Michelle Cyca @michellecyca.com · May 14 more bizarre errors from the @nytimes.com Canada desk: there are no "overlapping ranges" of grizzly bears or polar bears in Saskatchewan, even in the "far north" of the province. where is this stuff coming from? www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/w...
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Also ... what? Bear country is everywhere?
Not to mention the rare Saskatchewan hyena, or the endangered Saskatchewan crocodile, most often spotted outside bars at closing time.
I suspect this is a classic AI error Where it muddles basic facts. Doug Clark, myself and others at the University of Saskatchewan did publish a paper on overlapping range of black, polar, and grizzlies in northern Manitoba.
Did they... confuse Saskatchewan & Manitoba???
always a risk to leave my apartment in urban saskatchewan, aka bear country
Here I am in downtown Montreal, dodging bears all the time. Who knew I could just move to Toronto?
Actually, this is uncommon, but true. Black bears are everywhere in north Saskatchewan. When I was in Stony Rapids a few years ago, local store had photos up of a hunter who had shot a barrenland grizzly nearby. And here is an evidence of a polar bear in northern SK: @ryankbrook.bsky.social
Maybe they asked someone from the early 1800s? www.usgs.gov/media/images...
AI? Looks like AI.
A few cousins, grizzly and polar, have been known to breed in the far north but it’s not exactly a community gathering and potluck type of situation
robot crapola I bet
The idea that everywhere but downtown Toronto is bear country is pretty hi-larious too.This sounds like “bored Canadian has fun with gullible NYT reporter.”
New York Times has an addiction to AI slop.
Best bet is it's AI slop.🤮
We will find out Mr. McMullen is a chatbot.
I'm going to guess it's a hallucination of the University of Saskatchewan saying this about an observance near the Hudson Bay in northern Manitoba of this www.ctvnews.ca/saskatoon/ar...
Oh, no, for sure, eh. They’re up there where the walrus colonies sunbathe on the rocks near the beluga habitats. Just hang a right at Saskatoon, eh. Can’t miss ‘er.
The most generous reading is that this consultant made this statement, and the newspaper printed it without checking. But could be AI slop that they also didn't check. Having been out of Saskatchewan for a while, people use it as a punch line and get basic stuff wrong about it all the time.
Sounds like they confused Manitoba (the good one with the overlapping grizzly and polar bear regions) with Saskatchewan (the flat middle one that has crazy ham stacked pizza)
wtaf