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Backyard Almanac
Backyard Almanac: Nature’s Weekly Rhythms with Larry WeberEvery Friday morning at 8:20am, Backyard Almanac brings you the latest observations on the changing seasons, wildlife activity, and natural phenomena of Northern Minnesota. Hosted by Luke Moravec and featuring naturalist Larry Weber, this segment explores the rhythms of nature—from migrating birds to blooming wildflowers, shifting weather patterns to the quiet transformations happening all around us.Backyard Almanac – Fridays at 8:20am – Only on The North 103.3FM.

Green Visions: red-eyed wolves attack in Fortnite - should we care?

The North 103.3 | By Lisa Johnson
Published March 24, 2021 at 11:40 AM CDT
International Wolf Center

When Chad Richardson's son announced that wolves had been added to the newest update to the online video game Fortnite, the family paid attention.

Richardson is the communications director for the International Wolf Center, so he was curious about how wolves were presented in the game.

Turns out it's perpetuating a couple of troubling stereotypes: wolves as snarling predators that attack humans or as animals that can be tamed and turned into pets.

Is there any point in objecting to the portrayal of wolves in a video game when here are, ostensibly, so many other things about them you could object to?  As we're learning, though, misconceptions - especially when distributed to a lot of people like the estimated 350 million folks who play the game - can have real-world consequences.
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Environment & Outdoors Green VisionsWolvesInternational Wolf Center
Lisa Johnson
Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.
See stories by Lisa Johnson
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