It's possible I'll learn more about animals from ABC this year than I ever will from Animal Planet.

Admittedly, I don't watch much Animal Planet.

For instance, from the just-ended session for ABC's "Northern Exposure"-like "Men in Trees," I learned that the raccoon, Elvis, that appeared in the pilot -- and will be a recurring, or "raccooning" character -- has a dog named Boomer for a stunt double.

According to show creator Jenny Bicks, raccoons don't run, they lope -- something she probably didn't learn during her tenure on "Sex and the City" -- so Boomer, some sort of terrier, does the running downstairs part.

If you should meet Boomer, try not to mention it, though.

"I would not tell the dog [that it's a stunt double]," Bicks said. "The dog thinks is raccoon is his stunt double. It's complicated."

Apparently. Especially since raccoons are nocturnal, so that that "Boomer's up when Elvis is asleep."

Though I had a very close encounter with a raccoon in Missouri during the cross-country camping trip that brought me to press tour earlier this month, I was, I'll admit, more interested in the bear spray that Anne Heche's character takes along on a bike ride than I was in the smaller wildlife.

Bicks, who did her research on Alaska in Alaska (though the show, naturally, is being shot in Vancouver, as nearly everything is these days), said that people there really do carry a bear-repellent spray to go jogging or cycling, but that unlike Heche's character in the pilot, they mean to spray it on the bear, not themselves.

A quick check of Google, however, reveals that bear repellent is generally a form of pepper spray, suggesting that the character, had she actually sprayed it on herself, would've been in a world of pain.

I know, I know. It's only a TV show.

But let's hope that the bears, too, get stunt doubles.