Jack Hanna on Letterman - misconceptions - UPDATE February 6, 2010
February 6, 2010 - 7:57 PM CST
It seems Lily’s Facebook fans know more about black bear hibernation than some wildlife professionals. We saw your responses to last night’s Letterman show and we’re glowing. Lily’s a great teacher and you’ve learned her lessons well.
Last night you saw an example of one of the biggest problems bears face worldwide—wildlife professionals spouting misconceptions. The two errors Jack Hanna made (that mother bears sleep through the birth of cubs, and the age of the cubs) were harmless. But other misconceptions stated with the same sense of conviction color people’s attitudes toward bears, and people will not coexist with animals they fear.
Most leaders of public opinion have not spent enough time with bears to have any firsthand knowledge. This is true for most government officials, professional bear biologists, and professional educators. Many of their statements about bear behavior are misconceptions they’ve read and then repeat as fact.
Misconceptions are often presented subtly—like advice about what a person must do if they encounter a bear. Any advice of that sort carries the implication that if you don’t follow the advice you will be attacked. A common piece of such advice is “Above all, never run because it could trigger a predatory attack.” Next time you hear some professional say that, ask the person if he or she can give an example. We’ve been asking that question for years. One person claimed to have an example but never provided details. In actuality, the real stories we hear are of people seeing bears and saying, “I ran one way and the bear ran the other.”
Much of the erroneous advice comes from people with little or no bear experience. Some people extrapolate from what they believe about tigers, vicious dogs, etc. When educators or officials apply those same beliefs to bears, they lead people to believe they cannot show any fear or vulnerability because bears would love to attack if they only dared. That may be true for one black bear out of a million but certainly not true for the vast majority of bears. Mischaracterizing bears leads to mismanagement and unnecessary killings by police, wildlife officials, and landowners. We’ll discuss other misconceptions in future updates.
Considering the popularity of the Lily Den Cam, we wish Letterman would consider it worthwhile to invite someone associated with the den cam project on his show.
Thank you again for helping decrease the debt so we can spread our message more widely.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center