Bear of a Monday

Minnesota bear researcher brings black bears to Today Show; den cams draw 90K+ Facebook fans

Lynn Rogers showed up on the Today Show with a black bear to promote his upcoming appearance on Animal Planet's Wild Kingdom (Apr 7, 7 p.m....set your DVR's). You see, over the last several decades, he's spent most of his time comingling with black bears in Minnesota's north woods. He seems to be setting up the next installment of Grizzly Man, but there's one crucial difference: Unlike Timothy Treadwell, Rogers is an actual wildlife scientist with a body of research to back up his bear bonafides.

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Even crazier, his bears have a huge following. Lily and Hope, a mother bear and cub featured on his den cams, have over 94,000 Facebook fans. Check out the uber-cute footage:



All together now: Awwwww.

While the footage is cool, and his research seems to be sound, the hawking of Lily and Hope mugs and shirts on the site seems a little crass. At the very least, though, it's worth it to see Ann Curry flip out a bit when it seems like the bear's going to go for her hand instead of the grape she's holding. Silly TV hosts...always afraid of hundred-pound wild beasts.

—Ted Alvarez