Bear with us
Forget the dog, or the monkey. Hollywood and the advertising industry love a larger animal. Much larger, and white, and cuddly if we pay attention to the ideas channelled to us for the last century. And yet, outside of a larger zoo, or extremely bad luck, none will see this animal at close range. Why, then, do we have such a willing suspension of disbelief when it comes to large and very wild predators.
Of course I’m pointing fingers at the polar bear. At close range I’d prefer a rifle with lots of ammunition. This IS a deadly animal, one that keeps a full-time patrol on watch in the town of Churchill, MB. The bear is also the poster child of the global warming people, because we all know what happens when the snow melts; we have good weather. The bear, on the other hand, begins to lack viable habitat.
A documentary on CBC this evening points out that our love of the bear is new; until the period when Teddy Wilson was president, the bear was simply something to hunt. Then, after a random act of kindness on his part, the toy industry spawned the “teddy” and we entered a new and exciting world of bear admiration. The larger bears remained trophies, but even that has changed. Now, the carniverous lunk is seen as a symbol of how man can ruin places he may never visit.
My only contact with a polar bear was at the local zoo (now gone) where he showed visible stress disorder. Somehow, even snowy Quebec wasn’t nordic enough. Some pundits blamed the constant rocking back and forth on the proximity of a pair of females, but we’ll never know for sure. I never had the opportunity to ask him.
The advertising industry will continue to use this most photgenic of animals for its own ends, but let’s be clear; the polar bear is large, dangerous, and very much a part of the great white north. As long as he can sell cars, or soda pop, or sex, the bear will be there.
