Mark showed up for work, only to get distracted by squabbling between Professor Bee Sharp and Cricket Bro, who just happen be some of the participants at this tech/nature retreat. As I indicated before, the rest of the participants are most of Mark’s other recurring opponents. Cricket Bro’s remarks about Bee Sharp’s new main squeeze, Holly Folly, was the reason for the fracas. Mark wisely walked away from this fight, but the group eventually continued on with their nature hike.

Mark went to work on his assignment, quickly discovering a major reason why bears were coming onto the grounds of the retreat. Mission Accomplished? Not so fast! Not so fast! Holly Folly suddenly came running back from the hike to plead for Mark’s help. Seems that the boys got caught in some kind of geological mishap on their hike. But why did Holly run to Mark, a nature reporter? I suppose the apparent lack of any professional staff on the site is deliberate and a part of Rivera’s ongoing goal of poking a stick into Silicon Valley’s impresarios, geeks, and its elitist male culture. But as far as adventure is concerned, it’s early on; so I hope things start picking up. Until then, see below!

Today’s topic is not a big surprise, considering the week just completed. We’ve all read reports of people feeding wild animals outside of their homes or at national parks. Or they try to snuggle up to them for selfies, sometimes with unfortunate results for the person. And making wild animals dependent on eating human food is not a good thing for the animal, either. So, it’s not surprising that people in certain areas of the country will fail to recognizes that wild animals often eat whatever they can find and that looking for (or avoiding to become) food is one of their main activities.

But this PSA might also ironically dilute some of the satirical intent of Rivera’s daily strip, since it implies that even “normal” people who live in areas frequented by bears can be careless or ignorant of proper safety measures.