Siku the Danish Polar Bear

I don't usually post anything cute, but I have to do this at least once.

Polar Bears Keep "Threatened" Status

This is good news. For the full story, here's the link to the Environmental News Network.

A federal judge on Thursday upheld a 2008 decision to protect polar bears throughout their range as a “threatened” species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The listing was the result of a 2005 petition and litigation filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace. The polar bear was the first species added to the Endangered Species List due solely to the threat from global warming.

PETA Wants Knut Castrated!

We're talking about Knut the polar bear. He was the cute little polar bear whose birth at the Berlin Zoo was so controversial because his mother rejected him. He was raised by a trainer.

PETA Germany's position is that he should be castrated so he doesn't mate with his cousin Giovanna. She's here temporarily for companionship, but the group is concerned.

Check out a couple of the pictures in this story. How suggestive!

Polar Bear Supporters Lose Court Case

Another story from last week, but worth mentioning. From KTUU in Anchorage...

A federal appeals court made a final decision Wednesday on whether Fish and Wildlife could allow oil companies to interfere with polar bears.

The complaint is that the government isn't doing enough to protect marine animals from the effects of oil and gas development...

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit because it felt the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service wrongfully issued authorization for oil companies to work in areas that could potentially hurt the bears.

They claimed Fish and Wildlife failed to consider effects of climate change and had a false idea of how many polar bears would be affected.

But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's decision allowing the Fish and Wildlife Service to issue its own regulations on incidental take.

Incidental take, in this case, is the killing or harassing of polar bears resulting from oil and gas operations on the Beaufort Sea coast.

US Groups Fight to Save Polar Bear Hunts

Now that the species is listed in the US as "threatened," hunters can't import the dead body parts (aka hunting "trophies") in from Canada. Supposedly, environmentalists and animal rights activists have "unfairly made the polar bear into 'the panda bear of North America.'"

Waaaaaaa! (insert crying baby picture here.)

Here's the article from the Globe and Mail.

Trophy Hunters Imperil Polar Bears

I have no sympathy for trophy hunters. They are not hunting for food or for any subsistence whatsoever. It's all about the thrill of the hunt and, sorry to say it, the thrill of the testosterone surge. Perhaps there are female trophy hunters out there too, but I suspect they are in the minority.

Therefore, to me it's a slam dunk as to whether trophy hunters should continue to hunt polar bears. If a species' very survival is threatened, then it is impractical to hunt it for mere entertainment. Every member counts. And I don't believe the argument that Inuit villages will collapse without the revenue from these hunts.

The cost of a trophy hunt can start at $35,000.

Polar Bear Hunters Face Battle Over Extinction Worries

Native and sport polar bear hunters may be facing more restrictions due to increasing threats to bear populations.

A limit on the hunting of polar bears by sportsmen and native Arctic people will top the agenda at an international summit in Norway tomorrow, seen as vital to the survival of the predator. Although few people outside the Arctic realise it, there is still a major legal hunt for the animals in four out of the five states that host the bears: Canada, Greenland, Alaska in the US, and Russia. In Norway, stalking is banned.

Calgary Zoo Feeling Economic Pressure

They had to cancel a big project that would have showcased polar bears and seals.

But don't feel too bad for them. Dr. Clement Lanthier, Calgary Zoo president and CEO (is this a corporation??) sounds like a real jerk.

Lanthier, a veterinarian and walrus researcher who took the helm in Calgary two years ago, says the cancellation of the polar bears exhibit might please some animal-rights extremists, but the reality is a blow to Canada's white bears.

"It's off the table until somebody comes to the zoo and says, I want this and I'm willing to pay," said Lanthier.

That will happen, says the vet who's spent the past 15 summers in the arctic, when polar bears reach a point where only captive breeding can save them from extinction -- a day that's on the horizon.

Lanthier doesn't hide his contempt for animal rights groups who lash out, without considering the role zoos play in conservation.

"They are people with opinions, but their credentials don't exist -- they're opinionated, but that's it," he said.

"We need to ask them, what have they done for research, conservation; what have they done for those animals?"

He's a staunch defender of Calgary's record, despite some well-publicized misfortune, such as the death of 41 stingrays and a baby elephant last year.

"One thing for sure -- all of the animals in the zoo will die eventually," said Lanthier.

"We have to recognize they don't live forever."

The Inuit Point of View on Polar Bears

Here's an article in the Nunatsiaq News that talks about polar bear conservation from the Inuit point of view. The Inuit harvest, or hunt, polar bears in Canada.

"In the past, Inuit always considered the WWF Canada as our friend," {Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.'s director of wildlife, Gabriel Nirlinguyak} said, recalling that the two had cooperated on bowhead whale management issues. "But not with polar bears."

He said that a lot of Inuit feel betrayed by the animal rights movement, and by some biologists when it comes to polar bears.

{World Wildlife Fund's polar bear point man Peter Ewins} has been calling loud and long for more restrictions on the harvesting of polar bears, particularly in Baffin Bay and Hudson Bay.

The polar bear is the WWF's poster animal in its campaign against global climate change, said Nirlungayuk, and "the Inuit are caught in the middle."

Palin Bad For Polar Bears

An ad from Defenders of Wildlife. Yet another reason to make sure this moron never gets to be one 72 year old heartbeat away from the Presidency.

Knut's Keeper Dies

Remember Knut the polar bear at the Berlin Zoo? Well, his keeper died and it sounds like a very sad story.

He played with Knut, swam with him, and strummed Elvis Presley songs on his guitar to lull him to sleep. Man and bear even celebrated Christmas and New Year together, joined in the straw-lined pen by Doerflein's girlfriend, Daniela Kaiser, and her six year-old son, Louis....

But then, last December, everything suddenly changed. Doerflein was summoned to the office of Berlin Zoo director Bernhard Blaskiewitz and told that he would no longer be caring for Knut. The extraordinary bond which had been built between bear and man was to be severed.

Doerflein was distraught, demanding to be allowed to continue looking after Knut. He was overruled and now, just nine months later, he's dead, apparently from a heart attack. But many of his supporters believe that Thomas Doerflein - who was only 44 - died from a broken heart.

Police in Iceland Kill Polar Bear

The bear swims all the way from Greenland, and gets shot and killed for it. Bastards. The video is pretty graphic.

Knut the Bear Is Growing Up

Poor Knut, the young polar bear at the Berlin Zoo. He's not so tiny and cute anymore. And he's not getting the attention from zoo visitors that he's learned to enjoy.

Here's an update on his development. The old worries about the effects of being raised by humans have resurfaced.

But times change, cubs grow up and those experts may have been on to something after all. “With Knut, it’s clear that he has imprinted on humans, and when neither his keeper nor visitors are there he cries out,” said Thomas Pietsch, a biologist and expert on wild animals for the animal-welfare group Four Paws in Germany. Peter H. Arras, a zoologist and animal-protection advocate put it more succinctly: “He’s a psychopath addicted to human attention.”

That attention has fallen off significantly. Knut is now too large and too strong to play with Mr. Dörflein. And the largest crowds of spectators have moved south. In the Bavarian city of Nuremberg, a new young cub named Flocke, or Snowflake, claimed the crown of cuteness when she was introduced to the public earlier this month. A third cub in Stuttgart, named Wilbär, is being brought up the old-fashioned way, by his mother.

There are legitimate concerns (except for the newspaper that worried he may be gay. Oh, and the charge that he "senselessly murdered live carp - he is a BEAR, ya know.) But I still don't agree with those who thought he was better off dead.

Photo by davidoo750.

Pressure Increases to Add Polar Bears to Endangered Species List

Now that the US government is about to start selling oil and gas rights in the Chukchi Sea in Alaska, activists are trying to get the polar bear listed as an endangered species. If they are an endangered species, then authorities would need to go through US Fish and Wildlife for approval to drill in an individual's habitat.

The Bush Administration is offering to list it as "threatened." According to activists, this would allow for loopholes and exemptions.

But the Bushies are playing for time.

The US Fish and Wildlife Services last month announced it was putting off a decision on listing the polar bear as a threatened species until after the sell-off of oil and gas drilling rights in Alaska.

"They are trying to wait it out, get the lease-sale through and then make the decision," said {IFAW's Brandon} Frazier.

"That way, they could list the lease-sale as an exemption," he added.

Photo by PlagueX1.

Bush People Say Oil and Polar Bears DO Mix

Yeah, and cigarettes are actually GOOD for you....

US officials defended plans for oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea off northwestern Alaska, telling lawmakers that it would not harm polar bears, already threatened by global warming.

Randall Luthi, director of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, which sells oil drilling rights, told Congress Thursday that the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act provides adequate safeguards to polar bears from oil exploration accidents such as oil spills.

In addition, he said, contracts with oil companies include measures to minimize the impact such activities can have on the polar bear population.....

A US government expert on polar bears said that the melting of sea ice due to global warming would cause a two-thirds drop in the world polar bear population by 2050, and named the Chukchi Sea as one of the most threatened polar bear habitats.

Photo by reso438k.

Nuremberg Bears Missing and Presumed Dead

What a terrible story this has become. All this because the zoo's director wanted to avoid "Knutomania," the frenzy over a little guy at the Berlin Zoo (who, regardless of what one believes, is bringing in TONS of visitors to that institution.)

No, I think the Nuremberg Zoo is going to get an entirely different kind of PR.

Polar-bear cubs born at Nuremberg's zoo have VANISHED AND ARE PRESUMED DEAD, POSSIBLY OF DISEASE, the German press agency DPA reported, citing zoo director Dag Encke.

The missing cubs -- probably two of them -- MAY HAVE BEEN EATEN BY THEIR MOTHER, Vilma, DPA said. A second polar bear at the zoo, Vera, also had cubs recently and they may still be healthy, the agency said. To avoid disturbing them, no one has entered the bears' caves and it is not known how many baby bears were born, though sounds suggest each mother gave birth to two, DPA said.

ABC News adds the following information....

Vilma, one of the young female polar bear mothers in Nuremberg, has today been visited by her favorite keeper in her cave for the first time since she gave birth to an unknown number of cubs. The keeper could not locate any of the cubs. Vilma was a little nervous, but well-fed and she appeared not to be hungry.

Photo by MaryLane.

Canadian Hunting May Be Hurting Polar Bears

I didn't even know Canada had hunting policies for polar bear. It's amazing what one learns from running a blog. Anyway, not only are polar bears in danger of drowning from melting ice caps, but their male population is threatened by hunting. Because it takes two to reproduce, this hunting could endanger the survival of the species.

Here are the highlights....

New research suggests that Canadian polar bear hunting policies could be pushing populations of the iconic Arctic predator toward sudden, steep declines.

Hunters focus mostly on male bears. {Peter Molnar of the University of Alberta} said that about two-thirds of the bears taken by hunters in Canada are males.

That means the bears could be edging toward what biologists call the Allee effect - a sudden collapse of breeding success after the male-female ratio passes a tipping point.

Scientists say two-thirds of the world's polar bears will be gone by 2050 as melting sea ice slowly robs them of their habitat.

Animal rights activists such as the U.S. Humane Society have used those statements to argue for a ban on sport-hunting. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently considering declaring the bears an endangered species, even though the lowest estimate of their worldwide population is 20,000.

But Inuit, who can earn up to $30,000 for guiding a single sport-hunting trip, say bear numbers are healthy and some populations are actually growing - testimony often referenced by climate change skeptics.

The report was done in collaboration with the government of Nunavut. Although polar bear quotas are proposed by community-based hunter's groups, the territory has the ultimate responsibility for deciding how many of the bears can be taken.

Photo by intrepidberkeleyexplorer.