Polar Bears’ Hunting Season is Getting Shorter

Polar bear mother with yearling cubs. Photo credit: Susanne Miller, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Last year, after ice hit a record low, the fall freeze up was delayed. The lack of near-shore ice over the shallow waters where most seals live left the polar bears with a much foreshortened period to hunt for seals in areas where the seals are abundant.

Right now in the dead of winter, the polar bears are struggling to make up for the calories they were unable to gain in the fall.

Struggle Increasing to Feed Cubs

Finding food to eat is not just about meeting adult polar bears’ hunger—it’s also about making sure that the cubs at their side will survive. Adult female polar bears must find enough food to build up the reserves they need to become pregnant and successfully give birth and nurse tiny cubs in their secure winter den.

Pregnant polar bears are the only ones who enter dens in the fall; other polar bears, including females that have cubs, will hunt all winter.  Pregnant females will give birth to a litter of usually two tiny cubs in their highly insulated den. After 5-6 months in their den, the family will emerge from their dens and begin their hunt for the food they need to assure her cubs will survive.

After they leave their dens, the polar bear moms must find enough seals to replenish her depleted reserves and give her cubs a shot at surviving for the next 2 years, until the cubs are able to fend for themselves.

Climate Change Harming Cubs’ Survival

Climate change is dramatically reducing the amount of time available for mother polar bears to hunt enough seals to give her cubs a chance of surviving.

The ice is increasingly far off shore and over deeper waters which are less productive for their prey of seals.  And climate change is causing arctic ice over the shallow near-shore waters where seals are most abundant to both break up earlier in the spring and to form up later in the fall.

This leaves all polar bears less and less time to find food, but the squeeze is particularly hard on recent mothers because of the high energy demands associated with giving birth to and raising their cubs. Polar bear moms nurse their cubs for over two years until the cubs are big enough to survive on their own.

When polar bears can’t find as much food in the spring and fall as they need, cubs just aren’t born or do not survive.

Fight for the Next Generation of Polar Bears

For polar bear moms to win their struggle against hunger, they need us to curb the unprecedented warming in the Arctic. Alaska has warmed twice as much as the contiguous United States, and warming is severely altering the Arctic landscape, including melting permafrost.

In 2012, over 3 million people like you spoke up in support of limits to carbon pollution from new coal-fired power plants.  Across the U.S., three times as many voters say the government is doing too little to protect America’s air, water, wildlife and other natural resources (44 percent) as say it’s doing too much (14 percent), according to a post-election Zogby poll.  And two-thirds of voters (65 percent) say elected officials should take steps now to reduce the impact of climate change on future generations, while just 27 percent say we should wait for more evidence.

The President is listening, but time is short. We need to remind President Obama that his legacy depends on taking action on climate change by taking immediate steps to halt the expansion of dirty energy, like tar sands, and set limits on carbon pollution from coal-burning power plants—the largest source of carbon pollution in the nation.

Let’s take advantage of this opportunity.

Speak up for the polar bears cubs—urge the President to move forward on addressing climate change now.

Here is my celebration of two great things about this world, wildlife and puppies, combined into one. Commence: Wildlife puppies!

Note: All of the below images were donated by photographers who entered the National Wildlife Photo Contest, which is currently open for people to enter, vote for and share photos.

Wolf Pup

Antarctic Fur Seal Pup

And another one…

Grey Fox Pup

>> Adopt your own wildlife puppy and help National Wildlife Federation make a difference for wildlife

African Wild Dog Puppies

Harbor Seal Pup

And one more…

Red Fox Pup

Meerkat Pups

Coyote Pup

Sea Lion Pups

Two more sea lion pups, trying to get a sea turtle to play.

Bat Pup

Sea Otter Pup

Pupfish

Ways to Celebrate National Puppy Day

The unofficial holiday National Puppy Day was designed to encourage the adoption of orphaned puppies and dogs in shelters across the country, so this Friday…

• Consider making your next pet one you rescue from a shelter. Search Petfinder for dogs of all ages.
• Not able to make room for a new hound in your home? Donate money, supplies or time to a local shelter.
• Want to help National Wildlife Federation protect wildlife puppies? Symbolically adopt a wild animal baby.

And lastly, in repayment for some amazing photo research help from my coworker (and because I couldn’t resist)…

Sleepy Puppy

Hawaiian Monk Seal and Pup Photo by: US Fish and Wildlife Service

Despite their importance and generally adorable nature the Monk Seals are one of the most endangered species in the world. Their population has continued to decline after nearly being hunted to extinction in the 19^th century and their current population is estimated at less than 1,100. Although they are listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) they continue to face new challenges that threaten their continued survival.

The Monk Seal is a charismatic, tropical seal that can only be found in the Hawaiian Islands and are one of only two indigenous mammals. Today they are known as Monk Seals, named for the folds of skin on their heads which resembles a monk’s hood.

Hawaiian Monk Seal photo by: U. S. Fish and WIldlife Service

Like many species the monk seal relies on a specific type of habitat to survive. Like humans, they enjoy sun bathing on the warm, sandy beaches where they can at times be seen lounging in the sun. Most of their time, however, is spent swimming through the warm subtropical waters around atolls, islands and offshore on reefs and submerged banks. Maintaining a safe and healthy habitat is critical for their continued existence.

Recently the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) proposed a revision to the monk seal critical habitat. This new designation would include the established critical habitat in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and aims to include other areas throughout the main Hawaiian Islands. The recommendation is based on substantial scientific information and aims to protect habitat for reproduction, rearing of offspring, foraging, resting and habitat protected from disturbance and also included economic and national security concerns among other things.

Despite their endangered status, there is much debate over the revised critical habitat designation from people such as the former governor of Hawaii Linda Lingle. Her argument stems from the idea that this new designation would negatively impact humans and that we should take a ‘people first’ approach.

Policies do need to take into account the impact on people but something must be done before this unique species is gone forever. We have a duty to ensure their continued survival which means helping to protect their critical habitat areas.

Our affiliate organization, Conservation Council for Hawaii has been working tirelessly to help protect the Monk Seals and other endangered species in Hawaii where Climate Change and other pressures have had a large impact on many native species. You can also hear about Monk Seals from Ranger Rick and learn more about what you can do to help endangered species like the Monk Seal and others in your area.

But for a truly unique maritime experience, join me on a Sea Serpent Day (August 6th or 7th; there is some dispute) excursion to LISTVILLE (population: five).

The first mention of sea serpents in letters is generally accepted as coming from Virgil’s Aeneid, around 30 BCE. Laocoön, priest of Neptune, was preparing a bull sacrifice with his sons when “a pair of sea serpents with huge coils” and “blood-red crests” made way for the shore and enveloped the statue-ready trio in their “scaly folds.” There were “burning eyes” and “hissing jaws,” and I’m told younger and more sensitive altar viewers needed to leave the room.

Oarfish engraving, c. 1889 (Florida Center for Instructional Technology)

In the centuries since, ‘sea serpents’ and their sundry variations have been reported everywhere from Nova Scotia to the Portuguese coast and described variously as “turtle-like,” cow-faced and possessed of “brilliant flaming eyes” (these and other details come mostly from Richard Ellis’s 1994 book ‘Monsters of the Sea,’ which contains many period eyewitness accounts full of taxonomic and linguistic weirdness).

While we’ve yet to get reliable word of the existence of sea serpents, scientists have come up with a number of likely—and in some cases verified—explanations for sea serpent sightings, including these five based on actual, factual wildlife.

1) Oarfish

Long-dead and therefore significantly less serpent-ish oarfish (flickr | muzina_shanghai)

This is one of the simplest imaginable explanations, and the first thing I thought of when I read about the “blood-red crests” of the Laocoön-eating serpents (Scientists too. See incredible photos on this blog and the engraving above; sea-serpent-ish, no?).

Now, Oarfish are an unassuming family of bony saltwater fish, only slightly more likely to fatally maul a hirsute Trojan priest than a clump of kelp. Still, the largest of them, the King of Herrings, may reach somewhere between 40 and 50 feet in length, and could easily set the imagination racing as it breaks the surface of the water crest-first, its big eyes glistening.

The oarfish is scarce, apparently tastes bad and is still largely a mysterious animal. Here’s Kurt Ove Eriksson, who spotted a smaller specimen off of Sweden’s western coast last year: “At first we thought it was a big piece of plastic. But then we saw an eye [...] I went down to check and saw that it was this extremely strange fish.” Nice work, Kurt.

2) Basking Shark

A non-decomposing basking shark. (flickr | Green Massachusetts)

In one of the most famous sea serpent incidents of recent times, a Japanese fishing boat near New Zealand hauled in a vaguely monsterish corpse in 1977. It appeared to be a long-necked, small-headed, four-flippered creature—a surviving plesiosaur, perhaps, long the single most popular sea serpent theory. Crewmembers discarded the corpse, but not before numerous intensely-scrutinized photos and samples were collected.

The corpse remains popular in cryptozoological lore despite the near-unanimous informed conclusion  that it was, in fact, a partially-decayed basking shark. The placid filter-feeder is well known for rotting into a what appears to be a serpentine form. From the link above, originally printed in Reports of the National Center for Science Education: “When the basking shark decays, the jaws and loosely attached gill arches often fall away first, leaving the appearance of a long neck and small head [...] All or part of the tail (especially the lower half which lacks vertebral support) and/or the dorsal fin may also slough away before the better supported pectoral and pelvic fins, creating a form that superficially resembles a plesiosaur.” More:

Interestingly, basking sharks seem to have a propensity to mimic sea serpents while alive as well as dead. Often they feed in groups at or near the surface (hence their name), sometimes lining up two or more in a row. When they do this, the dorsal and tail fins protruding from the water can be, and sometimes have been, mistaken for multiple “humps” and head of a long-bodied sea-monster (Sweeney 1972; Bright 1989; Ellis 1989; Perrine 1995).

3) Basilosaurus/Zeuglodon (prehistoric whale)

I’m cheating here, but the badly-named basilosaurus (originally thought to be a type of dinosaur) WAS a real, live animal at one point.

You have to admit, it was a nice try. (Wikimedia commons)

In 1845, a German entrepreneur/collector/flim-flammist named Albert Koch unveiled a crazy looking skeleton—a modern-day sea serpent, he said—and toured with it in New York and other American cities. For a little while, it was the talk of zoology, taken by casual observers as proof that sea monsters existed (Koch claimed to have unearthed the skeleton in Clarksville, Alabama, and went so far as to describe its behavior and other details on the basis of the bones).

Despite the unending credulity of contemporary audiences—this kind of hoax was perpetrated often and successfully in 19th-century science, which was sometimes closer to circus exhibitionism than anything else—it became clear pretty quickly that the 114-foot thing had been cobbled together from a variety of bones taken from five or so specimens of the the long-extinct basilosaurus, a prehistoric cetacean (certainly not a reptile, as Koch claimed).

Koch’s scientific name for the creature–-hydrarchos sillimani—was derived from the naturalist Dr. Benjamin Silliman, whose presence was thought to lend scientific legitimacy to the affair. Once Harvard anatomist Jeffries Wyman and others pointed out that it was an obvious fraud, Silliman requested his name be removed (Though, hey, it’s the main reason people remember him. There’s a lesson there).

4) Giant Squid

Giant squids are already among the coolest, monsteriest creatures of the deep, but they may account for some of the earliest serpent sightings as well.

(Wikimedia commons)

In the mid-18^th century, Bishop Pontoppidan reported a “Sea-monster” that “looks at first like a number of small islands, surrounded with something that floats and fluctuates like sea weeds” (see image at right, also featured in Ellis’s book). The Pontoppidan sighting was widely agreed to be a giant squid later on.

Later, in 1849, Prof. Japetus Steenstrup determined that a carcass discovered in 1639 (“a peculiar creature or sea monster” with “7 tails” covered in “buttons” and a soft body without bone or cartilage), presumed to be a serpent of some kind, was actually Architeuthis (with a few body parts missing). Many other sightings and discovered bodies from the 16^th-18^th centuries seem to fit this description as well.

Luckily, once people started figuring out that these multi-tailed (or headed) serpents were actually cephalopods, they were able to shift pretty seamlessly to freaking out about impossibly huge tentacled ‘krakens.’

5) Elephant Seal

This is cute, but admit it--it's also really weird-looking. (flickr | Jim Bahn)

Sir Richard Owen (somewhat controversial himself as a contemporary and opponent of Charles Darwin, but an important scientist of the day nonetheless) famously suggested that the Daedalus sea serpent off the Cape of Good Hope in 1848 had in fact been a semiaquatic mammal.

According to Owen: “It is very probable that no one on board the Daedalus ever before beheld a gigantic seal swimming freely in the open ocean.”

It’s not hard to see how a large elephant seal, with its formidable length and swollen ‘trunk,’ could easily have accounted for a crypto-animal sighting when beheld by weary sailors. In fact, the ninth volume of the Museum of Foreign Literature and Science, published in 1826, mentions reports of a “sea-monster in the neighborhood of Behring’s Straits (sic)” with a “head resembling a sea-lion” dating to 1808.

More useful: modern paleozoologist Darren Naish and his colleagues Michael Woodley and Hugh Shanahan have suggested that many historical sea monster sightings might be explained by unknown or little-seen pinnipeds (see posts on this and related topics at the sadly defunct Tetrapod Zoology blog here and here).

Around August 1, a rowing  team led by Scottish adventurer Jock Wishart will leave from Resolute Bay in the north of Canada and attempt to row the entire 450 miles to the magnetic North Pole.

Throughout the course of their trip readers can view an updated report of the expedition and track the team online .

Wishart is leading the expedition (named the Old Pulteney Row to the Pole Challenge) to point out the dramatic effects of climate change on the diminishing ice coverage in the Arctic polar regions.  He is a veteran of such adventures having also rowed across the Atlantic Ocean.

Once Ice, Now Unfrozen

The magnetic pole, is not the geographic North Pole. It is further to the South (for you tech types it is located at 78°35.7N 104°11.9W / 78.595°N 104.1983°W). For history buffs, it was first reached, by Europeans, by Sir James Clark Ross of the British Royal Navy in 1831, over ice. The magnetic pole has shifted north since then and actually shifts on a daily basis.

The Wishart crew’s attempt to reach the magnetic pole in a rowboat has only recently become even possible due to the dramatic warming taking place in the region. This warming trend has decreased the size of the Arctic ice sheets and left large areas of the Ocean unfrozen.

The effects of climate change and related warming are not the same in all parts of the world. While Earth’s average temperature rose 1.0°F during the 20th century, some areas on the Earth are warming more rapidly. Science is finding that the Arctic is warming more than twice as fast as other parts of the planet. In Alaska, for example, the average temperatures increased 5.4°F between 1970 and 2000.

These warmer temperatures have caused other changes in the Arctic Ocean such as melting ice and resultant shrinking polar bear habitat and feeding grounds.

In addition to loss of polar bear and seal habitat, many other creatures are affected by the warming of the Arctic region which has a much richer subsurface ecosystem than one might think. The fact of so much sea ice melting is also bringing new external pressures to the Arctic region including an all out race by northern nations and private companies from three continents to explore the mineral, oil and natural gas potential of these new ice-freed areas.

During the course of the Wishart expedition, the crew will be using a satellite-positioning system known as Yellowbrick to track their progress. This system will automatically update a map on the official website, allowing members of the public to track the team’s voyage. One can only hope that this watching them move along this first-time water route does not also signify presiding over the road to ruin for the fragile Arctic region.

Just Getting Around

On land, frogs and toads are constantly jumping.  Frogs are generally recognized as the best jumpers of all vertebrates. The Australian rocket frog, for example, can leap over 50 times its body length (two inches) resulting in jumps of close to seven feet.

Kangaroos are marsupial mammals and are the only large animals to use hopping as a principal means of locomotion. The comfortable hopping speed for red kangaroos, for example, is about 15 mph, but they can reach speeds of 40 mph over short distances.  Moreover, some kangaroos can leap more than 10 feet in the air when they have to.

Kangaroo rats are small rodents native to North America.  Their name comes from their bipedal mode of movement as they hop around in a manner that reminds one of kangaroos.

Lemurs are a form of primate unique to Madagascar.  In addition to their incredible looks, some species have an equally incredible way of jumping instead of running (this video shows how unusual and fascinating lemur leaping can be).

Other creatures known for hopping and jumping as they move about include rabbits and grasshoppers.

Gazelles are a species of antelope that mostly walk until they get excited (or threatened).  The tiny Thompson’s gazelle exhibits the very distinctive behavior of “stotting” (running slowly and jumping very high before fleeing).  Like kangaroos, gazelles can leap more than 10 feet into the air.

Jumping on Attack

A species of snake common to Mexico and Central America is known as the jumping viper.  This name comes from its ability to launch itself up to two feet at an attacker during a strike.  In essence, they strike at their assailants with such force that they leave the ground

Jumping spiders are also a species that leaps to attack.  There are 5,000 species of jumping spider in the world which makes up about 13% of all spider species. Interestingly when they leap, they spin a silky thread of web behind them just in case they miss their mark and need to climb back up.

Jumping In Migration

Many creatures use their ability to leap in migration.  Gazelles are one example, but fish can do the same.  As salmon make their way upstream they are able to shoot themselves 10 to 12 feet up a waterfall.   This assumes they are not snatched from mid air by a hungry bear as they make it to their spawning grounds.  The trip is hazardous and the jumping itself can be so draining the these fish can take hours to recover as this video shows.

Jumping Big Cats

Lions and tigers can jump almost equally high.  The vertical leap record for a tiger is more than 12 feet, and the lion is just a few inches less.

The puma is, however, the best jumper of all the mammals.  Pumas, or mountain lions, can leap more than 20 feet straight up without a running start

Jumping For Fun

Even masssive whales can jump straight up out of the water.  Humpbacked whales are famous for this behavior, which is referred to as breaching.  Their tails may still be in the water, but a whale’s head can be 30 feet or more in the air.

Orcas, often called killer whales, can jump close to 20 feet in the air and they actually leave the water (watch this amazing video showing an orca breach).

The mackerel shark holds the fish record for a highest jump from the water having soared more than 20 feet above the waves.

There are, of course, flying fish, but they use their fins to soar many yards but ususally stay low to the water.

Jumping to Come Ashore

Seals and penguins are land dwellers that spend much of their time in the water.  When they come to shore they are sometimes forced to make a huge water-powered leap such shown in this video of penguins springing up on to the Antarctic ice from the sea.  They often jump back into the water feet first.

Jumping from on High

Flying squirrels do not really fly.   They take huge leaps of faith and glide to their destination from on high.  The longest known glide is close to 100 yards. (Watch this video of flying squirrels.)

Jumping Beans

OK, you are saying to yourself that a Mexican jumping bean is not an animal.  That is true.  But inside the bean lurks a larval moth that puts the “jumping” into jumping bean. The moths jump when they get hot, trying to snap their body into a cooler place, as this “weird nature” video reveals.

So there you have it – a look at wild creatures that hop, jump and spring across the land, the water and into the air.  At the National Wildlife Federation we hope to see many great places for these amazing species, and all of the other “jumpers” of the world set aside and protected.

Hop on over to our website for more fun facts, posters, activities, lesson plans and games to help you celebrate National Wildlife Week >>

One of the greatest thrills a person can experience is interacting with animals in the wild. The polar bear is one of the earth’s most magnificent animals, and today we saw many of them here on the banks of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba.

A Churchill polar bear

Every year the polar bears in this area are forced to abandon their habitat, sea ice, and retreat to a land refuge where there is next to nothing for them to eat.

The bears roam along the shore and, in the fall, begin to congregate around Churchill where the ice begins to form up again.

Sea Ice = Food

Once the ice forms, the bears abandon their summer-long fast and eagerly return to their natural habitat, the cold frozen ice.

From this ice platform, polar bears begin their hunt for seals.  Indeed, polar bears are adapted to feed almost exclusively on seals.  Unlike the grizzly or brown bears that eat a wide variety of foods, polar bears cannot survive without seals.

Longer and Longer Fasts for Hudson Bay Polar Bears

The polar bears in Hudson Bay are different from polar bears further north in that the ice is completely gone here in the summer and the bears have no option but to fast.

If this fast lasts too long, it impacts their ability to gain enough fat during their winter feast of seals to recuperate from their long summer fast.

Hudson Bay should be covered in ice by now and bears should be heading out to start hunting

In the 1970s, this fast typically lasted about 120 days for most bears.  However, this fast has been extending for longer and longer periods as the ice from which they hunt their prey has been breaking up earlier in the spring and forming up later in the fall.

We could be looking at a full five months of fasting for these bears if conditions do not improve quickly.

This year was close to a record for early breakup (July 9) and it appears that it will be closer to or set a new record for ice formation in the fall. 

As a result, some of the polar bears the Canadian researchers are seeing are in worse condition than normal. 

If the ice doesn’t form up soon, some of these bears will die.

How to Help Polar Bears

The driving force behind this change in ice is the greenhouse gas accumulation in the earth’s environment that is causing the earth to warm everywhere and is more accelerated in the far north than in more temperate zones.

If you love the polar bears and want to preserve the opportunity for you and your children to someday see these magnificent creatures as we did today, it is essential to curb our addiction to fossil fuels the burning of which is causing the earth’s climate to change.

Time’s a-wasting for us, and especially for the polar bears.

The good news is that this year, four species were removed from the candidate list as the USFWS decided they no longer require extensive protection!

One success story is that of the brown pelican that has recovered primarily due to the banning of the harmful pesticide DDT.

While this offers some hopeful news for a few select species like the brown pelican, with the looming effects of climate change, the opposite scenario also continues to unfold.

America’s wildlife and wild places are already feeling the impacts of rising global temperatures:

• Rapidly melting ice habitats are crippling polar bear and seal populations
• Cold water fish like salmon and trout are at risk as stream temperatures rise
• Large mammals like moose face warm weather stress and increasing parasites such as ticks and brainworms
• Birds that now migrate further north for winter contend with new prey and feeding challenges

Furthermore, an ever increasing number of animal species face difficulty breeding, migrating and providing care for their young as their habitats shrink.

The facts are clear. We can’t wait for more species to become endangered. If climate change worsens we will see less butterflies, coral reefs, Florida panthers and mallard ducks.

Labeling a species as endangered might bring awareness and temporary aid, but it will not curtail the greatest threat facing all wildlife today.

Julia Whitty at Mother Jones reports:

Usually Brant stream south along the Pacific flyway each fall. They’re a familiar site off the West Coast, long lines riding on tailwinds above the surfline at speeds over 60 mph. Their destination is a series of shallow lagoons in Baja California, where California gray whales  breed, and where the birds feed on eelgrass.

But whereas once nearly the entire population of Pacific brant overwintered in Mexico and fewer than 3,000 were known to overwinter in Alaska, now 40,000 birds, or 30 percent of the population, are opting for Alaska instead. The change coincides with a general warming of temperatures in the North Pacific and Bering Sea and its well-documented effect on the abundance and distribution of numerous marine species, including walleye pollock, Pacific cod, northern fur seals, and thick-billed murres. See full article.

Photo: Arpingstone, Wikimedia Commons