Not restricted to the field, the hidden hand of the nature filmmaker is also a force in the editing room. And how the scenes are put together is very important. For one thing, filmmakers often change the order in which events actually occur. Bayer wove film shot over five different years into a portrait of winter in Yellowstone National Park, which seamlessly and timelessly floats unanchored to any particular date. Filmmakers also often propel plot lines along by sequencing footage to imply that certain animals crossed paths when, in reality, never the twain did meet.
Body parts can also be mixed and matched on film.
One way, for example, to dramatize distant chases is to periodically flash onto the screen close-ups of subjects' eyes or faces. But because obtaining head shots of wild animals on the run is often impossible, those of zoo cousins are sometimes used instead. Filmmakers may also portray the plight of one particular animal with more than one individual. For example, a sequence that begins by showing an unsuspecting seal swimming below sea ice might end by showing a different seal in the clutches of a polar bear that hunts its prey by reaching through holes in the ice. As long as the action you are re-creating actually happened, and you are true to nature, it is fine to splice material in order to tell a compelling story.