My main concern with this show, living in AK, was played out in front of us just this afternoon. Mind, I’ve only glimpsed this show once while surfing at a hotel. My impression was that the Kratts tend to engage very closely with wild animals, right? Maybe it’s a trick of photography and they aren’t really that close. If they are giving the illusion that they are, that’s a dangerous thing for kids to see. I understand that it’s exciting and it sells advertising, but at what cost?
We went out to the glacier today. There is a visitor center and hundreds of buses a day drop off and pick up many thousands of people from the cruise ships (up to six per day) that frequent our town all summer. There was a black bear yearling CUB in the brush near the building and people were RUNNING toward it with their cameras at the ready.
Both of my girls (4 and 7) looked at me with perplexed, somewhat scared expressions as they watched about 45 people go whizzing by us directly toward the bear. My younger one then asked very loudly in her squeaky little voice, “Don’t they know that the Mommy bear will eat them?”
It’s not a zoo – it’s real wilderness and real animals that are not tame or pets. Makes me wonder where people in general have learned this kind of strange behavior. Maybe from TV? We haven’t had TV in almost 10 years, so I’m not sure, but I have even seen my own mother do this…. run toward a wild animal just to get a good picture. Do you think it could be these types of shows that encourage this?
PS: To my knowledge, no one was attacked at the glacier, but I’ll be anxious to read the paper in the morning.
