Jon Mooallem: The strange story of the teddy bear and what it reveals

In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt legendarily spared the life of a black bear — and prompted a plush toy craze for so-called “teddy bears.” Writer Jon Mooallem digs into this story and asks us to consider how the tales we tell about wild animals have real consequences for a species’ chance of survival — and the natural world at large.

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