Welcome back toGiz necessitate , a series where we ask expert arduous questions about science , technology , and humanity ’s futurity . Today , we ’re talking to environmentalist , naturalists , and authors about whether the bear is ever your brother .
Late last year , a photo of a bear officiate a marriage ceremony in Russia went viral . The pictureturned out to be fake , but its popularity say something meaning about our conception of the species : Despite thousands of old age of perverse grounds , and at least oneharrowing documentary , human being still on some stage want to view bear as big , cuddly , forest - dwelling heel .
Are we wrong to sense this elbow room ? Can a human and a furious bear have anything approaching a favourite - like , or at least , non - lethal relationship ? The illustration of Grizzly Man ’s Timothy Treadwell , of course , haunt this crease of inquiring . But the experts we spoke with — people who have canvas bear , populate among them , and worked to conserve their rude habitats — would resist the idea that any kind of bear - human bond will necessarily end in battue . More or less all check that every bear is a unwarranted bear — that even if it playfully nuzzles you , or spend twenty year ride a tiny bicycle in your traveling circus , the odds of it suddenly mangle and/or eating you awake remain high . But opinions differ on just how close our two mintage can get , and what “ closeness ” can really intend , when you ’re allot with a thousand - plus - quid timberland puppet .
Illustration: Jim Cooke/Gizmodo
Dr. Oded Berger-Tal
Well , no .
The main reason is that bears are wild beast , and the construct of friendly relationship is a human construct . There are many ‘ cunning ’ videos online of man feeding uncivilised bear and playing with them , and see them with our human middle and flavour , it can be well-fixed to call what we see friendly relationship , of the sorting we associate with domesticated click . The true statement is that bears are very bright , which means that they easy learn to assort people in general or specific persons with intellectual nourishment . Add the fact that most of the time bears are not fast-growing animals and you have the formula for a cunning picture .
The job is that bears do n’t translate the human concept hollo friendship , and the same bear that fed out of your men today can easy maul you to death tomorrow – whether because it is a female bear that thinks that you are endanger her cubs , or a bear entering hibernation and looking for any solid food source it can find . The famous story of the ‘ Grizzly man ’ is a classic exemplar — Timothy Treadwell claim he ‘ befriended ’ wild Grizzly bear , spend many days in close contact with them , until one day both him and his girlfriend were kill and eaten by a bear . This story also exemplifies the principal victims of these ‘ friendships’—the bear . The bear that killed Timothy and his girlfriend was shot and killed . Why was the bear shot ? The bear only acted concord to its natural instinct , but to our middle it ‘ betrayed ’ the trust of the human who consider it his protagonist . We levy our human concepts on baseless animals and then kill them when they do n’t conform to these human ideas .
teach bear to associate humans and human settlements with food is life-threatening to human beings but is specially dangerous for the bears . Once bears determine that humans = gentle solid food , they will persistently examine to hold that food , leaving themselves at the mercy of human that decide according to their human standards ( which the bears do n’t know about and ca n’t see ) when the bears have ‘ crossed the line ’ and should be killed for the aegis of world . So no , not really the stuff and nonsense friendships are made of .
Gordon M. Burghardt
Alumni Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee , past editor of the Journal of Comparative Psychology and author of The Genesis of Animal Play : Testing the Limits and the chapter , Human – bear bonding in research on black bear behavior , in The Inevitable Bond
experience past the issue of what is friendship and how is it measure , the question of bear - human being friendly relationship have-to doe with to crabby - species bonding in cosmopolitan . Is a favored cat a friend ? A dog ? A turtleneck ? Having raised bear sonny boy in my house decennary ago and work with bears in behavioral inquiry , knowing the lit , and seeing examples of confining relationships that have developed with bear ( and also bear - wienerwurst family relationship ) it is quite clear to me that closemouthed bonding is indeed potential , and that these bonds can persist , in captive bears , well into adulthood .
Bears , of course , are bombastic , impregnable , and capable of badly hurt and kill multitude so misjudgments can be tragic . It is also difficult , compare to wienerwurst , for most people to ‘ read ’ bears and their aroused expressions , so this is another impediment . We could well ask if a household - reared chimpanzee can be a friend . If so , then so can a bear give their intelligent and often social and playful behavior . favorite dogs kill far more people each year than bears , yet how many would deny that dogs are “ man ’s good admirer ? ” We involve to get beyond noncritical anthropomorphism ( both positivistic and minus ) in our thinking about other coinage and our relationships with them .
Fred Koontz
Vice President of Field Conservation at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle , presently employ in the physical process of grizzly bear recovery .
For uncivilized bears , it ’s very difficult if not insufferable to really have a very warm relationship at all , because there ’s just not enough interaction [ with human being ] .
Although I would say , as a conservationist , that people should be very favorable towards wild bears , and should respect them and try out to support their conservation , and realize how important they are in create a hefty ecosystem that homo profit from . Part of friendship is respect — but in this font it ’s a one room street .
But even in zoological garden , bears are not “ naturalise . ” It does n’t weigh how many years they ’ve lived in the zoo — they’re still raving mad animals . keeper can work up up a relationship — the bears can recognize them , and they have a certain mutual regard — but I would n’t call it “ friendship . ” Any bear is potentially dangerous .
So I would say that , no , it ’s really not possible to be friends with a bear , but that does n’t mean that we should n’t endeavor to have a family relationship of respect and caring and empathy .
Thomas McNamee
Behind and inside that interrogation is a definitional question : whether interspecies friendship is even a naturalistic idea . Can you actually be friends even with your dog , or a horse ? Does n’t friendly relationship expect something approximating equal contribution to the slew ? If that ’s the casing , then friendly relationship with any beast is impossible .
The nearest thing to it , then , with , say , a dog , a cat , or a horse , would be something like excited affaire , a certain degree of mutual understanding , and we do it for sure that that is potential . With your tropical Pisces , though , or your feather boa constrictor , for certain no . What if you managed to tame a baby raccoon ? Hmm . Middle ground maybe . I ’d opine you might occur to understand the critter a little bit , I doubt there ’d be much the other way round .
There ’s a cat in Montana name Casey Anderson who owns an eight - hundred - pound silver-tip bear key out Brutus that he rescued as a tiny cub , and he can ride around on that bear like a little tyke on a pony . Anderson star in a DVD set titled Expedition Wild ( it was a serial for Nat Geo Wild ) on which you could see him and Brutus rolling around together like forties - film lover on a beach . They look like champion . Anderson in fact calls Brutus “ my best acquaintance . ”
But I have to wonder , what would occur if Anderson by chance pissed Brutus off , and Brutus strike a swing at him ? Bears are not noted for their composure of temper . ( They do n’t need it . They develop without even one good challenger . ) One of the things tempestuous gray-haired bears sometimes do is sort of stagnate another animal — say , another bear — with the flat of a front hand . The forcefulness of that blow would be enough to shatter a human skull . Oh , and then there ’s bite — force approximately one thousand pounds per straight column inch .
How much emotional intimacy , how much mutual understanding , can we believe there really is between Casey Anderson and Brutus ? When you look at them on video , and you listen to Anderson ’s heartfelt affection for Brutus , it ’s hard to conceive that there is no excited mutuality between them . But I believe from long sketch of the biologic reality of Ursus arctos horribilis that it would be best for multitude watching those picture , especially children , to be doubting . Otherwise , naïve thought and wishful impression can lead to an theanthropism that denies the grizzly suffer its all-important identity — its wildness .
In any case it ’s more plausible to hypothesize that Brutus is simply very , very well trained . And a very , very severe friend .
Michael Dax
Clearly , on some level , it is possible , because you do have these train bears that seem in motion picture . But when you start talking about uncivilized bears , the answer is no .
I was a circuit templet in Yellowstone National Park for a few year , and while I was there , there were a handful of mass who were vote out by bears . The rationality alter , but finally what it boils down to is masses not respecting the brute , and thinking that , because they ’re inside of a commons , it might be slightly safer .
You do have examples of places like the Brooks Range in Alaska , where the bears are well - fed and there ’s a cascade falls , which makes it a really practiced spot for bear to catch Salmon River . You ’ll get more than a twelve bears gathered right there , and you ’ll have people there as well , and they ’ve never had a human killed by a bear at that spot , part because there is so much food that they do n’t feel competition .
But in Yellowstone National Park , where bears are much less likely to see human betimes on in their lives , and where they ’re not as accustomed to humans , absolutely not . For the most part , every single bear that I ’ve seen in the natural state has either ignored me totally , or run off at the sight of me .
There ’s an on-going theory that we have inadvertently bred out the aggressive factor in grey bear . If you go back and read Lewis and Clark ’s journals , you will see these passages where they shoot a bear , and then the bear chases them for like a half land mile while they ’re shooting it , and by the metre the bear finally dies it has eight bullets in it .
The hypothesis is that the strong-growing bears were the ones that were killed , and the shyer bear retreated into the mountains , and those are the bear we have left today . But even so , they ’re still not our friends .
From a policy standpoint , you do n’t require bear associating people with food . That ’s a heavy problem . Once they protrude connect people with nutrient , they ’re expire to start advert around the great unwashed , and it ’s just a matter of prison term before something bad happens .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IRZD-CEEV8
Doug Peacock
natural scientist and author whose book include Grizzly Years : In Search of the American Wilderness and The Essential Grizzly : The Mingled Fates of Men and Bears . He was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2007 and a Lannan Fellow in 2011 for his work on about archaeology , climate change and the peopling of North America .
You sure enough can have some form of a relationship with a bear , but I do n’t think those kinship would ever be characterized as ‘ Isle of Man ’s good friend . ’
Our coinage has been on terra firma a couple hundred thousand years — not that foresightful . Humans have known grizzly bear for about a hundred thousand years . But they ’re groundless animal . The people I lie with that have relationships with grizzlys are animal trainers — for example , Doug Seus , who train Bart the Bear in legend of the Fall and many other motion-picture show . Doug has an amazing human relationship with a bear . Mainly what he did was spend two or three hour a daylight wrastling with this 1400 pound creature , and their relationship was formed when the bear was unseasoned , and the way he treat that bear over sixteen years , it became sort of cop in adolescence — what we call a sub - adult bear .
I knew Timothy Treadwell . After his first year in Alaska he came to see me , when I was in Arizona . I think he belike just wanted favorable reception . And I gave him advice — but he did n’t take all of it , that ’s for damn trusted . He gave the bear goofy names , and he loved them — Boopie and Honey and whatnot . But this is what Timothy tragically drop : Wild animate being , like bear , bear us only agree to their own dictates , and they ’re truly impervious to human agendas and arithmetic mean .
I ’ve had several family relationship with gaga grizzlies that I had encountered for week at a clock time spanning about a X . And a twosome of them were pretty dangerous bears .
There was this one big immense black Ursus arctos horribilis that would come up there every year . You could attend down a little vale [ where I camped ] , and you could probably see ten grizzlies spaced out eating huckleberries peacefully . But when this huge male would show up latterly in the year , all hell would break free . He ’d come in , and mothers of cubs would just scatter .
One day I was come up this ridgepole , travel up to my inner circle at the very top of this lilliputian mountain range . A winter storm was coming in , so I had to get up there . All of a sudden , I saw that pitch-dark grizzly down below me , on the side of the J. J. Hill . There was a female parent with a yearling rookie just above him , and I agnise that this bloody-minded son of a bitch was run to see this mother and go after her .
And that ’s what happened , right underneath me : All of a sudden there was a roar . The female parent of the toddler raced across the ridgepole , about thirty , fifty feet in front of me — they did n’t know I was there . Finally the black silvertip get to catch up with her , because her yearling cub was dragging behind . The black Ursus arctos horribilis was only a few metrical foot behind her .
At the last minute she sprung on her heel , and they fought . The most unbelievable sound in nature you ’ll ever find out — a full - blown grizzly engagement . This go on for three or four minute . Then all of a sudden he stopped and become his side to the mother bear , point the competitiveness was over .
Well , I still needed to get up to my camp , because this snowstorm was coming in . But right in front of me , on this ridge , was the most ornery animal I cognize on this land , all juiced up from his open fight . I had to sing to him , and it front like he was just expire to go back to eating huckleberry . But he was right between me and my camp , so I had to blab out to him . And when I verbalise to grizzly bears , I normally have my arms out , and my head call on off to the side , ‘ cause frontal preference of your mind is confrontational to a bear . And then I talk .
And when he first learn my voice , he took — I would call it a hop - charge . He covered half his distance from me in one great heavy bound . He slammed his mitt to the priming , and by then he was within ten thou away , and I think I ’m gon na get it . There ’s nothing I can do , so I just keep speak to him .
And lastly he turned his head graciously off to the side , stepped up the trail a few feet , and I swooped by him and went up to my ingroup .
I normally do n’t built a fire out there , because I do n’t want to disturb the bear , but that night I did . And an hour after dark I hear him come in up the side of this really extortionate hill . I go out to the side of the pitcher’s mound , and I can see his piffling reddish heart in the glow of the blast . He ’s thirty feet away , and I talk to him , but he does n’t go away . He make out back up another side of the hill about every hour and a half , and he does this till 2 in the forenoon . Then afterwards , at that same place , I provide a memory cache of gear tied style up in a tree diagram — a tent , a sleeping bag , a pestiferous t - shirt — and he just deplume it out of there . Did n’t meet anything — he was just sending me a very personal message to get the hell off his mountain . Which I did .
Shannon Donahue
Executive Director of the Great Bear Foundation
bear are charismatic metal money that capture the human imaginativeness , between the manner grizzly bear ask and symbolize a wild , subject landscape painting , and the way we relate to some of their human - corresponding qualities . Bears and people share home ground , eat the same food for thought , and enjoy a Libra the Scales of solitary and social action … rarity is a primal component of bear ’ nature , drive them to investigate and test new matter in their environment , so they can adapt to switch and take vantage of newfangled solid food germ , and avoid threats . Curiosity is an crucial part of human demeanour , as well , and it may be part of why we are so captivated by bears , and why , sometimes , world are motivated to endeavor to “ befriend ” bear , or at least interact with them .
Bears are at the top of their food mountain range , and as such , they have some allowance to take calculated risks , weighing likely threats against welfare . Sometimes it do good a bear to take a risk in fiat to savour a welfare — like when a bear choose to fish for Salmon River , or run through huckleberries , alongside other bears , or humankind . The bear recognise the potential endangerment from other bears and humans , but by accept that risk and muting its accent response , it can take advantage of abundant food source , crucial for invest on weightiness to live the wintertime .
This response , which is part of a physical process call habituation , can leave in individual bear becoming more liberal of people , if they take risks being around people without disconfirming moment . Often , as bear become habituated to people , they also learn to associate us with a food reference , like garbage , pushover detail , the Pisces we just pick up , or best-loved nutrient , and they learn that there can be brusque - term benefit to interacting with people . This is call human - food conditioning , and it is unsafe to both human race and bear , influencing how bear associate to multitude .
bear and humans can share habitat successfully if we both acknowledge the risks we pose to each other , and we take concern not to promote bear to interact with us . When we get snug to bear to shoot them , or fail to pall them away from our clique or picnic sites , we give them the pretended impression that they can be close to humans without scathe . Often , they test their boundaries , and if we permit them , they will raid our garbage and poulet coops , and even break up into firm for food . Bears are kill unnecessarily every year when they get into trouble after learning to expend time close to homo , ingest advantage of our food sources . This is also dangerous for people , dearie and livestock , as bears can aggressively maintain their intellectual nourishment sources . This is why the National Park Service stopped tolerating bears in dumpsite in the 1970s , and why municipal , country , and government agency often shun feeding bears , or allowing them memory access to bear attractants like drivel , favorite food , and our own intellectual nourishment .
Bears are entrancing creatures that pique our curiosity and typify wildness . When human beings interact with them , we undermine that wildness , and boost them to take risks that can hurt both people and bears . While it can be possible to develop an interactive human relationship with a bear , it usually results in the death of the bear , and sometimes harm to humans as well . bear are best leave wild .
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