The animals speak/The eyes speak

Eye contact is one of the first modes of communication for all animals with visual perception. Everyone sees that it is seen and everyone sees that its reactions cause the other to react. Approaching the animals by looking at them, with the eyes or the camera, always makes them much effect. Be careful. They can be stressed, harassed, even traumatized, simply by being looked at. We can also push them to attack (a dog, otherwise very nice, bit me on the arm when I was eight years old, because I stared at it too long). Never pursue with your gaze a caged animal which seeks to hide, because it is a rape.

Between pleasure and fear

Animals are generally shared between pleasure and fear of being watched. When the gaze is too tight, they flee to escape the stress:

The tension of the gaze

The gaze speaks (in The social life of pigeons)

But curiosity can overcome fear:

Game of looks with a demoiselle (in Two demoiselles)

Game of looks with a greylag goose (in Greylag geese of the lake of the Head of Gold)

The turtle supports my gaze (in Starry turtles)

A pelican wants to see who is talking (in Three white pelicans)

That I look at them can even encourage them to come and meet me:

First encounter with white-faced whistlers (in White-faced whistlers)

The smile of the mallard

You can also play hide and seek with the look:

Eyes in the leaves (in Three white pelicans)

Lulu, a grey gibbon, and the dean of the park of the Head of Gold in Lyon, knows how to look at you while hiding her gaze in the shadow:

Lulu hides her eyes in the shadow (in Lulu)

A mallard has kept the pleasure of being watched:

A dance of the gaze (in Mallards of the Rose Garden)

The ducklings are the least frightened by the gaze of the camera, which is not bigger than them. They came to give it a few pecks:

The ducklings peck at the camera (in Mallards of the Rose Garden)

(unfinished)

The predatory eye

A camera resembles the eye of a predator, like the barrel of a rifle. Animals generally know very well that an eye which looks at them can be a danger and they do not like to be fixed:

White Face does not like to be fixed (in Head of Gold, White Face and Dark Face)

A human being can also feel threatened by a gaze:

Threatened (in The hunters). This film must be seen while listening to the song of Michael Jackson (same title, same duration).

Many animals are afraid to look at you in the face:

The male does not dare to look at the camera (in The fearful)

Lulu gives and hides her looks (in Lulu)

Prey, above all, do not like to be fixed and avoid looking at you in the face. Predators in general do not have this fear:

She looks at me in the face (in The panthers of Love)

He looks at me fixedly (in The panthers of Love)

The gaze of the feline seems to reveal its predatory instincts:

The gaze of the feline (in The panthers of Love)

(unfinished)

Remote silent communication

A glance is enough to establish communication over long distances:

The giraffe sees from very far that it is looked at (in Kings and Queens)

(unfinished)

Hello and goodbye

Crocodile eyes (in The hunters)

When it leaves you, a giraffe do not cease to follow you with its eyes:

The departure of the giraffe (in Kings and Queens)

(unfinished)

The strangeness of the gaze

The gaze of an animal can sometimes seem very strange, because we do not know how to interpret its expressions:

The strange gaze of the amazon (in Amazons)

(unfinished)