POLAR BEARS AND MARSHMALLOWS. Often when I read about animal intelligence I think of a news story about the Brookfield Zoo from a number of years ago—from a time when zoos were more lax about people feeding animals. Some of the polar bears escaped at night, went over the moat and could go anywhere in the zoo. They settled down in the refreshment stand they could see from their enclosure and did a lot of damage to the cash registers (BECAUSE THEY KNEW THE CASH REGISTERS HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH MARSHMALLOWS). (I have added the parenthetical because Annalisa correctly notes in her comment that I had left the point of the story unstated).
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I’ve always adored this story. My favorite part, though, was how the bears bashed the cash registers to bits because they understood the cash registers had something to do with marshmallows.
And just the other day I saw a video that astounded me, because it correlated so well with this story. Three teenage girls were spending time with a trained bear at a wildlife preserve and they had the opportunity to “kiss” the bear. The trainer offered each girl a marshmallow, which she then put between her lips before leaning toward the bear. The bear grabbed the marshmallow and happily ate it each time. For the girls, the most upsetting thing about this encounter was the frothy drool the bear produced as he enjoyed his snack.
What bothers me about that story, Annalisa, is if that bear had bitten one of those girls they probably would have had it destroyed.
Another old family favorite, though, Dad.
I’ve been reading to Elizabeth some books by Daniel Pinkwater about the adventures of some polar bears named Larry, Muktuk, and Irving, who can get in and out of their cages, but need permission slips to leave the zoo.
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Polar bears are Mia’s favorite animal, so I will have to share this with her. Thanks for the reminder!