The Heartbreaking Truth Behind The Viral Video Of The Persistent Baby Bear

A video of a baby bear trying to climb a snow-covered slope went viral on social media a few days ago. Several users shared the video as an example of the age-old proverb – “if at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

The video was captured in Eastern Russia by a drone and depicted a baby bear following its mom up a steep snow-covered slope. The persistent bear slips and falls repeatedly – at one point even slips to the very end of the slope – but finally manages to climb up to its mother, where both mom and cub run off into the wilderness.

The video was uploaded to the ViralHog channel on YouTube and quickly went viral after Canadian journalist Ziya Tong shared it on Twitter. It had more than 187,000 retweets and 532,000 shares at the time of publishing. It was shared all over social media platforms as well, with many commenting, “We could all learn a lesson from this baby bear. Look up and don’t give up.”

But, all was not well. The video had a darker side. Many users pointed out that the mother and cub were terrified of the drone which was filming them. A video posted by Al Jazeera explained the problem.

In the video, as the baby neared the top of the cliff, the drone moved in, and went much closer to the cub, aiming for a closer and a better look. The mom bear panicked as she became aware of the drone. She tried to wave her paw aggressively to swat the drone away and ended up causing the cub to slide down to the very end of the slope.

The best MondayMorning video. That little bear just didn’t give up. I’ll now start this week-and every week-with that spirit. Also a lesson in child-rearing; If I’m not wrong, the mother bear actually made the cub slip down again & try harder, so as to build his willpower.. pic.twitter.com/9kaQU7wIkI

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) November 5, 2018

What a great motivational video @anandmahindra Sir! Truly applicable to us as sportspersons.

— IamKedar (@JadhavKedar) November 5, 2018

Nature's one of the most motivational clippings,🙏
Excellent attitude both by the mother & the kid bear 👏👏

— Subba Rao🇮🇳🇮🇳 (@yessirtns) November 5, 2018

The ugly truth behind the viral video of a baby bear struggling to reach his mum on a clifftop. pic.twitter.com/KCcxETR19O

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 8, 2018

Harassing wildlife for a photograph, a selfie, or a video is never okay. Respect animals by giving them space, and don’t share posts where animals are clearly in distress or in danger just because someone wanted to go viral.

— Dr. Jacquelyn Gill (@JacquelynGill) November 4, 2018

Environmentalists and wildlife experts have voiced their disapproval on social media over the footage. They said that the drone posed a threat to the lives of the baby bear, and was harassment.

“The video going around of a bear cub scrambling up a snowy cliff to get back to its distressed mother is being shared as a heartwarming metaphor for persistence. It’s not. It’s a dangerous stunt by an irresponsible drone operator who should know better,” Dr. Jacquelyn Gill, a US-based professor, and ecologist wrote on her Twitter.

“Harassing wildlife for a photograph, a selfie, or a video is never okay. Respect animals by giving them space, and don’t share posts where animals are clearly in distress or danger just because someone wanted to go viral,” she added.

In 2016, an article by The Conversation tried to define a code for wildlife photography and videography. That article had encouraged the use of equipment that minimizes the stimulus to wildlife and advised practices that involve a minimum movement of the video recording equipment.