Can You Hear Me Now?
Posted at 9:08 am August 29, 2006 by Megan Owen
Polar bears have recently been reclassified by the IUCN from conservation dependent to vulnerable. This dubious upgrade marks a critical point in polar bear conservation efforts.
For millennia, the Arctic habitat of the polar bear has provided them with a protection that other temperate and tropical species of bear have not enjoyed. Limited human settlement guaranteed that the polar bear’s habitat was relatively pristine. Unfortunately, worldwide industrial practices now threaten the polar bear in a variety of ways. From a scientific standpoint, the best-documented impacts have been with bioaccumulation of various toxins in the fat and milk of female polar bears. Now, the general public has also become aware of the imminent threats of both global warming and the increased pressure to exploit the vast petroleum reserves of the Arctic region. Unfortunately for the polar bear, some of the highest concentrations of documented polar bear maternity dens are found in the same continental shelf regions that hold some of the most promising petroleum reserves.
Petroleum extraction involves a great deal of heavy industrial machinery and activity, and that means noise. But how disturbing is this noise to polar bears? We don’t know! As marine mammals, polar bears are protected from harassment by human activities. When it comes to noise, one of the best tools to enable managers to assess the potential disturbance of a particular combination of loudness and pitch (a.k.a amplitude and frequency), is an understanding of the hearing sensitivity of the subject animal. These guidelines are used when protecting humans from industrial noise (We don’t figure out what bothers humans by blasting their ears with very loud noise!). In a nutshell, an understanding of how sensitive an animal’s hearing is allows us to estimate what types of loud noises would be either disturbing or damaging to either their social communication or ability to hear.
The polar bears, research team, and training staff at the San Diego Zoo (and essential collaborative research effort with Polar Bears International and Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute) offer a fantastic opportunity to gather this information. In order to determine hearing non-invasively, the bear must be trained to respond when it hears a noise, whatever the frequency or amplitude. This type of data simply cannot be collected from wild bears. Thus far, we have been very impressed by what our Zoo bears and trainers have accomplished! Soon we will move from the training phase onto data collection. If all goes well, the data we collect will be incorporated into management guidelines used on the North Slope of Alaska, and hopefully around the whole Arctic.
Next time you are at Polar Bear Plunge, be sure to spend some time observing Chinook and Shikari. Through their intelligence and trusting relationship with their keepers and trainers, they are making an invaluable contribution to their cousins in the wild.
Megan Owen is a research laboratory coordinator for the San Diego Zoo.
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August 30th, 2006 at 7:00 am
megan, I believe alot of people don’t really want to face the truth about what is happening to our environment, it’s like out of sight, out of mind until it really starts to affect them personally, like the oil and gas prices, then they begin to listen somewhat. People don’t realize that all the drilling and logging and loss of animal habitait is affecting our climate the way we grow food and the air that we breathe until it’s just about too late. But it’s never to late to start to make a small difference. Now for a question: are there any plans to breed the polar bears in San Diego?
August 30th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
Ditto the question about breeding the polar bears in San Diego. Since Kalluk is not related to Chinook or Shikari and all of them are from the wild, will they make good mating pairs? Will Tatiq be sent to another institution for breeding when she is older?
August 30th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
Unfortunately, I cannot answer your question with a simple ” yes” or ” no” . Genetically this makes sense but there are many other issues to consider. During the past decade, breeding polar bears has not been a priority for conservation management in zoos. This may change in the near future because of the crises developing in the wild.
November 1st, 2006 at 10:31 pm
I’m an avid animal person and sometimes when I hear that research is being done I wonder if we have taken some of the wonder out of nature’s creatures. I understand the need to understand them and do what we can to protect them but I fear that all this knowledge may be more harmful than good. I visit both parks as much as I can and the polar bears have always been one of my favorites. They are magnificent.
November 6th, 2006 at 11:24 am
Since you are not planning to breed the polar bears, will you have to separate Kalluk from Tatqiq permanently? If they go on exhibit in pairs, and mature wild animals do not necessarily distinquish between relatives and non-relatives, will he attempt to mate with his sister if left together with her on exhibit? I notice that often one bear appears to be out alone. Would this be Kalluk? Are the pair that appear together Chinook and Shikari? Now that all the bears are mature, will the three girls be able to be on exhibit together, or will they be likely to have a rivalry between Tatqiq and Chinook or Shikari? My curiousity is aroused because I don’t recall seeing pairs of related bears on exhibit at any other zoos. As I recall I only saw one bear at a time.
November 24th, 2006 at 8:39 am
I view your polar bears thru the Polar cam daily. As we are not located in the same time zone, I only watch them at night time, that is your early morning hour. They appear occasionally thru the web cam. Would you consider to arrange other cameras in different locations of the exhibit, or provide the polar bear photo album at a regular period of time? Actually, I am fascinated by these lovely bears. Polar cam service is not usually provided by many zoos in the world. Your is great.
Due to global warming and the serious environmental problem, Polar bear may disappear in the future; this is the tragedy to both human beings and the polar bears.
January 11th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
i love animals, they are my favourite, but my favourite animal is polar bears!! i never went to San Deigo but when i went to your internet i really wanted to go to San Diego
June 5th, 2007 at 8:21 am
it is cool how the polar bears learn so fast about what is going on. To me it is amazing how they know what button to point to.I am in the koala club and have read the article from there.
-Bella Rose
June 19th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
I have never been to the san diego zoo but after seeing the website I was blown away!! Hopefuly i can make a trip out there from upstate new york sometime soon. As someone who loves the ” outdoors” and animals of all shapes and sizes, i would just like to say im hurt that the puplic can read anywhere or watch tv and find out about global warming or anything devistating happening to our planet, our animals, and us!, and still does nothing to change their ways. i cannot understand how we can see all this bad happening and still shrug it off . its so refreshing to see these types of research are being done. hopefuly this research and many others can re-instate the importance of animals in our little ecosystem we call planet earth and how, suprising to many, that these animals directly/indirectly effect all of our lives and the planet as a whole. i wish the best of luck to the trainers and the polar bears and everyone involved in the research! I am also very sorry to read about Shikari. im sure she will be missed
August 7th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
she will be in everyones hart now and everyone will remeber her in there oun way or in the same way