerns directly. In response, we either received no response at all (including from National Geographic) or threatening responses through legal representatives.
Since publishing parts of our findings, a significant portion of our social media presence has also been taken down following what we believe are spurious DMCA complaints linked to companies we are investigating. Despite this, our Substack remains active and continues to host most of our published reporting and supporting materials.
Overview of our work can be found here:
Investigation Archive: Reports and Videos on Staged Predation in Wildlife Film
One of our recent videos is here:
VIDEO: Tipping the Scales
An external article discussing our work is here:
The Wild Truth about wildlife videos & lack of humane jurisdiction - Animals 24-7
We emphasise that our reporting is evidence-based and relies on publicly accessible material that can be independently reviewed by others. We also note that the production companies involved are in a position to directly refute our findings if they are inaccurate, yet to date no substantive conflicting evidence addressing the specific issues we have raised has been provided.
Our work focuses particularly on concerns such as:
If people here are willing to help, the most useful support would be sharing our Substack posts and video links to increase visibility, or discussing and referencing the material in relevant forums where these issues are being debated. Independent discussion and archival awareness are particularly valuable given ongoing takedown attempts.
Happy to answer questions or discuss further.
The Wild Truth
We’re an investigative group called The Wild Truth and we wanted to introduce our work to this community, as it may be of interest to those concerned with animal welfare and the ethics of how animals are represented in media.
Our focus is on animal welfare concerns within the wildlife filmmaking industry, particularly where animals are used in ways that may not be transparent to audiences.
We have documented what we believe to be serious welfare and ethical concerns across multiple productions by Lion Mountain Media, a Johannesburg-based production company. This includes National Geographic series such as Africa’s Deadliest and The Hidden World of Snakes. Our findings are based on detailed analysis of broadcast footage, production credits, behind-the-scenes material, and other publicly available information.
We initially reached out to the companies involved to raise these concerns directly. In response, we either received no response at all (including from National Geographic) or threatening responses through legal representatives.
Since publishing parts of our findings, a significant portion of our social media presence has also been taken down following what we believe are spurious DMCA complaints linked to companies we are investigating. Despite this, our Substack remains active and continues to host most of our published reporting and supporting materials.
Overview of our work can be found here:
Investigation Archive: Reports and Videos on Staged Predation in Wildlife Film
One of our recent videos is here:
VIDEO: Tipping the Scales
An external article discussing our work is here:
The Wild Truth about wildlife videos & lack of humane jurisdiction - Animals 24-7
We emphasise that our reporting is evidence-based and relies on publicly accessible material that can be independently reviewed by others. We also note that the production companies involved are in a position to directly refute our findings if they are inaccurate, yet to date no substantive conflicting evidence addressing the specific issues we have raised has been provided.
Our work focuses particularly on concerns such as:
- staged predation sequences,
- captive or managed animals being presented as wild,
- potential welfare issues during filming,
- and broader transparency concerns in wildlife documentary production.
If people here are willing to help, the most useful support would be sharing our Substack posts and video links to increase visibility, or discussing and referencing the material in relevant forums where these issues are being debated. Independent discussion and archival awareness are particularly valuable given ongoing takedown attempts.
Happy to answer questions or discuss further.
The Wild Truth
