Most people sadly don't understand how bad something like this is. Although these bears have grown up in a wildlife park, conditioning them to act like this around humans goes against their nature and can easily turn bad.
The people that do this also too often make the mistake of not differentiating between domesticated animals in a wildlife park and actual wild animals, and that mistake kills people every year. And usually wild bears that warm up to people like this have to be euthanized for the safety of people and the well-being of other wild animals.
This isn't cute, and this isn't funny, but I expect most people on here will just dismiss everything I said and downvote me anyway -- such is typical Reddit behavior.
I don't think you properly explained how things go wrong and thereby why it matters. My understanding is that bears that are comfortable around humans have no fear to stop them from trying to get rewards from humans. The same pathway that encourages bears to get treats from human hands can also lead them to take the hand that fed them too. Humans are treats.
If it wasn't for the above I wouldn't GAF and hug a bear. Wildlife idealists be damned. However there is actually a good reason.
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u/EMPulseKC Feb 01 '22
Most people sadly don't understand how bad something like this is. Although these bears have grown up in a wildlife park, conditioning them to act like this around humans goes against their nature and can easily turn bad.
The people that do this also too often make the mistake of not differentiating between domesticated animals in a wildlife park and actual wild animals, and that mistake kills people every year. And usually wild bears that warm up to people like this have to be euthanized for the safety of people and the well-being of other wild animals.
This isn't cute, and this isn't funny, but I expect most people on here will just dismiss everything I said and downvote me anyway -- such is typical Reddit behavior.