This was a day of filming the latest documentary—a documentary about the emotions of chimpanzees, elephants, lions, and bears. The film team from England arrived yesterday, and we dove right into filming. The first scene was with Braveheart and her cubs. Today, the main filming was of Ursula and Lily and their cubs. Each scene makes a good point.
Among the comments of the last couple days, this one from a teacher tells how the Den Cams were used in the hundreds of classrooms before the DNR prohibited them.
“I am encouraged that there may be a den cam this year but I know it will most likely not be a new birth situation; however any den cam is better than no den cam. School systems have very little money these days and a high quality den cam is the best of educational tools! Not only for science objectives but as you know teachers can teach any objective once they have a child’s interest. I’m reminded of the children in a preschool classroom that asked to learn to write better so they could keep den cam data. I’m also reminded of a class of children that learned a bear’s bluster didn’t mean they would attack. They learned that black bear bluster indicates fear. From that they began to understand that their friends’ angry behaviors may be something else. For this one classroom they began to say to friends, “you are blustering, how are you feeling?” They realized that actions didn’t always indicate how someone was feeling. Of course math can be taught (if this berry has two seeds and we find 10 seeds in the scat, how many berries did the bear eat). For me the most exciting thing is to see teachers begin to examine what they teach as they realize they didn't know the truth about black bears. They then begin to examine all they teach! All of this because of the research. I’m praying for collars to be allowed so we can have a variety of den cams. Thank-you for all you do.”
Another Lily Fan commented,
“In your update of a day ago (that I agreed with) you missed a point. There is a very true adage in politics, follow the money. The DNR derives the majority of its $31 million wildlife management fund from the sale of hunting licenses and from their share of Federal funds that are distributed according to the sale of hunting licenses. Your den cams and other research has impacted the sale of hunting licenses and therefore the DNRs income. See: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/licenserevenue/index.html“.
I’m not sure any drop of licenses was really due to the Den Cams, but I do know the DNR is desperately trying to recruit young hunters and that students watching mother bears caring for their cubs could make some of them like bears and not want to hunt them. The DNR might have a point on that, but should their quest for money come before the many values of the Den Cams?
The picture is another of Braveheart’s son Porter for our ID catalog.
A great day today.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center