That Seagull Stole My Camera (and My Shot)!: Overlapping Metaphorical and Physical Distances in the Human-Animal-Camera Triad

Historically, non-human animals have been a core subject of cinema and documentary films and practices. Either in fiction or non-fiction they have been recorded by humans, edited, and narrated to be represented and interpreted in certain ways, to make them stand for certain human symbols and projections. But what happens when one of those animals grabs the camera? What happens when a seagull steals a camera, when squirrels photobomb hikers or when macaques take spontaneous jungle selfies? This chapter relies on animal studies to address these situations and the agencies involved, how they have been reflected by contemporary art or in conventional wildlife documentaries in order to think about the changes which affect the confluences and distinctions between the physical and metaphorical distances at work within the human-camera-animal triad.