Scientists- gigantic 'trap' will tell tale of polar bear ...

Hallo

das ist doch ein tipp für eine reiseplanung in den norden

Zitat

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Scientists hope gigantic 'trap' will tell tale of polar bear populations
By Margaret Munro, Postmedia News January 7, 2011

Read more: http://www.canada.com/Scientists+hope+gi...l#ixzz1AipJwRm5

As bear traps go, they don't get much bigger.

Almost 700 kilometres long, it will span a channel in the Canadian Arctic that is home to one of the most undisturbed polar bears populations on Earth.

Small corrals, stationed every 15 kilometres and baited with small chunks of meat, will have barbed wire strategically positioned to snag hair from curious bears that come by to investigate.

The bears will be able to freely enter and exit the corrals, but some of the free-ranging beasts that ventured into the test enclosures have been none too pleased to find themselves surrounded by wire.

"Some have gotten severely pissed and destroyed the enclosures," laughs biologist Peter V. C. de Groot, of Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., who is setting up the "non-invasive" trap to help track the iconic but paradoxical creatures.

Polar bears are a global symbol of the threat posed by climate change but, at the same time, many observers say there are more of them roaming around than there were 30 years ago.

"The population is booming," says Willy Aglukkaq, a guide and outfitter in the Inuit community of Gjoa Haven, who is seeing plenty of bears in the central Arctic.

No one can say with certainly how many bears there are and how healthy the populations are, and biologists say it is time Canada did a lot more to find out given the threats the bears face and the international attention they command.

"Without a doubt we need more monitoring," says Andrew Derocher, at the University of Alberta, a world authority on polar bears.

Read more: http://www.canada.com/Scientists+hope+gi...l#ixzz1AipaXJpm


und so weiter

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ein kommentar:

"And that "thing" is a very real and ominous threat, he says, since polar bears depend on sea ice for feeding, travelling, and mating. The ice is retreating as the planet warms, and studies estimate two-thrids of the bears could gone by 2050 if global greenhouse gas emissions are not significantly reduced."

Biologists should really stick with what they know and not try and venture into other fields, making fools of themselves.

There is currently more ice in the arctic than the average of the past 10,000 years. Since polar bears have been around much longer than 10,000 years, we can logically deduce that a reduction in arctic ice is not a catastrophe for them. But why bother with facts or logic when you are competing for funding.

Read more: http://www.canada.com/Scientists+hope+gi...l#ixzz1Aiq2swih