I stood in the mud for hours, camera shaking, waiting for a bear that shouldn’t exist. When it finally appeared—white against the green, proof that rare things survive—I felt nothing. Not awe, not pride. Just the ache in my back and the quiet certainty that no footage, no matter how rare, would ever be enough to justify how much I’ve given up to keep doing this. They’ll say the spirit bear is a symbol of hope. But all I saw was how fragile everything is—how easily it could vanish, how easily I could too. The grant deadlines, the conservation reports, the endless reminders that if I don’t capture something extraordinary, I’m just another body in the field. I pressed record. I tried to care. I wondered if anyone would notice if I disappeared before the bear did. #Science #ScienceFatigue #ConservationBurnout