It probably also depends a lot on which countries we are talking about? Could imagine these kinds of things might happen more frequently in some countries while in others officials don´t care so much.
In my years and years of nature-photography I had a single instant slightly related. I was chasing bugs just for fun on a remote forest clearing with no paths or roads in Germany, but suddenly a care drove by me. It was the ranger responsible for this patch of forest asking me what I did there. When I explained him that I am searching for spiders and showed him some of my pictures he was satisfied and just asked me to not approach certain areas (I anyways never did, because regulraly observed deer and foxes from the distance and did not want to disturb).
I did some fieldwork on herpetofauna on an protected but touristy island in Germany (with the right permits of course) on which it is generally not allowed to leave paths, but my worked required me to do it all the time. Nobody ever asked, which I actually found kind of sad. I just hoped the officials where maybe informed that someone did this work in the area and therefore never asked, as they assumed it was me.
It’s a sad commentary on the state of things here in the US that the first thing that popped into my head was to wonder if race was an issue here. I’m an older white woman in Massachusetts and I don’t get questioned by police, at least when I’m wandering around during the day. People (not police) do ask me what I’m looking at or what I’m trying to catch with my net, but they are more curious than anything else. I think being an older white woman is a great “disguise,” but I recognize that is a privilege that not everyone has. You have my sympathy; I would be extremely frustrated if that were happening to me.
Gladly I was never asked by police even though my behavior sometimes is very suspicious even for me! Though I have enough stress being afraid almost every man I met when alone in the forest far from spots with many people, once in the evening got afraid of a car and was hiding in bushes and then running, two days ago a man was giving weird stares on me when I was resting my feet sitting, he was standing alone between two trees with phone in his hand, I guess nothing criminal, but enough suspicious for me to almost run from that place. So even iNatters see other people as suspects of something!
Been stopped by police while doing herp research in both rural and urban areas, both at night and on a bright Sunday morning. That was probably one of the most dramatic actually as officers as appeared at both ends of the street and approached from in front and behind with hands on holsters. I caught a lizard in front of them and showed them my bag of lizards. They asked for ID and then shook their heads but told us that people in the area had called the police on us for walking down the street and being suspicious. Although later, someone pulled up in a car and apologized for calling the cops on us!
I think a part of this is just it is often uncommon, especially in some urban areas, to see people doing naturalist things. It’s not even a possibility that might enter into some people’s minds (residents or police alike) upon seeing someone observing or catching specimens. But they have seen people behaving strangely from drugs or looking in cars or whatever, so that’s what comes to mind and worries them.
In fact, probably the scariest interaction I have had was when a very large dude came sprinting out of his house yelling profanity at a small undergrad I was working with as we walked down the street doing lizard surveys. I ran over as fast as I could and calmed things down. The guy explained that there had been some thefts in the area recently and he thought we were the thieves (stealing lizards I guess?). So, I can understand the suspicion, but the physical charge and yelling were pretty intimidating to my undergrad.
In almost all cases, I’ve been able to explain what we’re doing and people often start asking questions and being really interested in what you’re doing (again, both police and regular people alike) even if they sort of roll their eyes. So I think it can end up being a good thing and educational, but still definitely can be a scary situation.
I almost got busted for bubbles by park rangers at the beach last month.
So, my hobby is to go to Pillar Point Harbor and make giant bubbles on the beach. Sometimes conditions only allow for smaller bubbles, but other times we can make huge bubbles that last a long time if they get up high enough.
About a month ago, we had a fabulous day making big and very long-lasting bubbles. Some floated up and over the cliff that divides the harbor from the Mavericks surfing area.
At the time, I did not know that some rangers from Fitzgerald Marine Preserve north of Mavericks spotted my bubbles flying over the cliff. They ran up to Mavericks looking for the culprit who dared to sully the beach with soap bubbles.
I went to Fitzgerald Marine Preserve the next day to visit the tide pool and it was still fenced off “due to Covid”. Since every other beach was open, I asked the rangers I spotted working nearby why this area was still closed. In the course of the conversation, they said it needed to be protected from the hoards of people flocking to the coast for something to do during covid.
‘Why just yesterday, we spotted someone making bubbles down by Mavericks and that’s part of this preserve, too. We ran over there to stop it, but could not find them.”
I was taken aback at this, and told them ‘that was me; I was at the harbor though, not by Mavericks’. They said that could not be as the bubbles they saw were a 1/2 mile from there. So, I showed them some pictures bystanders took of me:
One thing I’ve thought about doing but haven’t when doing any kind of bio survey along roads or near residences is wearing a bright green or blaze orange safety vest, like a highway repairman or utilities worker. It advertises that you’re doing some sort of survey work and you’re not just some weirdo wandering around with possible bad intentions. Of course, paranoid people might still think you’re up to no good and the bright vest might be an easy target!
Wearing safety vests is actually required in some states; I’ve had to do it in Texas while sampling cuts near roads (even a fair distance away) and road cruising.
We’ve talked about something similar: I think people in orange vests just get ignored most of the time because they are assumed to be working on something!
We’ve also debated getting old FedEx and UPS uniforms at thrift stores (no one bothers those people) or just making our own t-shirts that say “I Am Catching Lizards” in big letters. But different colors will affect lizard behavior/catching so we’ve not done this (yet).
Interesting. Catching lizards is illegal here, as many species are endangered, and all of them need to remain as undisturbed as possible in their little remaining habitat. Thieves have in the past, and maybe continue, to steal them from the wild to keep or sell them as pets.
Reading this makes me wonder how many tourists to NZ are unaware of the protection laws. The local population is only partly aware, but would rarely encounter or be motivated to capture fauna.
Devastating their remaining habitat is easy and legal though:(
Research. But totally legal in Florida! For invasive species, you can grab as many as you want (as long as it isn’t a park or some other place that permits are needed more generally).
Interestingly, I’ve never been asked for a permit or had anyone objecting based on welfare of the lizards, just us looking sketchy.
I was once approached by an initially suspicious cop in a county park; I was on my tiptoes, stretching and photographing down into a rotting stump.
A police SUV pulled up and parked and I kept on photographing…the stern officer stepped out with his hands on his belt (like they do) and he said, “What are ya doing there?” in a kind of folksy manner.
I explained to him that I was simply photographing fungi and though he looked perplexed at the notion anyone was photographing fungi inside a stump…he became kind and relaxed. He claimed, “Kids have been setting stumps on fire here in the park.” So - at the time, as a 40-something year old - I took it as a compliment that he IDed me as a ‘kid.’ Since then I’ve learned to make my camera visible & hope they deduce what I’m doing before feeling the need to approach me.
Road cruising for animals with intent to collect is illegal in Texas, but enforcement is pretty varied. I’ve definitely been searched a time or two in state parks so I’m pretty careful not to have bags or hooks or tongs in the car most of the time. Just photo equipment.
It is legal on the unpaved right of way, with a hunting license and the endorsement, if there’s one along the road, but if you then have capture equipment and you’re driving that can apparently be taken as evidence that you’re collecting off the road too. I’m wondering about cut walking in Big Bend this summer (going down for a vacation in late July) and need to look into that more…0 interest in collection, but I want to know what will/won’t get me hassled there since I’ve heard enforcement is tighter in that region (understandably so, since it’s kind of a herp mecca).
I’ve never been shot at but I did interrupt a probable contraband sale last week where one party was visibly armed (in the Joppa Preserve in Dallas). Left posthaste. Also had just some general sketchy instances where I thought people might be following me a time or two.
EDIT: since biases came up earlier: white male, on the larger and occasionally ill kempt side of things. Mostly got stopped and tossed when I was younger and in rural areas.
they pat you down and search your car. They didn’t cut into the seats or anything, but folded them down, pulled up the floor mats, etc. seemed mostly to be looking for capture equipment not drugs.
