Last week, the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas did a very good thing. Fifty-five endangered Louisiana pine snakes, bred at the zoo as part of a reintroduction program, were released into the wild. It marks the largest reintroduction success of the zoo for this species in the several years that Forth Worth has been involved in the program. It's a great conservation milestone, one which the zoo should be very proud of and a story that should be shared with the media.
And this is how the media shares it:
Yes, the body of the article is full of more accurate, useful information - but how many people just read the headlines? First, it's inaccurate, as the "glad we don't live in Forth Worth" implies that the snakes were released in Fort Worth - they were actually released hundreds of miles away. More importantly, it's a lazy, "Har dee har, snakes bad" headline, which is exactly the sort of sentiment that the zoo is trying to overcome to garner support for re-establishing this species back in the wild. A casual headline skimmer, as most of us are, could just get the impression that Fort Worth opened a sack and casually let dozens of random snakes (exotic? venomous?) loose in the city streets on a whim.
Great conservation work by the Fort Worth Zoo. KDKA? Could stand to do better.
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