December 2006
Monthly Archive
Sat 30 Dec 2006
Go to: http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20061228-19311000-bc-us-polarbears.xml
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (UPI) — By the end of 2007 Polar bears may be listed as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, because their habitat is disappearing.
“Polar bears are one of nature’s ultimate survivors, able to live and thrive in one of the world’s harshest environments,” said Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne. “But we are concerned the polar bears’ habitat may literally be melting.”
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Sun 24 Dec 2006
The final tally is not yet in but it looks like there will be a little more in 4 bear rehabbers stockings this year thanks to over 400 people buying Warm Buddy Spirit Bears of all sizes. Since Dec 1 many hundreds of people visited our Bear Matters booth and learned a little more about the amazing ‘North American primates’ that live on our mountains. Many adults and children learned for the first time that bears have 5 toes and fingers on each paw. Also that bear rehab is a bright spot in bear conservation in B.C. and we are very fortunate to have professional gov’t licensed shelters that dedicate themslves to helping these and other wildlife have the second chance that most of their mothers were denied.
All profits will go directly to the 4 bear rehabbers in BC:Critter Care Wildlife Soc, North Island Wildife Recovery Centre, Northern Lights Wildlife Society and Hillspring Wildlife Centre (see links section for websites) with all administration costs underwritten by Bear Matters BC which is self funded.
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Sun 24 Dec 2006
By Lara Gerrits The Tri-City News
Dec 24 2006
A bear sow and her two cubs were tranquilized, then killed, Thursday by conservation officers in Port Coquitlam.
Because the bears — captured near Hyde Creek between Coast Meridian Road and Cedar Drive after residents complained of their proximity to a daycare — were so habituated and had been feeding off bird feeders and garbage for quite sometime, they had to be relocated or killed.
(An environment ministry spokesperson said there were reports an area resident had been feeding the bears.)
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Sat 23 Dec 2006
The First Annual North Shore Spring Bear Festival is scheduled for April 22 to 29th across the North Shore of Vancouver.
Stay tuned for more information and a website describing guest speakers, events, school programs, volunteer opportunities and sponsorships etc…
Please e-mail feedback@bearmatters.com if you would like to get involved.
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Thu 21 Dec 2006
Posted by Barb under
News[2] Comments
Pique Newsmagazine, December 21, 2007
A malnourished black bear cub hitched a ride from Whistler to Squamish this week and has ended up at Critter Care in Langley.
The cub-of-the-year, named Candy, was seen by conservation officers at the former Whistler landfill site on Monday, Dec. 18. The cub and its mother, which had apparently abandoned it, are among several bears in the Whistler area that have not gone into hibernation because unnatural food sources are still available to them.
Candy had been previously identified by conservation officers and was wearing an ear tag.
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Thu 21 Dec 2006
Thursday 21 December 2006
Bears have stopped hibernating in the mountains of northern Spain, scientists revealed yesterday, in what may be one of the strongest signals yet of how much climate change is affecting the natural world. In a December in which bumblebees, butterflies and even swallows have been on the wing in Britain, European brown bears have been lumbering through the forests of Spain’s Cantabrian mountains, when normally they would already be in their long, annual sleep. Bears are supposed to slumber throughout the winter, slowing their body rhythms to a minimum and drawing on stored resources, because frozen weather makes food too scarce to find. The barely breathing creatures can lose up to 40 per cent of their body weight before warmer springtime weather rouses them back to life. But many of the 130 bears in Spain’s northern cordillera - which have a slightly different genetic identity from bear populations elsewhere in the world - have remained active throughout recent winters, naturalists from Spain’s Brown Bear Foundation (La Fundación Oso Pardo - FOP) said yesterday.
The change is affecting female bears with young cubs, which now find there are enough nuts, acorns, chestnuts and berries on thebleak mountainsides to make winter food-gathering sorties “energetically worthwhile”, scientists at the foundation, based in Santander, the Cantabrian capital, told El Pais newspaper.
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Tue 19 Dec 2006
Sun 10 Dec 2006
News focusing on robot deer, but Custom Robotic Wildlife does make robot cougar too as seen on this picture]. This is hunting season in many American communities, and hunters have deer, elk, moose and wild turkey in their gun sights. But before heading out into the woods, they must get a license from their state government and follow rules that limit when and where they may hunt and how many animals they may shoot. Those who don’t follow the rules — hunting out of season, shooting from cars, at night-time with spotlights, or trespassing on private land — find themselves ’stalked’ by game wardens. Poachers aren’t easy quarry, yet more and more law enforcement officials are nabbing them with a special kind of game that just begs to be shot… something like a young deer with an impressive rack of antlers, standing peacefully along a country road.
After a while, a truck drives by, stops, then backs up. The deer turns its head towards the vehicle, and a rifle barrel emerges from the driver’s window. A shot breaks the silence. As the ricochet dies away, two game wardens leap from the brush, surprising the poacher. “Game warden!” they yell, “Put the gun on the ground, put the gun on the ground!” Amidst the commotion, the deer stands unfazed. You can’t rattle a robo-deer, but you can be arrested for shooting one.
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Sun 10 Dec 2006
Some travel agencies touting Arctic tours have been revving up their recent promotions to tourists about the increased likelihood they will spot polar bears in this region where several populations of polar bears live. According to scientists from NASA and the Canadian Wildlife Service, these increased Arctic polar bear sightings are probably related to retreating sea ice triggered by climate warming and not due to population increases as some may believe. The new research suggests that progressively earlier breakup of the Arctic sea ice, stimulated by climate warming, shortens the spring hunting season for female polar bears in Western Hudson Bay and is likely responsible for the continuing fall in the average weight of these bears. As females become lighter, their ability to reproduce and the survival of their young decline. Also, as the bears become thinner, they are more likely to push into human settlements for food, giving the impression that the population is increasing. The study will be published this week in the September issue of the Journal Arctic [paper abstract available afterwards]
Claire Parkinson, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and Ian Stirling, a senior scientist with the Canadian Wildlife Service, Edmonton, Alberta, used NASA satellite observations captured from 1979 to 2004 to show the reduction in sea ice cover in several specific areas where there are known polar bear populations. In most of the areas studied, they found that ice break-up in these areas has been occurring progressively earlier.
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Sat 2 Dec 2006
Dear GBOP sponsors and supporters,
Here’s a short update on a few recent activities by the Grizzly Bear Outreach Project (GBOP):
GBOP’s Blog
We’re excited to announce that GBOP has entered the Blogosphere! GBOP’s Okanogan Field Coordinator Dennis Ryan has created this wonderful new communication tool for us to provide interesting, entertaining news items about bears in a timely way. There are already several BLOG entries on the site for you to enjoy: http://bearinfo.blogspot.com/
This doesn’t replace the GBOP website of course which stays at: www.bearinfo.org
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Sat 2 Dec 2006
Bears inhabit 48% more land than they did in 1975
By MIKE STARK
Of The Gazette Staff
A year ago today, government officials gathered on a stage in Washington, D.C., to say it’s finally time to remove endangered species protections from grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding areas.
Since then, more than 213,000 people - from scientists and schoolchildren to environmentalists and livestock groups - have registered their opinion of the idea.
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