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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 14, 2018 10:10:07 GMT -5
Note: I've never heard pf polar bears hunting and killing musk ox, but perhaps. This particular bear found no interest. I do know that barren ground grizzlies hunt and kill musk ox. 300 kilograms is equal to 661.39 pounds (avoirdupois) never heard that either. But if barren ground grizzlies who weight much less have killed musk ox, then a polar bear should have no problem, much more knowing that they are full time carnivores and hunters. But the barren ground grizzly is more agressive than the polar.
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Post by brobear on Nov 14, 2018 12:41:56 GMT -5
Grizzlies hunt and kill ungulates, which is strikingly different from seals and walrus. Grizzlies in the 300-pound range have been known to kill full-grown musk ox. See topic: Grizzly: Predator or Scavenger.
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 15, 2018 6:57:11 GMT -5
Good News! We Have Found a Thriving Polar Bear Population Somewhere on Our Planet BY MICHELLE STARR NOVEMBER 15, 2018 Polar bears are pretty much the poster child for climate breakdown. That famous WWF photo by Carla Lombardo Ehrlich of a polar bear clinging to a remnant of melting ice is a stark and poignant image of the dangers of global warming. A new survey suggests that in some parts of the Arctic, the polar bears' situation is not as dire as we've been fearing. In fact, biologists have found that a previously unstudied population of polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ) in the Chukchi Sea, between Alaska and Russia, is actually thriving. Before you crack open the champagne however, bear in mind that these animals aren't completely free of threat. "This work represents a decade of research that gives us a first estimate of the abundance and status of the Chukchi Sea subpopulation," said biologist Eric Regehr of the University of Washington's Polar Science Center. "Sea-ice loss due to climate change remains the primary threat to the species but, as this study shows, there is variation in when and where the effects of sea-ice loss appear. Some subpopulations are already declining while others are still doing OK." Between 2008 and 2016, the Chukchi bears maintained a pretty healthy population, even though, compared to 25 years ago, they were spending around a month less on average on sea ice, the habitat the bears prefer for hunting, breeding and migrating. In this time, the researchers tagged around 60 bears a year, some with GPS devices. According to the most recent data, the subpopulation numbered just under 3,000 individuals, with good reproductive and cub survival rates. There are 19 subpopulations of polar bears around the world. As a whole, polar bears are officially listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species, with an estimated 26,000 individuals worldwide; some subpopulations are declining faster than others. For example, the subpopulation that belongs to the Southern Beaufort sea, which roams between the US and Canada, has shown evidence of decline in recent years, attributed to the declining sea ice due to climate breakdown. Their loss of habitat has been leading to a worrying move into human-inhabited areas, and creating a credible threat to public safety. Meanwhile the Chukchi Sea is, according to previous studies, abundant with wildlife, including seals (good meals for bears!). "It's a very rich area. Most of the Chukchi Sea is shallow, with nutrient-rich waters coming up from the Pacific," Regehr said. "This translates into high biological productivity and, importantly for the polar bears, a lot of seals." There are also whale carcasses that wash ashore in summer, feeding the bears in the lean months when sea ice is at its lowest. This is in direct contrast, Regehr said, to the Southern Beaufort sea, which is nearby, but seems bereft in comparison. "It's night and day in terms of how many seals and other animals you see," he noted. But although our world's changing climate is yet to cause a serious problem for the Chukchi region's wildlife, hints of change are starting to appear. The fact that the bears are spending less time on the ice is a cause for concern. We also know that Arctic sea ice is melting. North of Greenland, the oldest and thickest of the Arctic sea ice has been found breaking up for the first time on record. And recent NASA research has found that over half the Arctic's permanent sea ice has been lost since 1958. "These findings are good news for now, but it doesn't mean that bears in the Chukchi Sea won't be affected by ice loss eventually," Regehr said. "Polar bears need ice to hunt seals, and the ice is projected to decline until the underlying problem of climate change is addressed." The team's research has been published in the journal Scientific Reports . www.sciencealert.com/good-news-polar-bears-are-thriving-in-the-chukchi-sea/amp
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 16, 2018 6:15:46 GMT -5
Sleep or die? Authorities consider killing nuisance bears in Kodiak if they don’t hibernate soon pencil Author: Associated Press clock Updated: 10 hours ago calendar Published 19 hours ago Share on FacebookFacebook Share on TwitterTwitter Share via EmailEmail Share on RedditReddit KODIAK - Alaska wildlife officials are considering killing nuisance bears in Kodiak if they don’t go into hibernation soon. City manager Mike Tvenge told the council last week that state Department of Fish and Game officials working with Kodiak police will likely kill these bears, noting that non-lethal measures have become less effective, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported. "Kodiak Police Department is working closely with Alaska Department of Fish and Game to deter the bears from getting into the (trash) roll carts, but those efforts have had short-lasting effects," Tvenge told the city officials. "The bears are now becoming used to the non-lethal bullets and pepper shots." ADVERTISING Police and wildlife officials have responded to several calls in recent weeks about bears getting into trash. In one incident last month, a bear broke into a garage. Kodiak police will provide backup to the wildlife officials, who have already accompanied officers on some patrols, police Lt. Francis de la Fuente said. Killing a bear in a residential area is not an easy task, he said. The wildlife department does not usually decide to kill a bear without first conferring with appropriate local, state or federal agencies, said Nate Svoboda, a department wildlife biologist. "Making the decision to dispatch a bear is not something ADF&G often endorses, as this does little to curb the fundamental problem of bears getting into easily accessible and unprotected trash," Svoboda said. Before killing a bear, the department will first try to address core problems, like what's attracting the bear to the area, Svoboda said. Relocating bears is not a viable option, he said. “This can be very difficult, time-consuming, resource intense and expensive, and typically does little to solve the core problem,” Svoboda said. "In addition, relocating bears to other regions can disrupt the natural system in the area the bear gets relocated. " www.adn.com/alaska-news/wildlife/2018/11/15/sleep-or-die-authorities-consider-killing-nuisance-bears-in-kodiak-if-they-dont-hibernate-soon/
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 20, 2018 17:35:04 GMT -5
My god these pieces of crap wont stop. I swear if i could, i woulf put them all naked with no weapons on Kodiak island, them and their families. Hunters add another 381 to tally on second day of Pennsylvania season for bear Hunters brought another 381 black bears to the 25 Pennsylvania Game Commission bear check stations across the state on Monday, the second day of the 4-day firearms hunting season for bear that ends on Wednesday, November 21. That brings the total harvest to date in the 2018 firearms season to 1,622, which is considerably lower than the 2-day totals for the top bear-kill years on record with the commission. In 2011, when the state record of 4,350 bears harvested during all bear-hunting seasons was set, the second-day tally for the firearms season was 2,709. Hunters had added 773 bruins to their first-day harvest of 1,936. In 2016, when the fifth-highest bear kill of 3,529 was recorded, hunters had taken 1,884 bears by the end of the second day. In the current firearms season, the top 10 bears killed so far have each had live-weights of at least 600 pounds, according to the commission The largest – a male estimated at 704 pounds – was taken in Goshen Township, Clearfield County, by Mickey Moore, of Clearfield. He took it with a rifle on November 17, the season’s opening day. The second-largest bear was a 697-pound male taken with a rifle by Scott Yorty, of Bloomsburg, on November 19, the season’s second day, in Chapman Township, Clinton County. Other large bears taken over the season’s first two days include a 681-pounder taken November 17 in Coal Township, Northumberland County, by Robert Britton III, of Coal Township; a 680-pounder taken November 19 in Chest Township, Clearfield County, by Douglas Routch, of Curwensville; a 679-pound male taken by Jordan Tutmaher, of Warren, on November 17 in Farmington Township, Warren County’ a 623-pound male taken November 17 in Newport Township, Luzerne County, by Corrina Kishbaugh, of Nanticoke; a 614-pound male taken November 17 in Toby Township, Clarion County, by Thomas Wilson, of Rimersburg; a 608-pound male taken November 19 in Upper Turkeyfoot Township, Somerset County, by Larry Pletcher, of Rockwood; a 607-pound male taken in Hazle Township, Luzerne County, by Brian Bonner Jr., of McAdoo; and a 604-pound male taken in Young Township, Jefferson County, by Matthew Smith, of Punxsutawney. The preliminary two-day bear harvest by county, with the corresponding figure from 2017 in parentheses, is as follows. Northwest: Venango, 65 (37); Jefferson, 59 (41); Warren, 46 (61); Forest, 45 (23); Crawford, 43 (19); Clarion, 33 (25); Butler, 15 (6); Erie, 14 (5); and Mercer, 11 (6). Southwest: Somerset, 51 (31); Fayette, 32 (18); Indiana, 28 (5); Armstrong, 21 (25); Cambria, 13 (5); and Westmoreland, 7 (6). Northcentral: Clinton, 102 (83); Lycoming, 87 (74); Tioga, 71 (93); Clearfield, 69 (40); Cameron, 54 (34); Potter, 48 (84); Centre, 40 (17); Elk, 39 (53); McKean, 38 (44); and Union, 13 (10). Southcentral: Huntingdon, 70 (33); Bedford, 50 (24); Fulton, 32 (11); Blair, 17 (4); Juniata, 15 (7); Franklin, 14 (7); Perry, 13 (7); Mifflin, 10 (7); Adams, 3 (2); Snyder, 3 (2); and Cumberland, 1 (2). Northeast: Bradford, 43 (25); Luzerne, 40 (28); Pike, 38 (83); Monroe, 36 (31); Wayne, 26 (44); Sullivan, 24 (49); Wyoming, 24 (21); Carbon, 19 (15); Columbia, 16 (6); Northumberland, 15 (1); Lackawanna, 12 (19); Susquehanna, 7 (16); and Montour, 0 (1). Southeast: Dauphin, 25 (9); Schuylkill, 13, (5); Lebanon, 5 (1); Lehigh, 3 (0); Northampton, 3 (1); and Berks, 1 (4). www.pennlive.com/life/2018/11/hunters-add-another-381-to-tally-on-second-day-of-pennsylvania-season-for-bear.html?outputType=amp
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 22, 2018 8:14:29 GMT -5
Why the fattest bear is the picture of health By — Vicky Stein Science Nov 21, 2018 05:14 PM EST In her competition photo, Beadnose the bear is hunched down with her chin back, highlighting her thick shoulders (and, it seems, shooting the camera some side-eye). She's one of the stars of Katmai National Park's Fat Bear Week, a social media campaign that began in 2014. Each October, the park asks the public to vote on their favorite "fat bear." This year, Beadnose brought in more than 7,000 votes to earn the title of official Fattest Bear. By this time of year, all of the Alaska park's brown bears are fat out of necessity. They've spent months preparing for the salmon to stop running upstream and the cold to set in, prompting their inevitable retreat into their dens. Over six months of hibernation, the bears will either lose a third of their body weight, almost entirely in fat, or they will perish. A bear without enough muffin top won't make it through the winter. For this reason, Beadnose is considered the pinnacle of bear fitness, weighing more than 600 pounds. According to research done with wild and captive bears, she'll face no long-lasting negative health consequences for her massive weight gain. But for humans in the U.S. and other Western countries, now heading into our holiday season of heavy eating, this kind of drastic weight gain can be damaging. It can bring on Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol and increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. How are bears able to jiggle contentedly through the woods every fall and sleep off their extra pounds, while humans are constantly confronted with conflicting diet advice, new medical reports of the dangers of fat and the social stigma that accompanies weight? Scientists say the bears' annual respite makes them into the "metabolic magicians of the mammalian world." As they gorge and then starve, their bodies and hormones keep track of the seasons, making them resilient to drastic changes in their environments. And someday, the secrets of these bears may help inform human health, too. Here's what we know. How bears go from skinny to fat in a summer Bears emerge from hibernation in the spring at their thinnest. They pack on as much weight as possible before the following fall, adding hundreds of pounds of fat. Image by Katmai National Park. Bears emerge from hibernation in the spring at their thinnest. They pack on as much weight as possible before the following fall, adding hundreds of pounds of fat. This photo shows the same bear, Otis, in June and October of this year. Image by Katmai National Park. Every summer in Alaska's Katmai National Park, bears emerge from the woods. They perch at the edge of the Brooks River Falls and open their mouths. Thousands of salmon migrate up the Brooks River to spawn each year. They fling themselves into the air, attempting to leap past the waterfall. The unluckiest among them do clear the falls, but not bear jaws. Online viewers can use the park's series of webcams to watch the brown bears walk out of the trees in the spring, gangly limbs and shaggy fur in sharp relief. As fall approaches, bears enter a ravenous state known as hyperphagia. "We can see it on the webcams, especially in the fall, where the bears are in the river gorging on salmon," said Mike Fitz, a natural history educator with Explore.org. "They'll walk up to the riverbank, and they'll plop right down and take a nice long nap … then they'll get right back up again and keep eating." In Alaska, the winters are dark and cold. An underweight bear can't make it to spring. A bear that enters a hibernation den at 600 pounds can leave it 200 pounds lighter. By the next October, the skinny bears from spring have gained so much weight that they nearly drag the ground with their bellies. That's how this year's winner of Fat Bear Week, Beadnose, also known as Bear 409, captured the hearts of thousands of voters and millions of viewers. But accolades aside, her physique will hopefully see her safely through the cold months ahead. How bears gorge and hibernate without getting sick Front view of Alaska Peninsula brown bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) with freshly caught sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska, USA. Photo by Grant Ordelheide / Aurora Photos / via Getty Images Front view of Alaska Peninsula brown bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) with freshly caught sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska, USA. Photo by Grant Ordelheide / Aurora Photos / via Getty Images According to Heiko Jansen, an endocrinologist who works with captive bears at Washington State University, bears can conquer their annual bout of hefty eating thanks to two hormones: insulin, which helps cells use a sugar called glucose as fuel, and leptin, which helps control appetite. With the onset of Type 2 diabetes, often associated with weight gain, human cells stop being able to use insulin effectively. This is called insulin resistance. Bears, on the other hand, keep their insulin usage at maximum capacity until right before hibernation, when they've reached their peak weight. "Insulin allows your fat cells to get bigger and make more fat storage," Jansen said. That's what the bears need during this time of year. But when winter sets in and the bears are in hibernation, Jansen added, their muscles do become insulin resistant. That makes sense for a situation in which you're starving, like hibernation, Jansen said. One way to push glucose to the brain, a vital organ that relies on sugar as a major fuel, is to make the other tissues resist pulling it in. Leptin is created by fat cells, and usually regulates weight gain. As fat cells grow, leptin production increases and usually signals a mammal's brain to feel satiated when they've eaten enough. But during hyperphagia, the ravenous state that comes each fall, bears don't respond to that feedback. In mid- to late-October, when the bears are about to enter hibernation, researchers find that leptin flips on in a bear's brain. "There's a switch sometime in the fall," Jansen said. That "switch" finally triggers the appetite suppression that the bears will need in hibernation. Switching on and off their reactions to different hormones prepares the bears for their seasonal cycles. www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/science/why-the-fattest-bear-is-the-picture-of-health
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Post by brobear on Nov 22, 2018 12:21:04 GMT -5
Do you like the way hunters use the word harvest? Farmers harvest hay and wheat and corn, etc. Bears are not harvested, they are murdered with high-powered rifles.
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 22, 2018 12:26:23 GMT -5
Do you like the way hunters use the word harvest? Farmers harvest hay and wheat and corn, etc. Bears are not harvested, they are murdered with high-powered rifles. Cant stand that word. Like bears are some kind of crop. ill harvest their mother if i had the chance.
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 22, 2018 12:29:10 GMT -5
Listen, you know i post alot of bear news here, and today i have seen alot of news of more bear hunting, they killed like 1300 bears already, and there is a news of like a 680 lb black bear killed also. But i did not post it here because i am just sick of it, its nasty.
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 22, 2018 12:31:47 GMT -5
Someone needs to stop this genocide immediately.
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Post by BruteStrength on Nov 22, 2018 14:14:52 GMT -5
I agree Kodiak. Im tired of people killing bears too.
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 22, 2018 14:33:15 GMT -5
I agree Kodiak. Im tired of people killing bears too. Time to hunt and “harvest” these hunters family members.
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 24, 2018 5:33:30 GMT -5
New Bear on the Block: Grizzlies Spotted in Black and Polar Bear Habitats For the first time, scientists have observed three American bear species—the black bear, polar bear and grizzly bear—using the same habitat in Canada's Wapusk National Park. "Scientifically, it has never been documented anywhere," Doug Clark of the University of Saskatchewan told the Canadian Press. Using remote cameras, Clark and his research team documented 401 bear-visits of all three species (366 from polar bears, 25 from black bears and 10 from grizzlies) at three camps in the national park from 2011–2017. The findings were published this week in the journal Arctic Science. The presence of polar and black bears was not unusual. After all, Wapusk National Park is home to one of the world's largest maternity denning areas for polar bears. The park also lies north of a forested region, where black bears call home. It was the number of grizzly visits that was the biggest surprise. "These observations add to a growing body of evidence that grizzlies are undergoing a substantial range increase in northern Canada and the timing of our observations suggests denning locally," the authors wrote. Clark delved deeper into the study in an essay for The Conversation: Three dynamic ecosystems—forest, tundra and ocean—converge at Wapusk, and all are changing quickly as the Arctic warms. What we've seen in Wapusk is consistent with how researchers expect northern carnivore populations to respond to climate change. The study adds more evidence that grizzly bears are showing up in places where they are not usually found. Other scientists have suggested that increased sightings of so-called "pizzly" or "grolar" bears—or grizzly-polar hybrids—are the result of grizzly bears in Alaska and Canada expanding north due to the warming environment, thus bringing them in contact with polar bears. "The combination of warmer temperatures and vegetation growth means there is more overlap between the species and I'd expect that overlap to increase," Chris Servheen, a grizzly bear expert at the University of Montana, told the Guardian in 2016. It is not currently clear if the three bear species are interacting with each other, or what effect their combined presence has on the larger environment. "How they interact is a really big question," Clark told the Canadian Press. "There's all kinds of things that could go on." www.ecowatch.com/first-recorded-proof-of-grizzly-black-and-polar-bears-using-same-habitat-2621317058.amp.html
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 24, 2018 5:36:36 GMT -5
UK Mall Apologises to Visitors Shocked by 'Polar Bear Sex' Display (PHOTO) 09:03 22.11.2018(updated 09:04 22.11.2018) A shopping centre in the Isle of Man greeted customers with a winter display featuring polar bears; however, they were arranged in a way more appropriate for mating season than the holiday season. A UK shopping mall located on the Isle of Man had to issue an apology after putting up a conspicuously-posed set of polar bears; the adults appeared to be having sex. The customers' reaction to the display turned out to be mixed, ranging from "amused" to "disturbed," and often both at the same time, Metro reports. sputniknews.com/amp/viral/201811221070025151-mating-polar-bears-shopping-center/
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 25, 2018 10:17:46 GMT -5
TRAPPED BEAR RESCUED FROM DROWNING AT HYDROPOWER STATION Sunday, November 25, 2018 08:38AM Trapped Asian black bear rescued from drowning at hydropower station. An Asian black bear was finally rescued and saved from drowning after getting stuck in front of a hydropower station in China. A video shows the bear trapped against the gate by rushing water. The bear was stuck in water that was nearly 27 feet deep. The rescuers used anesthesia as part of the rescue and a rope. After five hours, the 200-kilogram bear was finally lifted up. abc13.com/amp/pets-animals/trapped-bear-rescued-from-drowning/4759117/
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 29, 2018 0:32:52 GMT -5
A Yukon trapper shot an attacking grizzly bear — then discovered it had probably already killed his family By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. November 28, 2018 at 8:42 PM A grizzly bear on the Porcupine River Tundra in the Yukon Territories, Canada, on Aug. 12, 2009. (Rick Bowmer/AP) Gjermund Roesholt was returning from checking his fur traps in the Canadian Yukon on Tuesday afternoon when he found himself in the path of an aggressive, charging grizzly bear. The confrontation was only the start of the day’s horror for the Norwegian-born trapper. His family — his partner, Valérie Théorêt and their 10-month-old baby, Adele Roesholt — had spent the fall in the cold and sparsely populated region 500 miles east of Anchorage, trapping furs around Einarson Lake. They had purchased the trapline three years before, friends told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., and planned to spend as much time in the beautiful, remote region as possible, living off the land. Spending time there was a balancing act because Théorêt was also a sixth-grade French immersion teacher in the town of Whitehorse, 250 miles away. But then baby Adele came and Théorêt went on maternity leave, giving the small family the opportunity to pursue their passion in the Canadian bush. Roesholt, 37, operated a company called Wild Tracks, serving as a guide for people interested in hunting, fishing and trapping. His Instagram page was something out of Field & Stream magazine. It showed him holding fish the size of his torso and selling wares at the Yukon fur market. He would trap the animals, and Théorêt would fashion some of the furs into crafts: booties for children, mittens for adults and heart-shaped refrigerator magnets for whoever would buy them. In one photo snapped at the market, Roesholt has his arm around Théorêt near a table full of furs for sale, a baby stroller nearby. Related: Should wild animals that attack people be killed? The dangers of their existence in a region inhabited by gray wolves and two species of bear were obvious, but Roesholt and Théorêt were experienced bush people, friends told news organizations. There are few documented fatal bear attacks in the Yukon, the Yukon News reported. And Roesholt carried a gun. When the bear charged Tuesday, the Yukon Coroner’s Service said in a news release, Roesholt was “forced to shoot the bear dead” less than a football field’s length from the family’s cabin. He was almost home when he discovered the bodies. His partner and daughter had been mauled to death, apparently by the same grizzly. Roesholt activated an emergency SPOT alarm, a beacon that people in remote areas use to alert authorities and loved ones when they encounter danger. The investigators who arrived a short time later think the mother and daughter had gone out for a walk sometime between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., the news release said. They probably encountered the same bear but couldn’t make it back to the cabin in time. “It’s a big, big blow. Everybody is totally devastated right now,” Rémy Beaupré, a friend who heard details about the incident from another friend who received the emergency message, told the CBC. In the Yukon, trappers own a series of traps called a line, and routinely go from location to location on foot or snowmobile. It is a source of income, but also a way of life for outdoorsy people that has changed only slowly over the centuries. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported in 2016 that there are about 360 active traplines in the Yukon Territory. It was a lifestyle the couple seemed to relish, even as they dabbled in exploring it full time. The couple’s Facebook pages were filled with pictures of them in the snowy outdoors — Roesholt reclining on a mountaintop, Théorêt grinning as she held a tiny fish. They also shared breathtaking photos of the northern land that had become their home, full of rushing rivers, towering evergreen trees and snow-capped mountains. But this year, the photos began to show something else they adored. In one of Théorêt’s uploads on Facebook, baby feet are planted in sand. In another, Théorêt holds Adele, then 5 weeks old, swaddled in blankets. “What a beauty you have brought into the world,” one friend remarked, one entry in a stream of congratulations about the family’s tiny addition. www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/science/2018/11/28/yukon-trapper-shot-an-attacking-grizzly-bear-then-discovered-it-had-already-killed-his-family/
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Post by brobear on Nov 29, 2018 9:06:38 GMT -5
Sad story. A family killed. Regardless of this tragedy, trapping should have been outlawed a century ago. Trapping is cowardly and barbaric. Sport hunting is a blood-sport no better than conducting pit-fights. Just a very wrong way for anyone to entertain himself.
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 29, 2018 10:12:38 GMT -5
Sad story. A family killed. Regardless of this tragedy, trapping should have been outlawed a century ago. Trapping is cowardly and barbaric. Sport hunting is a blood-sport no better than conducting pit-fights. Just a very wrong way for anyone to entertain himself. Yeah the man’s family was killed first, his wife and daughter. Guess what? Thats what a trapper gets. Good.
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 30, 2018 6:04:55 GMT -5
2 idiots going deep in bear territory, WITH A BABY, what you think will happen? Yeah that piece of crap trapper killed the bear, but lost his precious family, bear took them to heaven. Gentleman make no mistake about it.....the coward is next.
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Post by King Kodiak on Dec 3, 2018 6:54:24 GMT -5
Drilling in the Arctic: Questions for a Polar Bear Expert The Trump administration is reversing a longstanding ban on oil exploration on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The area is home to about 900 polar bears, which are already struggling because of climate change. Can they withstand another disruption? Share on FacebookPost on TwitterMail Image image A polar bear in Kaktovik, Alaska. Polar bears number about 25,000 across the Arctic.CreditJosh Haner/The New York Times By Henry Fountain and Steve Eder Dec. 3, 2018 Andrew Derocher is a biologist at the University of Alberta who has researched polar bears for more than three decades. He is also a volunteer adviser to Polar Bears International, a conservation group. He discussed the status of polar bears in the Arctic amid a warming climate, and the potential impact of oil and gas exploration. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Q. Worldwide in the Arctic, there are roughly 25,000 polar bears in what scientists consider to be 19 subpopulations. Over all, how are they doing? A. People assume that because we're concerned about polar bears from a conservation and management perspective, that all polar bears must be doing terribly. That's not the case. Polar bears are doing just fine in many parts of their distribution, and with 19 different populations around the Arctic, we have 19 different scenarios playing out. ADVERTISEMENT What about the southern Beaufort Sea subpopulation, which includes the bears in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? This is one of the 19 that is showing the very clear effects of climate change and the reduction in Arctic sea ice. Historically the subpopulation was much more abundant, with more than 1,500 bears. Now it’s down to 800 to 900. It’s pretty clear, if we look through time, that this species responds to changes in ice conditions. With warming, they are just getting pushed farther and farther north. Because of warming, sea ice coverage in the Arctic has declined by about 13 percent each decade since 1980. How does the loss of sea ice affect polar bears? ADVERTISEMENT From an ecological perspective, polar bears are highly adapted to a very specialized ecological niche. They use sea ice to hunt seals. We expect that these changes in sea ice will have negative consequences for their prey. One of best ways to think about sea ice is that it’s almost akin to the soil in a terrestrial ecosystem. If you take away the soil in a forested area you won’t get the forest back. The same thing is true for Arctic ecosystems that have sea ice. Ice algae lives inside the ice. Bacteria, viruses, little invertebrates live there, too. There are these algae forests that live underneath the ice. It's a whole ecosystem. ADVERTISEMENT When you remove the ice, it changes the ecosystem. It has these ripple effects that start at the bottom of the food chain and go right up through to the fish and then, of course, to the important thing for the bears — the seals. Image image A polar bear and cub investigating a bridge to an oil production platform.CreditU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, via Associated Press The reduction in sea ice also means that polar bears spend more time on land. Is this a concern? Once they’re on land, they’re not eating much at all and they’re losing weight. They lose just a little over two pounds per day when they’re away from their prey. If you increase the length of their fasting period — the ice breaks up sooner in the spring and forms later in the fall — you're asking the bears to do more with less. They’re coming ashore in poorer condition, and have to stretch out that reduced energy reserve for another week or two or longer. At some point, you just cross a threshold where the bears don’t accumulate enough energy and starve on land, or perhaps a female just can’t reproduce anymore because she doesn’t have enough fat reserves in her body. ADVERTISEMENT We’re jiggling all the parts of their life history at the same time. We're probably changing seal abundance, we’re affecting primary productivity, we're asking the bears to walk farther, we're asking them to fast for longer periods, we're cutting into the best times of year for feeding. Collectively, the problem is that these effects accumulate in bears in poor body condition. That translates into lower reproductive rates and lower rates of survival. And once you put those two together, it's just a matter of time before the population abundance declines. Does the decline of sea ice also affect where female bears make their dens? Polar bears do den offshore, on ice that has to be relatively thick and have snow on top of it. So that tends to be ice that’s more than one year old. Multiyear ice is already disappearing, and if you look at the projections, it will continue to disappear. So there’s been this big shift from multiyear-ice denning to terrestrial denning. The pregnant bears look for a place with enough snow. On land, usually those are on the lee side of a prevailing wind — on the bank of a lake or on small creek where the snow has accumulated. ADVERTISEMENT When they are in their den, basically they are in slowdown mode. Their cubs are born somewhere around December. The mothers raise them from a tiny one-and-a-half-pound critter to an animal that is about 20 pounds over three to four months, and then they take them out on the ice to hunt. What do scientists know about the impact of oil and gas exploration and production on polar bears? One of the things that’s pretty cool about bears in general and polar bears in particular is each bear has an individual behavior pattern, or personality, if you want to call it that. Some bears just don’t seem to care — they are just not worried by people, not worried by snow machines or all-terrain vehicles or trucks going by. Yet others are extremely wary, don’t like it and will move away quickly from disturbance. By and large, I think polar bears are fairly robust to disturbance, but once they have small cubs they tend to be quite timid. One of the concerns we have is den abandonment. If you harass a bear around a den, there’s a greater likelihood that she will leave it with her cubs. And that is not a good thing. Young cubs are not that well developed and rely on the dens for protection. Moving them around is never a good idea. We have to accept at least the basic premise that disturbance is not going to be beneficial for the bears. Then the question is, just how bad is it going to be? That’s difficult to say. But anything that adds on to the current impacts of sea ice loss is not going to be good for the population. www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/us/alaska-oil-drilling-polar-bears.amp.html
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