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The Problem Behind a Viral Video of a Persistent Baby Bear (theatlantic.com)
Ed Yong, writing for The Atlantic: For many people, a two-and-a-half-minute video of a baby brown bear trying to scale a snow-covered mountain was a life-affirming testament to the power of persistence. As it begins, the cub is standing with its mother on the side of a perilously steep ridge. The mother begins walking across, and despite slipping a few times on the loose snow, she soon reaches the top. Her cub, following tentatively after her, isn't so fortunate. It loses its footing and slides several feet. It pulls itself together and reattempts the ascent, before slipping again.
Finally, the cub nears the top. But as the footage zooms in to focus on the moment of reunion, the mother inexplicably swipes at the youngster with her paw, sending it hurtling downward again. It slides a long way, scrabbling for purchase and finding some just before it hits a patch of bare rock. Once again, it starts to climb, and after what seems like a nail-biting eternity for anyone watching, it reaches its mother. The two walk away.
The video was uploaded to the ViralHog YouTube channel on Friday, and after being shared on Twitter, it rapidly went viral. At the time of this writing, it has been watched 17 million times. The cub's exploits were equal parts gif, nature documentary, and motivational poster. It had all the elements of an incredible story: the most adorable of protagonists, rising and falling action (literally), and a happy ending. It was a tale of tenacity in the face of adversity, triumph against the odds. But when biologists started watching the video, they saw a very different story.
The video, they say, was clearly captured by a drone. And in it, they saw the work of an irresponsible drone operator who, in trying to film the bears, drove them into a dangerous situation that almost cost the cub its life. "I found it really hard to watch," says Sophie Gilbert, an ecologist at the University of Idaho who studies, among other things, how drones affect wildlife. "It showed a pretty stark lack of understanding from the drone operator of the effects that his actions were having on the bears." (It wasn't just scientists, either; several drone pilots were also dismayed by the footage.)
Finally, the cub nears the top. But as the footage zooms in to focus on the moment of reunion, the mother inexplicably swipes at the youngster with her paw, sending it hurtling downward again. It slides a long way, scrabbling for purchase and finding some just before it hits a patch of bare rock. Once again, it starts to climb, and after what seems like a nail-biting eternity for anyone watching, it reaches its mother. The two walk away.
The video was uploaded to the ViralHog YouTube channel on Friday, and after being shared on Twitter, it rapidly went viral. At the time of this writing, it has been watched 17 million times. The cub's exploits were equal parts gif, nature documentary, and motivational poster. It had all the elements of an incredible story: the most adorable of protagonists, rising and falling action (literally), and a happy ending. It was a tale of tenacity in the face of adversity, triumph against the odds. But when biologists started watching the video, they saw a very different story.
The video, they say, was clearly captured by a drone. And in it, they saw the work of an irresponsible drone operator who, in trying to film the bears, drove them into a dangerous situation that almost cost the cub its life. "I found it really hard to watch," says Sophie Gilbert, an ecologist at the University of Idaho who studies, among other things, how drones affect wildlife. "It showed a pretty stark lack of understanding from the drone operator of the effects that his actions were having on the bears." (It wasn't just scientists, either; several drone pilots were also dismayed by the footage.)
don't worry, before too long there won't be any are bears.
If people are killing themselves to get a selfie, imagine when their own life is not at stake. Humans suck.
So viral I can't even see it.
I don't think that writer knows the meaning of the word.
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
Who cares? Was the baby bear running hibernate? That would explain the persistence
Better than going through life not giving a damn about anything.
No sig today...
There's nothing quite like seeing animals in all their majesty while they run away from all the loud shit with cameras. Yep, that's some real appreciation.
The point was that you can do so without harassing the wildlife if you know the correct methodologies.
ESL? 'Shooting' footage or photos is a common verb. He's not referring to killing the animals with bullets or arrows.
You obviously did not watch the whole video. At 1:13 of the video, the drone clearly moves towards them, the mother bear looks directly at it, freaks out and swipes. After that, the drone backs off. It's likely the drone operator knew what they did which is why they didn't move the drone toward them again until after the baby bear was safe at the top.
Because it's exploring the impacts of emerging technology on the world?
1:15ish, the drone flys quickly into the action as the baby bear nears the top shortening the distance by at least half if not 3/4 in a couple of seconds. It seems clear to me that the mother can see the drone coming at them at speed. She looks repeatedly at the camera to her baby and back again. As the drone gets quite close she swipes at her baby to get it out the path of an unknown danger.
Lets look at some numbers. If it was very far away as you think then that's what? 300m? And lets be conservative with my figures and say it traveled 2/3rds of the distance in 3 seconds then that's 237kph or 147mph. That's unrealistic. The top speed of an average drone is around 50mph. At that speed it would have been 100m out and traveled 66m in 3 seconds.
But that's top speed, lets say it was moving at 20mph, that puts it 40m out and zooming in to around 13meters.
So, something you don't understand making a loud buzzing coming at you. Remember because of the doppler effect, the noise will increase in volume and pitch as it gets closer. Which would you prefer? 50mph and stopping 33meters/yards from the most precious person in your life in a dangerous situation or coming at you at 20 mph and pulling up around 13meters/yards?
The foreground moves out of camera shot faster than the background indicating the camera is getting nearer. Zoom makes the foreground and background bigger by the same rate.
Black bears scare easily. Human noises, breaking branches, and or talking loudly/yelling could all have had a similar affect. In fact making noises while walking in bear country to startle and alert any bears in the area is considered the safe thing to do. It is a survival instinct that helps them not be hunted by humans or other large predators. To the people so worried about inflicting horror on these mammals, they should avoid going into the woods entirely.
Bingo. The difference when presented with the same evidence between what an amateur sees and what a professional sees. It just emphasis the story more in that people are ignorant about the consequences of their actions, and more importantly resistance about being educated about their ignorance. Now all we need to make the circle complete is blaming the animals for not recognizing our benign intentions. Now who are the stewards of the planet again? Certainly not the animals.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
Next on Fox:"When streetlights attack".
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
Being constantly angry or being apathetic are not the only options.
It is possible to care deeply about things without that care being expressed as anger.
In fact, I would propose that if you define "caring" as getting angry at those things that oppose that for which you care, that it isn't really caring at all, but something far darker.
Check your premises.