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Edited on Wed Apr-13-11 08:39 AM by MineralMan
Facts: Jason, one of the two cubs born this winter to Lilly, the famous black bear watched by millions, has died. The reasons are as yet unknown, but there will be an necropsy done today. The people at the Bear Research Center, who arranged the live cam feed, allowed the cub to die, rather than trying to rescue it by taking it for medical care.
Information: Those are the essential facts. The "fans" of the Bear Reality Show, are now up in arms over this. How could the head of that research center allow the cute little baby bear to die like that, especially when they put so much effort into saving the life of last year's cub, Hope? People are fuming. The bears have left the den, and are no longer on 24/7 view for anyone with a computer.
Opinion: Turning a den of bears into an Internet reality show is an enormous mistake. Thousands of people, who spent far too much time watching this spectacle, anthropomorphized this bear family, even participating in a contest to name the cubs. Much emotional capital was spent in this entire effort. Now, it did increase the fame of the man who runs this important bear research center, and even brought in lots of contributions to the center. But...these are wild animals, somewhat tamed by the Bear Research Center staff, taking grapes from their hands and being really cuddly. But, they are wild animals, and sometimes wild animal cubs die. We don't know why this cub died, but it did.
Studying wild animals naturally involves interfering in some ways with the natural course of things. But, making a virtual reality show of them interferes with more than just the bears. It interferes with people's understanding of nature. Bears are not cuddly, cute little critters. They are wild animals. This bear family was turned into Internet TV stars. I think that's just plain wrong. They were interfered with more than mere research requires.
Study the bears. That's important to understanding the bear population and helps to preserve the habitat. Don't make a spectacle of them. I think this whole business is not much better than leading a bear around on a leash and making it do tricks for loose change. That sort of thing is now illegal. But, interfering with a wild bear family's natural processes to this extent is not illegal. I think it should be.
Wild animals should not be the stars of an Internet reality show. Studying wild animals should not be a spectacle. Interfering as little as possible with the lives of wild animals should be the goal. I call shame on this Bear Research Center, and hope they have learned a valuable lesson. They're about to be slammed by the very public they encouraged to watch their show.
I'm purposely including no links in this post. You can find the Center on Google, if you're interested. I'm not encouraging a flood of emails. That's already guaranteed.
Leave the freaking wild animals alone. They're not entertainment.
Facts, information, opinion. See my signature line if you need an explanation.
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