Polar Bear Link to the World Book article on polar bears : http://www

Tundra
What is the tundra biome?
The tundra biome
Tundra is the coldest of all the biomes. Tundra comes
from the Finnish word tunturi, meaning treeless plain.
It is noted for its frost-molded landscapes, extremely
low temperatures, little precipitation, poor nutrients,
and short growing seasons. Dead organic material
functions as a nutrient pool. The two major nutrients
are nitrogen and phosphorus. Nitrogen is created by
biological fixation, and phosphorus is created by
precipitation.
Tundra along the Colville River, Alaska.
Characteristics of tundra include:
1. Extremely cold climate
2. Low biotic diversity
3. Simple vegetation structure
4. Limitation of drainage
5. Short season of growth and reproduction
6. Energy and nutrients in the form of dead organic material
7. Large population oscillations
Source: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/tundra.php
Source:
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/tundra.php
Polar Bear
Link to the World Book article on polar bears :
http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar436720&st=pol
ar+bear
Polar Bear
Dutiful mothers, female polar bears usually give birth to twin cubs, which stay with her for more than two years until
they can hunt and survive on their own.
Photograph by Norbert Rosing
Map
Polar Bear Range
Fast Facts
Type:
Mammal
Diet:
Carnivore
Average life span in the wild:
25 to 30 years
Size:
Head and body, 7.25 to 8 ft (2.2 to 2.5 m); Tail, 3 to 5 in (7.5 to 12.5 cm)
Weight:
900 to 1,600 lbs (410 to 720 kg)
Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:
Polar bears roam the Arctic ice sheets and swim in that region's coastal waters. They are very
strong swimmers, and their large front paws, which they use to paddle, are slightly webbed.
Some polar bears have been seen swimming hundreds of miles from land—though they
probably cover most of that distance by floating on sheets of ice.
Polar bears live in one of the planet's coldest environments and depend on a thick coat of
insulated fur, which covers a warming layer of fat. Fur even grows on the bottom of their paws,
which protects against cold surfaces and provides a good grip on ice. The bear's stark white coat
provides camouflage in surrounding snow and ice. But under their fur, polar bears have black
skin—the better to soak in the sun's warming rays.
These powerful predators typically prey on seals. In search of this quarry they frequent areas of
shifting, cracking ice where seals may surface to breathe air. They also stalk ice edges and
breathing holes. If the opportunity presents itself, polar bears will also consume carcasses, such
as those of dead whales. These Arctic giants are the masters of their environment and have no
natural enemies.
Females den by digging into deep snow drifts, which provide protection and insulation from the
Arctic elements. They give birth in winter, usually to twins. Young cubs live with their mothers
for some 28 months to learn the survival skills of the far north. Females aggressively protect
their young, but receive no help from their solitary male mates. In fact, male polar bears may
even kill young of their species.
Polar bears are attractive and appealing, but they are powerful predators that do not typically
fear humans, which can make them dangerous. Near human settlements, they often acquire a
taste for garbage, bringing bears and humans into perilous proximity.
Source: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/polar-bear/ß
Click this link to see a National Geographic video about polar bears,
starts with a short commercial.
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/environment/threats-toanimals-environment/polar-bears/
Source :
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=polar+bear+infographic&hl=en&safe=active&client=firefoxa&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:enUS:official&biw=971&bih=556&tbm=isch&tbnid=NOtHSXh071PlhM:&imgrefurl=http://www.mn
n.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/infographic-polar-bears-inperil&docid=EnKRkaR_52HB_M&imgurl=http://www.mnn.com/sites/default/files/PolarBearInfo
graphic-1380x870.jpg&w=870&h=1380&ei=veaNT_COceqiAL32K3MCA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=4&vpy=94&dur=177&hovh=283&hovw=178&tx=5
2&ty=160&sig=103862801904354458406&page=1&tbnh=113&tbnw=72&start=0&ndsp=18&ve
d=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:69
Source : http://www.google.com/imgres?q=polar+bears&um=1&hl=en&safe=active&sa=N&gbv=2&biw=971&bih=556&tbm=isch&tbnid=LScknu2eSOaLM:&imgrefurl=http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi%3Ff%3D/c/a/2008/05/14/MN0310MBVT.DTL&docid=GHs_KZfa6L1ZNM&imgurl=http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2008/05/15/
ba_polar_bear_cpt.jpg&w=580&h=431&ei=hu6NT8vrNpPYiQLh79jRDg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=150&vpy=250&dur=2101&hovh=193&hovw=261
&tx=192&ty=168&sig=103862801904354458406&page=2&tbnh=163&tbnw=186&start=15&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:15,i:128
Zoos want to import polar bears to save the species
Photos by Jeffrey F. Bill/THE MARYLAND ZOO IN BALTIMORE - Magnet and Anoki are polar bears
at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. Magnet is on all fours on the left and Anoki is on the right.
By — Juliet Eilperin, Published: April 9
Polar bears are perfectly suited to life in the Arctic: Their hair blends in with the snow; their
heavy, strongly curved claws allow them to climb over blocks of ice and snow and grip their prey
securely; and the rough pads on their feet keep them from slipping.
The one thing they cannot survive is the loss of the ice, and the changes in worldwide climate
threaten to melt the summer sea ice on which they hunt. Scientists say two-thirds of the world’s
polar bears could disappear by about 2050.
So a group of American zoo and aquarium officials are asking the federal government to let
them import orphaned bear cubs from Canada, so that some can be bred in captivity. Zoos have
helped save endangered species before, such as the California condor and the Mexican wolf,
which were bred in zoos and then set free into the wild.
“If you don’t build these insurance populations when you have the animals, then it’s too late,”
said the Toledo (Ohio) Zoo’s mammals curator Randi Meyerson, chairman of the Association of
Zoos and Aquariums’ polar bear species survival program. “We’re planning for something we
hope we don’t need.”
Today 64 captive polar bears live in accredited institutions such as the Maryland Zoo in
Baltimore, which has three. The National Zoo had 13 polar bears between 1959 and 1980, but it
no longer has any and has no plans to try to get one because the bears are so expensive to care
for.
Right now, polar bears cannot be imported into the United States for public display under
federal law. Robert Gabel, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s international affairs program,
said that in order to bring bears into U.S. zoos, “we’d have to show that an import would either
stabilize or increase the wild population of polar bears. It’s difficult to show how an import
would accomplish that.”
Photos by Jeffrey F. Bill/THE MARYLAND ZOO IN BALTIMORE - Magnet and Anoki are polar bears
at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. Magnet is on all fours on the left and Anoki is on the right.
Lily Peacock, a research biologist in the U.S. Geological Survey’s polar bear program, said the
best way to help this threatened species is by cutting the heat-trapping gases that come from
cars and trucks and burning coal to generate electricity.
“If the world cares about polar bears, reducing carbon concentrations in the atmosphere is the
only way to preserve polar bears’ habitat,” she said.
Even backers of the zoo plan say that reducing carbon emissions is the top priority for saving
polar bears.
Robert Buchanan, president of Polar Bears International, a group that works to help the
animals, said displaying them in zoos could represent the best way to persuade the public to
make such cuts.
“The only way at this time to save bears is to have people change their habits, and the way to do
that is through zoos and aquariums,” he said. “Polar bears are just ambassadors for their friends
in the Arctic.”
— Juliet Eilperin
Source : http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/zoos-want-to-import-polar-bears-to-save-thespecies/2012/04/09/gIQAgMbi6S_story.html
Source :
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=polar+bear+infographic&hl=en&safe=active&client=firefoxa&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:enUS:official&biw=971&bih=556&tbm=isch&tbnid=U7bW38e4k2TQtM:&imgrefurl=http://en.rian.
ru/infographics/20100419/158648164.html&docid=YBJj3LPFnpQvnM&imgurl=http://en.rian.ru/
images/15864/82/158648255.jpg&w=840&h=445&ei=veaNT_COceqiAL32K3MCA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=22&vpy=154&dur=933&hovh=163&hovw=309&tx
=160&ty=86&sig=103862801904354458406&page=1&tbnh=89&tbnw=168&start=0&ndsp=18&
ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:71
Scientists tracking Beaufort polar bears by air
Governments of N.W.T., Yukon and Alaska trying out method deemed less invasive
CBC News
Posted: Apr 3, 2012 7:14 PM CT
Last Updated: Apr 3, 2012 6:50 PM CT
Scientists are trying out a new, potentially less invasive, approach to count polar bears in the
southern Beaufort region.
The Governments of the Northwest Territories and Yukon have teamed up with Alaska on a pilot
project to track the animals using helicopters.
For the last week, scientists have been using the helicopters to scan the area to see if it’s a
viable way to estimate the bears’ population. This method has not been used before for polar
bear population counts.
Scientists are changing up their methods to use less invasive tracking techniques. Many
currently use the ‘mark and recapture’ method, where biologists trap, drug and then tag the
animals. This method takes three to four years to get a population estimate.
The new method by helicopter is supposed to be less invasive, and take less time.
"[It is] going to take a lot of effort if we decide to go this way. But it if it will work, it will be less
handling on the bears, less stressful on the bears, and you should be able to do it in one year do a lot of work and come up with a population estimate that year," said Marsha Branigan, the
manager of Wildlife Management for the Inuvik Region.
Branigan says the pilot project is more expensive, but she says the aerials will give more
immediate results than the three to four years it takes for the traditional tagging and trapping
method.
She added that they are not very concerned about the impact the helicopters could have on the
bears. Branigan said that while they will have an impact, the helicopters’ disturbance of the
bears will be less stressful overall than the tagging method.
Once the team has the information, they will present it to the Inuvialuit-Inupiat Polar Bear
management agreement’s joint commissioners. From there, they will weigh the benefits of both
methods.
So far, Branigan says there are indications that climate change and retreating sea ice are having
an effect on the bears’ population, which she says is declining.
Source : http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2012/04/03/north-beaufort-polar-bear-population.html
Source :
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=polar+bear+infographic&hl=en&safe=active&client=firefoxa&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:enUS:official&biw=971&bih=556&tbm=isch&tbnid=KX1c9ZZZdGuWuM:&imgrefurl=http://www.ux
goodbadugly.com/designportfolio.html&docid=AnxB546mBt7WM&imgurl=http://www.uxgoodbadugly.com/images/polarbear_infographic_800.jp
g&w=800&h=801&ei=veaNT_COceqiAL32K3MCA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=218&vpy=123&dur=232&hovh=225&hovw=224&t
x=109&ty=109&sig=103862801904354458406&page=1&tbnh=113&tbnw=113&start=0&ndsp=1
8&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:73
OSTED: Friday, Apr. 06, 2012
Life in a zoo? No way to 'save' polar bears
By JENNIFER O'CONNOR - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Time is running out for polar bears. According to some estimates, unless we drastically reduce
our greenhouse-gas emissions, Arctic summer sea ice could disappear by 2030 - and two-thirds
of the world's polar bears could be extinct by mid-century. Amid these grim statistics comes a
self-serving new proposal being promoted by several U.S. zoos: To "save" polar bears, we
should sentence even more of them to life in captivity.
As you mull over this idea, ask yourself: Do zoos really think that displaying depressed and
stressed animals will help motivate people to preserve the Arctic environment? Or is this just a
ploy to get paying customers through the front gate?
Sorry, does that sound cynical? Consider that one of the facilities on board with this proposal,
the Saint Louis Zoo, spent $20 million on a new polar bear exhibit but now has no animals to
display there. The zoo would benefit greatly if rules on importing polar bears for public display
were relaxed.
But polar bears do not fare well in captivity, and zoos know it. Ronald Sandler, director of
Northeastern University's Ethics Institute, calls polar bears "one of the worst candidates for
captivity."
Polar bears thrive in enormous Arctic expanses and open water - which no zoo can hope to
provide. An Oxford University study noted that a typical polar bear enclosure is about onemillionth the size of the animal's minimum home range and concluded that captive polar bears
suffer from both physical and mental anguish.
For evidence of this, we need only remember Knut, the Berlin Zoo's "star" polar bear, who spent
his days pacing incessantly, bobbing his head repeatedly and exhibiting so much captivityinduced mental distress that one German zoologist called him a "psychopath." Some zoos have
attempted to curb such abnormal behaviors by drugging polar bears with anti-depressants.
Knut's half-sister, Anori, who was born in January, is now on display at Germany's Wuppertal
Zoo.
If U.S. zoos are allowed to start importing polar bear cubs, as they've proposed, where will the
adult animals end up? Babies like Anori bring in big bucks, but as the animals get bigger, crowds
grow smaller. Visitors lose interest and move on, while adult animals languish behind bars warehoused, sold or bartered like damaged goods. Before Knut died at the age of 4, the Berlin
Zoo attempted to unload him onto another facility.
Not a single U.S. zoo has a policy of providing lifetime care for the animals at its facilities, and
many zoos breed animals knowing in advance that the males will be difficult to place when they
mature.
Some zoos take drastic measures to deal with the "surplus." Animals from zoos have ended up
at dilapidated roadside zoos, traveling circuses and even canned-hunting facilities, where they
are easy marks for hunters seeking trophies for the den. One Swiss zoo killed two endangered
lion cubs simply because it didn't have room for them. The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo's chief of
veterinary services has even called on members of the zoo community to support the use of
surplus zoo animals in medical experiments.
Zoos talk a lot about "conservation," but none of the elephants, gorillas, tigers, chimpanzees or
pandas born in zoos will ever be released back into their natural environments. In the case of
polar bears, where would they be released exactly, if the Arctic ice disappears? Putting animals
on display doesn't even foster respect for their wild cousins. They are still hunted, poached,
culled and captured for exhibits.
If we truly want to save polar bears, then we must save their habitat - by doing whatever it
takes to cut our greenhouse-gas emissions. That's the kind of campaign that deserves our
support. Condemning animals to a life sentence behind bars is not the solution.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Jennifer O'Connor is a staff writer with the PETA Foundation, 501 Front Street, Norfolk, Va. 23510;
www.PETA.org. Information about PETA's funding may be found at www.peta.org/about/numbers.asp.
Polar Bear Distribution
Source:
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=polar+bear+map&hl=en&safe=active&biw=971&bih=556&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tb
nid=icDKSz35JmZpM:&imgrefurl=http://www.uwyo.edu/polarbear/about%2520polar%2520bears.htm&docid=V_vNFAfvxnNa
cM&imgurl=http://www.uwyo.edu/polarbear/polar_bear_distribution.jpg&w=450&h=445&ei=kuyNT53iFoHKiALd
9rTPCA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=73&vpy=123&dur=2778&hovh=223&hovw=226&tx=101&ty=111&sig=103862
801904354458406&page=1&tbnh=110&tbnw=111&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:71
Source:
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=polar+bear+comic&start=18&num=10&hl=en&safe=active&gbv=2&biw=971&b
ih=556&tbm=isch&tbnid=drH90Xj_vWxP8M:&imgrefurl=http://www.funnyandjokes.com/cat/comics&docid=Y0a
AAAhShrtsrM&imgurl=http://www.funnyandjokes.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/polar-ice-bearsmelted.gif&w=600&h=415&ei=n2NT56oNKeniAKU_rzOCA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=358&vpy=213&dur=194&hovh=187&hovw=270&tx=139&t
y=103&sig=103862801904354458406&page=2&tbnh=154&tbnw=222&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:18,i:18