Minnesota Live Cam Bear Cub Dies

[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.

[Brickbat]

1. Frankly, the way this organization loves to interfere, I'm surprised they DIDN'T interfere with this

one.

ETA: I disagree with you some about whether the live cams are any good or not. People love to sit at work and watch them and it definitely makes people want to anthropomorphize them, which is always a bad thing. But on the other hand, I know everyday people have learned a lot from these cams, and it can make nature more "real" for people who don't have access to the wilds.

[MineralMan]

3. They were roundly criticized last year by the professional

wildlife biology community for interfering with Hope. That's probably why they didn't interfere this year. However, they continued to capitalize on their study of this bear family by making it a spectacle, watched by so many people. Now, they're facing a different sort of criticism, and not one based on Science. Jason was no longer a bear cub. He was a reality show star. Big mistake.

[Brickbat]

5. Yeah, I know.

I have a real problem with a lot of what Lynn Rogers does. Much of his work is a spectacle, IMO.

[MineralMan]

7. Yeah. There's an old Wild Kingdom episode featuring

Lynn Rogers. It dates back 30 years. I guess TV is Dr. Rogers' medium or something. I've always deplored the exploitation of wild animals for television. Much of the stuff on those old wildlife shows was faked, using performing animals in wild settings. Some of it was legitimate, of course, and that 30 year old Lynn Rogers episode actually showed normal wildlife study practices.

I predict that Lynn Rogers will be leaving the research center. The pressure from this whole thing, from professional wildlife biologists and, now, the public, is going to be pretty overwhelming. Too bad.

I do know that the Minnesota DNR isn't too fond of Rogers.

[RaleighNCDUer]

13. Depends. What will it do to their ratings? If ratings actually increase

because of the controversy, will we see people dying on Survivor and DWTS?

[dkf]

2. I could care less about the cam but did they really have to let it die?

It's even worse that they let people see that. I hope no kids land up traumatized.

[MineralMan]

4. Let it die? It died. Many bear cubs die every year in Northern

Minnesota. Nobody tries to save those. It's part of the process that keeps bear populations within the limits of what the habitat can support. These are wild animals, not pets.

[Brickbat]

6. He did not die on camera.

[dkf]

8. Well thank goodness for that.

[yellowcanine]

15. "I hope no kids land up traumatized." Kids will be traumatized more if we hide reality from them.

Death is reality. Many wild animals die. What happens in video games and movies is not reality. Kids will grow up healthier and more well rounded if we don't try to scrub the reality out of everything.

[Brickbat]

17. Agreed.

[MineralMan]

9. Note: My wife was a fan of these bears.

She's pretty upset this morning, but we had a long conversation about all this and she understands the problem a little better now. She, like many others, invested way too much emotional energy into this reality show. I doubt she'll do that again.

[elocs]

10. How about the constant gushing about the eagles we're subjected to here at GD?

Right, wild animals sometime, often times die. Especially the ones being fed to the eaglets.

I have a right wing friend who is retired and keeps his laptop glued to watching the eagles. Probably a good pastime for a Republican.

Since the eagle cam is certainly entertainment, then why aren't those threads delegated to the Lounge or elsewhere like others are? :shrug:

[Brickbat]

11. Agreed.

[MineralMan]

12. Same thing, exactly, in my opinion.

They're eagles. They raise their young in nests. Watch if you like, but they're still eagles, not "fluffy little cute animals." Some people here were complaining about the dead animals around the nest. WTF?

[msanthrope]

14. Why do you hate America!!!111!!!!?????

(Just kidding--I agree. Eagles are Lounge-material.)

[elocs]

16. That's why I wonder why all the eagle threads stay in General Discussion.

Other threads of that type go to the Lounge.