Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre Moscow, ID
Dr. Heiko Jansen
Professor, Department of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience, Washington State University
Grizzly Man— Dangerous times in the bear world
Program Description
Bears are highly seasonal animals, and much of their behavior centers around obtaining seasonal foods. Preparing for hibernation is especially challenging and can create human-bear conflict. Dr. Heiko Jansen, a member of the WSU Bear Center faculty, discusses bear behavior in relation to human activity.
Presented At
Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre Moscow, ID
Film Synopsis
A devastating and heartrending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzlies in Alaska.
Grizzly Man chronicles the life and death of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell, who was killed, along with his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, by a rogue bear in October 2003. In one of the most extreme—and ultimately tragic—experiments in human-animal cohabitation ever attempted, for 13 consecutive summers, Treadwell lived (and finally died) among the bears at an Alaskan national park. The footage that he himself shot forms the core of this fascinating inquiry into the fragile relationship between man and nature.
About the Speaker
Professor and researcher in the Department of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience. Our laboratory is interested in understanding how one of the earth’s basic physical features, the day/night cycle, impacts motivated behaviors such as drug seeking. Studies in many species, including humans, have provided clear evidence that the body’s circadian clock is important for organizing behavior patterns to coincide with specific portions of the daily light/dark cycle. Indeed, destruction of the body’s clock or alterations in the fraction of light to dark to which rats are exposed both cause alterations in drug-seeking behaviors. Furthermore, an individual’s chronotype (i.e., the genetically determined propensity to be more alert in the morning vs. evening) is implicated in one’s propensity to become addicted to drugs. Thus, revealing the mechanisms involved in the integration of light/dark with daily behavior patterns could result in novel approaches for the treatment of addiction in a society where efforts to ignore these environmental cues and genetic predispositions together with increased shift work are becoming more common.
Dr. Jansen also works closely with the Bear Center at WSU.