Does Taylor Swift’s video crew have “Bad Blood” with this endangered species?
Wildlife groups in Auckland, New Zealand are miffed at Taylor Swift’s video crew for potentially harming an endangered species, the Dotterel bird, while on set last week for a music video shoot. We have to very important questions: 1. Did the crew break any rules? and 2. What music video is Taylor shooting and does she need back-up dancers? Ok, that might be three questions, but they are all equally important.
Cherokee Films, who was running Swift’s shoot, issued a statement claiming that the company in no way violated any permits or ordinances. “Taylor Swift and her management team were in no way at fault,” it says.
The statement also acknowledges that Cherokee Films understood where the safety boundaries were, and no crew even got close to Dotterel habitats or breeding areas. This sounds pretty innocent, but conservation groups aren’t convinced.
Sandra Coney of the Waitakere Tanges Local Board told Radio New Zealand that though Taylor’s crew had permission to use the private beach, they were only permitted for two vehicles on set. According to her, there were a dozen vans and four-wheel drives being used for the shoot.
“It’s really disappointing that such a large number of vehicles would park all over the beach and drive all over the beach,” she said, explaining that cars easily crush Dotterel nests. Dotterel populations are very precious in New Zealand — at one point in the last 20 years, there were only about 60 birds left. It’s understandable why wildlife experts would want to double check that film crews aren’t doing damage to the few birds that are surviving.
Taylor’s management has yet to respond. Until then, we can assume the only bird she’s ever tried to start something with was the one in Swan Lake.
