Berkshires in the wild? (snake ? warning)

[Mousie452]

I went to my grandmother's house to give her a mother's day present and she was watching a snake special on Discovery. At one point there was a mouse being caught by a snake and the mouse looked like a store bought mouse rather than any wild mouse I've seen. Later there was a rat, and it was an agouti berkshire. It got me thinking that these snakes were indeed baited to get good shots for the documentary, but for some reason I get the impression that there are berkshires in the wild? Are there? Even if so I still think the clips were baited.

[rat_fanatic]

Yes, berkshire is one of the wild markings, as well as agouti.

[Poppyseed]

I wouldn't doubt them baiting snakes to get good shots. Look at what they did with Lemmings. The myth that they jump off of cliffs in mass suicides is a hoax started by a documentary. They just wanted ratings and drove them off a cliff themselves 

[xanterra]

I wouldn't doubt them baiting snakes to get good shots. Look at what they did with Lemmings. The myth that they jump off of cliffs in mass suicides is a hoax started by a documentary. They just wanted ratings and drove them off a cliff themselves 

Really?? I had NO idea! That is completely horrible. Ugh.

[Poppyseed]

http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.asp

of course that was in 1958, but I would still think they would do that if necessary. Time is money and it's probably fairly hard to find a snake posed perfectly in the wild with it's prey.

[Mousie452]

Yeah, the rat looked out of place slowly nosing around in broad daylight in a wide open area. And the mouse in the jungle didn't even look wild colored, it looked like a blue. It looked bigger than a wild mouse (though I'm no expert on jungle mouse varieties) maybe 50g, and it looked like it hadn't been outside a day in its life. I think there is enough footage of snakes killing and eating rodents that they don't need to keep going out and baiting snakes so they can make yet another film.

[LastEchoes]

Ive seen rats in the wild that werent just black/brown. I've seen berks and with mismarked white spots all over and agouti.

[Mousie452]

Ive seen rats in the wild that werent just black/brown. I've seen berks and with mismarked white spots all over and agouti.

That's true, but I'd kind of expect that more in populated areas where a fancy rat could escape, not as common in a more remote wildlife area where they are filming.

[ratluver372]

I'm glad someone brought up that lemming thing-- and I'm pretty sure that was for Disney!
Yeah, you'd think there was enough footage like that already....