If you're trying to raise money for a cause these days, you have to be creative. And this video of a guy in a bear suit, raising funds for Florida conservation, seems to fit the bill. The idea is to make the Sunshine State more "bear-able" for threatened wildlife.
A little introduction: Folks from The Nature Conservancy in Florida are trying to raise $500,000 to help purchase a 631-acre tract of land north of Orlando called Hollywood Pines. It's home to the largest black bear population in Florida. Preserving it would maintain a key wildlife corridor for the bears, a threatened species in the state.
The guy in the bear suit is Media Relations Manager James Miller. He's gone above and beyond being a spokesman here. He wore the bear suit for a day (must have been hot in there) and his colleagues captured it all on film. The gist: It's not easy being a bear when your habitat is threatened by development and highways. Florida, by the way, was first inhabited by Native Americans about 12,000 years ago. Black bears have lived in the state's forests for more than a million years.
The Florida black bear is considered a threatened species because only 2,500 to 3,000 remain in eight isolated habitats throughout the state, according to The Nature Conservancy. They're also considered an "umbrella species," because other native species rely on the same type of habitats that can allow bears to thrive ... or decline.
This is about more than just bears, too. We're all walking around with a bear suit on, in some respects. Connected forests, a goal of this campaign, will keep freshwater systems intact and provide natural protection from flooding, erosion and storms.
If you like this video, see the links below for other wacky fundraising stunts perpetrated for the planet's sake. To donate to the bear campaign or find out more, see the links at nature.org/bear.
As noted by The Chicago Tribune and Orlando Sentinel, the video and campaign "shows how conservation groups are resorting to novel measures to shore up cash donations for important projects during a bad economy."
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