Bears Put On Treadmills… To Save Hikers?

In the video below you will see yet another massive waste of taxpayer money.

Some time ago I wrote about why bears have so many run-ins with humans out in the wild. The answer is quite simple really. 

When faced with a steep hill many animals just bound up and down it. But humans and bears prefer the path of least resistance. It does not matter that the trail is longer and we will have to take more steps. The walking will take far less effort. So if you are on a trail and you turn a corner and run into a bear just remember, you are both on that trail for the same reason.

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Scientists could have figured this out by simply watching the GPS trackers they have attached to bears. But OH NO! That is not enough of a waste of money.

Washington State University Bear Research Education and Conservation Center wanted to show that grizzly bears prefer the path of least resistance so they decided to put bears on treadmills to prove their theory. -- I'm going to pause here and let you read that last line again. -- I'll wait --- I KNOW RIGHT?

Before you watch the bear on a treadmill, do you remember the shrimp on a treadmill from a few years ago? Taxpayers paid for that, too.

So now let's build a big treadmill, and glass case around it. Then let's take a grizzly bear and have him walk it. Come on now, researchers have bills to pay just like you. This is them at work.

BONUS VIDEO! - Why stop there. Let's waste twice the money, if not more, and put a polar bear on a treadmill too!