00:00Sadly, these videos are all set up purely for entertainment, so these are wild animals
00:25that have been held in captivity and made to perform as props for these shocking YouTube
00:32videos. They show clear signs of physical injuries even before the attack, so cuts,
00:38blood and wounds, damage to their wings and clipped feathers. This is a worrying new craze,
00:47it's a huge phenomenon. One single video depicting the rescue of a monitor lizard from the attack
00:54of a python had been viewed over 100 million times.
01:14You may think that these videos look real, but there are obvious signs that they're not.
01:19They're clearly staged videos because the quality of the filming, they're all in the same setting,
01:24so they may be on a sandy riverbank for example. The fact that a man will, over and over again,
01:31just come across this situation where there's a predator in a prey situation,
01:37that they're there to rescue them. The chances of this situation happening in real life,
01:41it's not credible. Often the videos will be shot multiple times, which will likely cause severe
01:48psychological trauma and injury to these animals, and potentially fatalities as well. So although
01:55the animals are eventually rescued, they clearly show signs of distress and panic. You will find
02:01distressing images of panicked monkeys desperately trying to break free from the grips of a python.
02:08The raptors and birds of prey that are depicted as predators in the videos often have clipped wings
02:15and they land awkwardly, and they don't exhibit natural predator behavior. But along with the
02:21animal welfare concerns, there are also conservation concerns, because often there are critically
02:27endangered and endangered species that can be seen in these videos that have been used as prey and
02:32predator, such as the Siamese crocodile and also the lar gibbon. The popularity of these videos is
02:39also of great concern. Of the 50 most viewed videos, they have been watched over 130 million
02:46times. These animals are being exploited purely for entertainment. So since writing to YouTube,
02:52and since the publication of our findings, some of the videos have been removed and taken down,
02:58but the vast majority are still available and publicly viewable today. So we're asking the
03:03public not to to be aware of these fake animal rescue videos, to be aware that they are fake
03:10rescue videos that are exploiting animals. We are asking the public not to share or like these videos
03:16and to share our social media content to spread the word that these are fake
03:21rescues that exploit animals.
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