Wildlife Promise » Sterling Miller

Help Us Make a Difference for Polar Bears in 2013

Sterling Miller — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 21:28:38 +0000

As a wildlife biologist researching grizzly and black bears in Alaska, I had no shortage of memorable experiences ranging from immobilizing black bears in their dens to trying to keep a partially immobilized grizzly bear from drowning by holding its head out of the water when it seemed primarily interested in biting me for my efforts.

However, there is no question but that the most memorable experience came when my friend and colleague, Dr. Steve Amstrup, asked me to help him tag polar bears on the frozen Beauford Sea out of the Iñupiat village of Kaktovik on Alaska’s north slope. I worked for the State of Alaska while Amstrup was the chief polar bear researcher for the U.S. government (Fish and Wildlife Service and—later—U.S. Geolgical Survey). Polar bears are classified as marine mammals, like whales and seals, and the Federal government—not the state of Alaska—has management authority for marine mammals. I’d gone to school with Steve and leapt at the chance to do something I never dreamed I’d have the opportunity to do. The reality was even more wonderful than my expectations.

National Wildlife Photo Contest entry by Lois Settlemeyer.

I’d never previously seen a wild polar bear or experienced the amazing environment they inhabit on the arctic ice cap. When our helicopter would land, the ice would drift and the GPS on the helicopter would register a different location when we fired up again. The ice was bisected by channels or leads through which the beautiful and ghostly pods of white beluga whales swam in crystal clear but frigid waters. Best of all, however, was when we’d encounter the track of a bear: we’d follow and, when we found a polar bear that could safely be darted, we marked it as part of Amstrup’s studies (designed to determine how many bears lived in this part of Alaska). Over a period of ten days we marked six such bears.

When I retired from my job in Alaska I moved to Montana, where I took a job with the National Wildlife Federation. At NWF, I could work directly on projects designed to save the polar bears that had made such an impression on me 20 years earlier. This conservation work was now more urgent, as from the time of my experience with Amstrup to the present, studies by Amstrup and others had demonstrated that the very survival of polar bears was in grave jeopardy. Indeed, at the southern part of their range in Canada’s Hudson Bay, where I went twice as an NWF employee, it was clear that polar bears were highly unlikely to persist until mid-century in what is now known as “the polar bear capital of the world.”

Arctic sea ice extent for October 15, 2012 was 5.18 million square kilometers (2.00 million square miles). The purple line shows the 1979 to 2000 median extent for that day. The black cross indicates the geographic North Pole. Sea Ice Index.

All animals, including humans, depend on their habitats for survival. The polar bears’ habitat is the frozen ice platform from which they hunt their prey of seals, which account for 98% of their diet. Over the last 300,000 years polar bears have become such highly specialized predators of seals that they must hunt from the ice. No ice=no polar bears and probably far fewer seals and other arctic animals as well. And the ice the bears depend on is shrinking dramatically in response to climate change.

This year set a new record low for the amount of polar ice, breaking the previous records just 5 years earlier. There was about half as much ice in Sept. 2012 as the average during 1979-2000. Polar bears are already responding with reduced numbers, increased mortality of cubs, and more malnourished and starving adults.

Help Us Fight for Polar Bears

Only success from efforts like those being made by National Wildlife Federation to stop climate change can save the polar bear. Unless the amount of greenhouse gasses is reduced from its current 390 ppm to something less than 350 ppm, nothing can save polar bears. Success in this effort depends on more, however, than the efforts of NWF and other conservation organizations—it also depends on each of us individually taking actions to reduce our personal carbon footprints and each of us making it clear to our elected representatives that they must find ways to assure that, collectively, alternative fuels are encouraged and fossil fuels are discouraged.

Two polar bears playing and wrestling in the falling snow. National Wildlife Photo Contest entry by Bonnie Flamer.

Please continue to help the National Wildlife Federation in its efforts to address the threats to polar bears and many other species posed by our rapidly changing climate by making a generous contribution todayso our children and grandchildren will know a world where polar bears still can exist in the wild. Donate by the end of the year, and your contribution will be matched—that’s twice the impact for wildlife!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Let’s Talk Turkey: The History of a Wild Icon in America

Sterling Miller — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:32:26 +0000

The turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is one of wildlife conservation’s greatest success stories. Unlike the accomplishment of cooking up a delicious stuffed turkey for Thanksgiving, this success story is about wild turkey. In the early 19th Century the wild turkey was reduced to a population of just 30,000. Today, the population numbers about 7 million in North America.

Rio Grande Wilid Turkey puffing out his feathers. U.S. FWS photo by Robert Burton.

The domesticated turkey of today bears little resemblance to their wild ancestors. Turkeys are a native North American bird that was a food source for the Native Americans who introduced turkeys to the recently-arrived Pilgrims and Spanish Conquistadors in the 15th Century. The Aztec Indians of Mexico domesticated the Mexican subspecies of the wild turkey (called guajolotes) and the Spanish explorers took some of these back to Europe in the mid-16th Century where they became common farmyard animals. These domestic turkeys eventually completed the circuit and came back to North American turkey farms from Europe. In fact the domesticated versions are so much larger and with so much more breast meat that they are unable to fly and have lost the instincts their wild cousins depend upon for their survival. The Mexican subspecies is now endangered in the wild but the other subspecies in North America are thriving.

Original wild turkey distribution in North America (image via Wikimedia).

Wild turkeys can fly and run at incredible speeds. They reach up to 55 mph flying and 25 mph running. They are also far more beautiful than the white domestic version that becomes the supermarket’s butterball. The wild turkey’s dark feathers are iridescent with shades of red, green and copper that shine when hit by the sun. The male bird (called a gobbler, or Tom) is the most colorful with a bright red head and neck wattle with a beautiful fan of tail feathers that it spreads out to impress the lady turkeys (called hens).

Turkeys are the largest member of the grouse family and they are the second largest wild bird in North America (after Trumpeter swans). Males weigh 11-24 lbs and females 5-12 lbs. Like many sexually dimorphic species, males are selected for maximum sex appeal while females are more sensibly selected to be the right size to glean food from their environment and escape predators. Males can get away with being larger than females as they leave all the rearing of the chicks (poults) to the hens and are not a part of family flocks.

A flock of wild turkey, captured by the author as they strolled by. NWF photo by Sterling Miller.

Although wild turkeys were once nearly extirpated, the four American subspecies have been restored to most of their former distribution, and to some areas where wild turkeys didn’t originally occur. Turkey hunters were a major force behind the recovery of this bird through their support of the National Wild Turkey Foundation and pressure on state wildlife departments. Wild turkeys are among the most difficult animals to hunt as they have extremely keen eyesight and are very smart. Hunters usually try to attract gobblers during the spring breeding season by imitating the calls of females or other males and it takes a lot of practice to be to fool a wary gobbler.

Where I live in western Montana, wild turkeys were introduced about 10 years ago in the upper Bitterroot Valley near Hamilton, Montana. I believe that wild turkeys did not originally occur in western Montana as I’ve found no reference to them in the Journals of Lewis and Clark. About 5 years after their introduction in the Upper Bitterroot Valley, we were excited to see them at our place about 50 miles south. We’ve been seeing them regularly ever sense. I took the pictures here last fall when a flock of 17 birds (including 2 adult hens and 15 poults) strolled by. This appeared to be a combined family as the normal clutch has 10-12 eggs. The open clearing and pasture lands created by humans where forests used to grow creates favorable habitat for wild turkeys.

Benjamin Franklin praised the wild turkey and dissed our national bird, the bald eagle, as being “a Bird of bad moral charcter….[who] does not get his living honestly.” I suppose this criticism stems from the fact that smaller birds attack eagles with impunity and eagles steal food from Osprey and other birds. Franklin contrasted the bald eagle with the turkey,

“…a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America….Though a little vain and silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”

No doubt Franklin’s perception of turkey’s as “vain” reflects the male bird’s strutting behavior during breeding season. Courtship displays like this, however, are common in many birds and other animals and serve a vital purpose in allowing females to choose the best available mate to father their offspring. Franklin, himself, was known to dress up to impress the ladies and this is no different in intent or function from what many wildlife species, including turkeys, do.

Today, the term “turkey” has come to mean different things including “a stupid, foolish, or inept person.” However, this definition must refer to domestic turkeys and not the the canny wild turkey. While the turkey on your Thanksgiving table is very different from the wild turkey, this success story is one I encourage a share this holiday season.

What wild animal or plant are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? Let us know in the comments below!

Ospreys All Bailed Up

Sterling Miller — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:25:09 +0000

Carelessly discarded string may seem innocent enough, but twine can be death to osprey. An osprey’s keen eyes can spot a piece of twine from high up and then swoop down to haul it back to their nests for nesting material. However, during their route back home their talons can get caught up in the twine putting them in risk of being caught on phone wires, branches, fences, and other obstructions. Even if they manage to get the string back to their nest without incident, it poses a continuing hazard every time they depart their nest.

At the osprey nest on our ranch in Lolo, Montana my wife and I are extremely careful not to leave twine around as we’ve seen ospreys take off with their talons caught up in dangling twine knowing that this is a great hazard. We like to think of our habit as child-proofing a home, except these youngsters aren’t people. We’d like to encourage others to “child-proof” their area by picking up twine which can get caught in nests.

In setting up an osprey camera up at our ranch, we hoped to support the University of Montana’s osprey research program and to share these incredible birds with the world. You can see the osprey nest and the bits of twine the adults have brought to it at the Dunrovin Ranch website by following the webcam link.

Harriet, the osprey fusses with her eggs at Dunrovin Ranch in Lolo, Montana. Photo by Suzanne and Sterling Miller.

This year our fingers are crossed that both the parents and their offspring will survive until fall when they migrate to Mexico or even further south for the winter. For more information on this nest and on the dangers posed by twine to osprey, visit The West’s Best Nest .

And whenever you see a piece of twine lying around, remember to think of these great creatures and please pick it up!