Research and Selfies

[Bobbie Ireland]

A very good piece on our interaction with wild creatures.

http://theconversation.com/even-scientists-take-selfies-with-wild-animals-heres-why-they-shouldnt-61252

[Dot_Forrester]

Great piece, Bobbie. The warnings not to interact with wild animals is very timely, as I'm still upset about the beach people manhandling a baby dolphin just for selfies. People are not very bright sometimes. When we lived near the Adirondack mountains, tourists would go in large numbers to the dumps at twilight to see bear cubs and pose their children nearby. The parents did not have the sense to realize that the mother bear would attack anything close to their cubs, so many injuries and a couple of deaths resulted. Of course it was always the bear's fault 

Dot in PA

[patsy6]

Excellent article, Bobbie.  No doubt the preponderance of smartphone cameras and selfies has only made this problem at least a thousand times worse. 

Dot, when I was young in the 1960s we used to go to the Adirondacks every summer, and going to the dump to see the bears was a highlight of our stay.  However, we never got near the bears, nor took photographs, nor interacted with them in any way.  Our parents taught us to just observe.  Other kids' parents were not as strict.  Now a lot of the town dumps up there are either more secure or have been closed, leaving the bears to wander in settled areas and campgrounds.  Not a good situation.