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HOW
NOT
TO RELEASE A BEAR BACK INTO THE WILDERNESS!
Pictures
contributed by Gerald McEathron
Comments made by Rick Archer
May 2008
FORWARD
In our modern culture, the bear has
become our buddy. Thanks to Theodore
Roosevelt, the bear has become the Teddy Bear.
He is beloved and friendly. He shares our
children's bed at night (and maybe some adults too),
protects our forest, and feels like our cuddly best
friend.
For city slickers, you say 'bear' and most of
us think happy thoughts. The lovable bear
is our favorite stuffed animal. He shows up at
Valentine so frequently these days that even Cupid
is feeling shoved to the corner.
It has gotten to the point where sometimes we
forget that a bear is also a wild animal.
Before we get to our story, I would like to
draw your attention to a tale from my favorite
childhood book, The Friendly Story Caravan.
You see, our upcoming bear adventure reminded me of
a story I read back in my youth. The story is
taken from the Panchatantra,
a book from ancient Persia similar to our own
Aesop's Fables. Hope you enjoy it!
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- The Lion Makers
In a certain town in India there were four
Brahmans who lived in friendship. Three of them
had traveled to the far shore of all scholarship, but lacked
sense. The other found scholarship distasteful.
He had nothing to offer but sense.
One day they met for consultation. "What
is the use of attainments," said they, "if one
doesn't travel, win the favor kings, and acquire
money? Whatever
we do, let us all travel."
But when they had gone a little way, the eldest
of them said, "One of us, the fourth, is a
dullard, having nothing to offer but sense. Now
nobody gains the favorable attention of kings by
simple sense without scholarship. Therefore we
will not share our earnings with him. Let him
turn back and go home."
Then the second said, "My intelligent friend,
you lack scholarship. Please go home."
But the
third said, "No, no. This is no way to behave.
For we have played together since we were little
boys. Come along, my noble friend. You shall
have a share of the money we earn."
With this agreement they continued their
journey, and in a forest they found the bones of
a dead lion. Thereupon one of them said, "A good
opportunity to test the ripeness of our
scholarship has presented itself. Here lies some
kind of creature who is dead. Let us bring it to
life by means of the scholarship we have
honestly won."
Then the first said, "I know how to assemble the
skeleton."
The second said, "I can supply skin,
flesh, and blood."
The third said, "I can give
the breath of Life."
So the first assembled the skeleton
and the second
provided skin, flesh, and blood.
But while the
third was intent on giving the breath of life,
the man of sense advised against it. He
remarked, "This is a lion. If you bring him to
life, he will kill every one of us."
"You simpleton!" said the third man. "It is not
I who will reduce scholarship to a nullity.
The others were right; it
was a mistake to allow you to come along!"
"In that case," came the reply, "please wait a
moment while I climb this convenient tree."
When this had been done, the lion was brought
back to life. It rose up, roared a mighty growl,
and then instantly killed all three men of
scholarship.
After the lion had devoured his
friends and departed, the man of sense came
down, looked around carefully, then walked home.
This story was taken from the
Friendly Story
Caravan. This story was retold
from the
Panchatantra.
It was translated by Arthur W. Ryder.
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HOW
NOT
TO RELEASE A BEAR BACK INTO THE WILDERNESS!
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There is a bear inside that container.
Theoretically our well-trained Forest Rangers
know how to release wild animals back into the wilderness.
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Smokey the Bear is pretty happy to be free.
He is taking off at a gallop. But then he changes his
mind! |
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The bear turns around and
goes after the forest ranger!
Just so you understand, someone has to be taking these pictures,
right?
What do you do when your buddy is being attacked by a bear?
You keep taking pictures, of course! |
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The bear gets hold of the bear tank and
literally pulls it right off the truck, taking the Forest
Ranger with it.
Maybe there are some things in life you just can't possibly
foresee going wrong, but you would think these guys
would have tied the bear tank down or something.
If you look carefully, you will see there is a third man
inside the truck. Does he come to the rescue of his buddy?
Hell, no!
While Ranger Bob is about to be eaten for lunch, one guy stays
inside the cab while the other guy keeps taking pictures! |
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It looks to me like the Forest Ranger is free and running
towards his buddy.
My guess is the photographer stopped taking pictures at this
point and decided to do something.
As you can see, there is a big gap between the bear attack
pictures and the aftermath.
Since there was no accompanying text, I guess we are left to
figure out what happened next ourselves.
Possible outcomes:
1. The bear counted two humans,
figured he was outnumbered and
decided to go in the other direction.
2. There weren't any more pictures because the
photographer
turned and ran.
3. The photographer fired warning shots in the air and
scared the bear off.
4. The photographer put down the camera and shot the bear.
My guess is the bear let the Ranger Bob take off running
and didn't chase him.
Otherwise those wounds would have been much worse,
gunshot or no gunshot.
I don't think
they shot the bear. Otherwise you would have
probably seen some dead bear pictures too.
Those are some
nasty scratches on the Ranger's leg, but really no
more than flesh wounds, you know, a little iodine
and off you go.
When my wife looked at the
pictures, she said she hoped that Ranger Bob wasn't hurt
bad.
When I looked at the pictures, I hoped the Bear
wasn't hurt bad.
I guess I should have told you. I am a big
Winnie the Pooh kind of guy.
I am so stupid
that bear probably would have eaten me for lunch
when I asked it for an autograph.
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