Monthly Archives: April 2009

Tracking the Beaufort bears: Day 13

From the field, General, Polar bears, ,

Investigating our first successful polar bear seal kill site in the eastern Southern Beaufort Sea, Alaska.

Investigating our first successful polar bear seal kill site in the eastern Southern Beaufort Sea, Alaska.


WWF’s polar bear coordinator, Geoff York, keeps up his field knowledge with trips out onto the ice to check on the condition of the bears. This year, he is keeping a daily blog of his experiences over two weeks. Keep visiting this blog for regular updates and live the life of a polar bear biologist.
By Geoff York
A heavy blanket of fog greats the morning light again- continued indication of open water and active ice offshore. The layer is relatively thin and should burn off by mid-day. We continue our operational plan of remaining rigidly flexible and slowly prepare for a late launch. By mid morning, visibility appears to be improving, so we load up and head down to the helicopter. In the short time it takes us to mobilize, the fog is right back down again. We load the helicopter with our gear that is not cold sensitive and head back to the bunkhouse.
An hour later we are back in the helicopter and heading to the northwest. We know of a collared female with a single cub heading our way, so decide to hunt in her general direction. The fog continues to give us a matrix of patches out on the ice and sends us more west than north.
As luck would have it, we encounter tracks that lead to our first seal kill site near a recently refrozen lead. An Arctic Fox skitters away from the carcass as we approach and it looks like a smaller bear also found these remains. Nothing is wasted out here, especially this time of year when everyone is coming off a long cold winter.
We continue on and locate the successful hunter not too far away- a lone male. He is in great condition and the capture and processing run smoothly. We are all glad to see that conditions appear to be improving for hunting.
Shortly after departing our male, we see our first family group with two yearlings! This is only the second encounter of the season, but at least we found some out here. As we circle around to assess their condition and safely position them on the ice, our friend the fog rolls in as if by design and we are forced to break off our pursuit. We will look for them again tomorrow, weather permitting.
Somewhat dejectedly, we start searching our way back towards home. Within 20 minutes, we find a mother bear with a new cub, and she is wearing a collar. Her behavior is clearly that of a bear that has been captured before. She is a good mom and stays with her cub, but she also coils and turns to face the helicopter- a good indication she is ready to jump. This bear decides against that tactic and we quickly have her sedated. This is an older female to be reproductively active and the oldest female captured so far this season at 24. She was first captured in 1992 and we have handled her several times over the ensuing years. She is an experienced mother and her cub is in good shape. We fit her with a new collar and head back to Kaktovik. It’s 8 PM when we land and this will be another late night. Our lab technician finally calls it a “night” at 1:30 AM.

Tracking the Beaufort bears: Day 12

From the field, General, Polar bears, ,

geoffsedativeWWF’s polar bear coordinator, Geoff York, keeps up his field knowledge with trips out onto the ice to check on the condition of the bears. This year, he is keeping a daily blog of his experiences over two weeks. Keep visiting this blog for regular updates, photos, and maybe some video too, and live the life of a polar bear biologist.
By Geoff York
The day dawns brighter and the visibility has improved, but it is still snowing. We prepare for a late departure as we sip our morning drinks and listen to the weather forecast on the radio. The snow is supposed to let up by mid morning, but the winds are to increase to 20 knots from the West. It’s always something as they say.
We get lucky today and launch the helicopter around 11 AM. The wind is already increasing, but the snow has stopped and the visibility is up to about 6 km. We head to the northeast and begin our search. An hour passes without more than an occasional arctic fox track. It is always impressive to see the huge distances these fox cover over the sea ice in search of scavenged meals, often running parallel or directly with polar bear tracks.
About half past 12 we find a very fuzzy looking set of tracks. They are from a family group, but are drifted in and may be old. Having seen little else, we decide to investigate them for a few minutes and they soon lead us to a mother bear with two small cubs of the year. This is likely a family group from one of the two dens we discovered last week as we are fairly close to that location. The female does not react normally- most bears walk away or begin to run while she looks fairly nonplussed by it all. As we circle around her, she actually does two full hunting pounces with her front paws hammering on a suspected seal lair. She even began to lightly dig before deciding she might actually want to move away from the helicopter.
The capture goes smoothly and she is a very good mother and stays close to her cubs. The cubs look good, but are small for this time of year and their mother appears to be quite young and also fairly thin. She has likely not had a meal since last November, but is now out in prime hunting grounds. She is also a new bear for us, so has likely never seen a helicopter before or perhaps even people which also helps explain her initial behavior.
The wind continues to pick up while we are working and snow is starting to drift around our gear. After we have them processed, measured, marked and weighed, we dig out our best imitation of a day bed behind a nice pressure ridge and out of the wind. She only weighs 180 kg, so we easily carry her over in the weighing net then place her cubs snugly against her warm body as we ready to fly away.
We continue hunting to the northwest and encounter what we had hoped to see since arriving- active ice. A lead about two miles across had opened over the past two days and was already starting to refreeze. We follow this to the west as leads often concentrate bear activity, and for good reason, After seeing few seals or signs of seal activity since my arrival. I count over thirty seal breathing holes (holes in the sea ice that ringed and bearded seals maintain) in about as many minutes. We follow the lead for almost an hour without success before needing to head south for fuel. The winds are now blowing a steady 20 knots and we decide to call it a night. Polar bears seem to move less in these conditions and it is no fun working on the ground as the wind chill is bitter.

Tracking the Beaufort bears: Day 11

From the field, General, Polar bears, ,

Midday in Kaktovik with dense fog

Midday in Kaktovik with dense fog


WWF’s polar bear coordinator, Geoff York, keeps up his field knowledge with trips out onto the ice to check on the condition of the bears. This year, he is keeping a daily blog of his experiences over two weeks. Keep visiting this blog for regular updates and live the life of a polar bear biologist.
By Geoff York
When I look out the window a little after 6 AM, the view is grim: snow and fog. The ice must be moving offshore and leads opening as we suddenly have a lot more moisture in the air, and the temperature is up to -15 C. After coffee and some cereal, we get ready to wait out the weather. I have a proposal to review for a graduate student in Alaska and plenty of other inside work to keep me busy. I also take advantage of the lull to connect with my family and do some laundry.
It also provides a chance to catch up with our U.S. Fish and Wildlife colleagues who are conducting capture work to the West in the Chukchi Sea. Their helicopter is down for routine maintenance and so they are also in their field office. The Chukchi work is relatively new and logistically much more challenging. That system is biologically more productive and the sea ice much more dynamic creating good spring polar bear habitat over a much larger area. This leads to the bears being more spread out and requires much more search effort to locate them.
This is the second year of capture and collaring work in the Chukchi, a data deficient area for polar bears. This also marks the year that the new U.S./Russia Bilateral Agreement will finally go into full effect, so having some fresh data on this population will be critical to inform this new management agreement. Both the USFWS and WWF are also working with our Russian colleagues to generate some concurrent research activity on Wrangell Island and along the Chukotka coast. Conducting similar capture work in Russia will be very expensive and logistically challenging even by Chukchi standards, but it is critical we gain a better understanding of this region.
The Chukchi work sounds like it is going well and our friends give us a good natured hard time about the small males we are catching in the SBS. Likely due to the greater biological productivity, greater diversity and abundance of prey, the males in the Chukchi system appear to grow much larger than their SBS cousins! The hunting records from the 1970’s appear to back up this trend as well. We don’t mind as we will handle twice the number of bears in the same length of season and we are all happy to be out in the field working with these amazing animals in such magnificent environments.
I put some red beans on the stove for dinner later tonight and set about making two pumpkin pies. Cooking for me is a hobby and a great way to focus on something other than the weather or the bears for a short time. Staying in a bunkhouse is great as it affords a communal atmosphere with field teams and everyone pitches in to cook and clean.

Summit hears from a crazy old priest

General,

Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann is presented with an Alaskan native copper shiled following his speech to the Summit

Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann is presented with an Alaskan native copper shiled following his speech to the Summit


Clive Tesar, Head of Communications for the Arctic Programme, attended the ‘2030 North’ conference in Ottawa, Canada. The challenge of the conference was to try to imagine what life in Canada’s North will be like in 2030, and to devise a plan to deal with that new reality.
By Clive Tesar
One of the highlights of today was a crazy old priest talking about love, brotherhood and sisterhood.
That was how Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, President of the United Nations General Assembly, decribed himself – or to be more accurate, he was telling the story of being so described by a newspaper columnist. The columnist was apparently complaining about the fact that Brockmann’s influence was rubbing off on world leaders.
That influence was apparently evident yesterday, when the United Nations, on ’Earth Day’, voted to declare the day ‘Mother Earth Day’.
Today, Brockmann put the force of his position behind the Indigenous peoples. He called on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the negotiating body that is trying to come up with a new deal on climate change) to respect and implement the rights of Indigenous peoples, including the right of prior informed consent before any climate change project is brought into their communities.
That is an important consideration to many of the Indigenous peoples here, who have concerns that governments will take climate change actions that could have negative effects on Indigenous peoples. Of particular concern is an initiative to make sure carbon remains stored in the world’s forests. The Indigenous peoples are worried that in their zeal to protect forests, some governments may be tempted to trample on Indigenous peoples who rely on the forests for a sustainable livelihood.
Brockmann also threw his weight behind a key demand of Indigenous peoples here, to have a voice at the UNFCCC, so that they can directly influence the next climate deal, a deal that will be crucial for the future well being of the Indigenous peoples.

Tracking the Beaufort bears: Day 10

From the field, General, Polar bears, , ,

Waiting out the fog in Kaktovik, Alaska.

Waiting out the fog in Kaktovik, Alaska.


WWF’s polar bear coordinator, Geoff York, keeps up his field knowledge with trips out onto the ice to check on the condition of the bears. This year, he is keeping a daily blog of his experiences over two weeks. Keep visiting this blog for regular updates and live the life of a polar bear biologist.
By Geoff York
A low ceiling keeps us on the ground again in the morning. The winds have subsided and the temperatures have risen, bringing with them some fog. The crew is getting restless, as everyone would rather be out on the ice and we are six people living in a relatively small space. Good coffee, good cooking and great attitudes make a huge difference. George and I take advantage of the additional time to connect to the local high speed internet: literally sitting outside the village school in our truck sharing their wireless system before the school day begins. A chance to at least send and receive a few emails and see what is happening in the world.
We also have a chance to reflect on the season to date and put this year’s events in the context of the project’s long term data set. The most potentially striking observations this season and last, is the decreased encounter rates of older females, sows with yearlings, and sub-adult (recently independent) bears of either gender. Some analysis by USGS will be necessary to say if this is actually a trend of any significance, but it is a troubling observation and fits all too well with the declining Southern Beaufort Sea (SBS) population projection. Finding individual bears in poor condition in any one year is not necessarily significant. Bad years happen even when times are generally good for wildlife, and all age classes of bears sometimes die for a variety of reasons, especially dependent young.
The fog lets up, and we take advantage of the window to head back up in the air and out onto the sea ice. After two days of winds gusting to 35 knots, we are surprised by the lack of ice movement. We had expected, and hoped, to see new leads as this can concentrate bear hunting activity – but no such luck. The winds have scoured some pans down to glare ice as well. In short order we encounter five ringed seals hauled out in close vicinity to one another, more than we had seen in over a week and a welcome sign.
As we make our way to the north, we catch up to the fog and are turned eastward. Our pilot happens to see a set of tracks crossing a pressure ridge, and we are off in pursuit. Within five minutes we have a large male in sight, and he seems completely unconcerned by our presence. This behavior is not unusual for mature breeding males as they have few peers on the sea ice. Once we have him safely sedated, we discover this bear is a well known to us from previous captures. He is the largest bear weighed by scale in the Alaskan Beaufort at 590 kg in the fall of 1999 and he was born in the winter of 1983. Today he weighs in at 480 kg, a respectable spring weight for such a big guy, and the oldest bear we have captured this season. He is in great condition and has recently eaten as evidenced by a bulging tummy.
We depart to the SE and hunt towards the two dens we discovered previously along the coast, but it is not long before we cut another fresh set of tracks. This set also leads us directly to the track maker – a younger lone male, and also one I have seen before very near this location. I last caught this bear in 2007 during the filming of a CNN/Animal Planet piece with Jeff Corwin. At the time, this bear was only 6 years old, but he was determined to court a much older and larger bear who stood up and really let him have it. No harm was done, other than perhaps his ego! It was nice to see him as a much larger 8 year old. He is now tall, lanky, and lean as if from a recent growth spurt. He is also in reasonable condition for a male this time of year. The light winds we had all day suddenly stop and we have a beautiful evening to process and sample the last bear of the day. We land about half past seven, unload, hang and clean the gear, grab a quick dinner and enter the data. It is nearly midnight when I finish the last few tasks, print the labels and head up to bed.
WWF’s polar bear coordinator, Geoff York, keeps up his field knowledge with trips out onto the ice to check on the condition of the bears. This year, he is keeping a daily blog of his experiences over two weeks. Keep visiting this blog for regular updates, photos, and maybe some video too, and live the life of a polar bear biologist.

Tracking the Beaufort bears: Day 9

From the field, General, Polar bears, ,

WWF’s polar bear coordinator, Geoff York, keeps up his field knowledge with trips out onto the ice to check on the condition of the bears. This year, he is keeping a daily blog of his experiences over two weeks. Keep visiting this blog for regular updates and live the life of a polar bear biologist.
By Geoff York
No need to get up too early as the sound of wind wakes me before 6am. It will be another day to catch up on work and make plans for the coming week. Blowing snow is reducing visibility to 2 km or less at times. This will give me an opportunity to test out my new mini-HD video equipment and send along some footage soon.

A rousing call to action

General,

img_01011Clive Tesar, Head of Communications for the Arctic Programme, attended the ‘2030 North’ conference in Ottawa, Canada. The challenge of the conference was to try to imagine what life in Canada’s North will be like in 2030, and to devise a plan to deal with that new reality.
By Clive Tesar
“We are a fortunate people,” begins Winona LaDuke. ”We have a shot at making a difference.” The indigenous writer, activist and economist knows about trying to make a difference, writes Clive Tesar. She was Ralph Nader’s choice for vice-president on the Green party ticket in two US elections.
Today at the Indigenous Peoples’ Summit, she gave a rousing call to action to the delegates, telling them that they must oppose “all new forms of insanity” such as the “Crack cocaine of oil sands”. She talked of peak oil, of the fact that globalization requires cheap oil and plentiful money, and now both are in short supply, so the world can expect many shocks, and must change its way of doing business.
For me, the most affecting part of her speech was her account of her work with a particular Indigenous community to help give people what they need for climate change resilience; a combination of the old and the new.
The “old” is a handful of corn seeds, seeds that were native to the area, but had been kept in a seed bank. This corn grows close to the ground, so it doesn’t get blown over by high winds. It doesn’t require much water, so it is resistant to drought. These conditions, increasing storms, and droughts, are both forecast to be consequences of climate change in American Midwest.
The “new” is a wind turbine – but as LaDuke pointed out, not brand new, but an older, refurbished one that had a simple assembly, so it could be erected and maintained by local people, “so you don’t have to get some guy from Denmark to fix it”. She pointed out that many indigenous communities are well situated to develop wind or solar energy, and to become energy self-sufficient, and perhaps also exporters of renewable energy.
She sees this twin strategy, of reclaiming and repatriating traditional food sources, and of developing appropriate technologies, as ways to make indigenous communities stronger, more self sufficient and more resilient to climate change impacts.

‘Determination to forge a common declaration’

General,

Clive Tesar, Head of Communications for the Arctic Programme, attended the ‘2030 North’ conference in Ottawa, Canada. The challenge of the conference was to try to imagine what life in Canada’s North will be like in 2030, and to devise a plan to deal with that new reality.
By Clive Tesar
At one point today, a South American elder had everyone in the room hold hands, row joining row, people who had purposely sat apart shuffling together. The Indigenous participants from the African savanna joined hands with the bureaucrats from the World Bank. Then, after a minute of silence, the elder prayed, in her language.
There may not have been anyone else in the room of about 200 people who understood exactly what she was saying, but we all understood the intent. It struck me that this moment encapsulated what people here are trying to do. Despite widely different local concerns, they had all reached out to come here to demonstrate to the world their determination to forge a common declaration on climate change.
It also struck me that it would be interesting to see the same approach at the UNFCCC negotiations. What if all the negotiators took some time out at the start, to reach out to their neighbours, to reflect, to break through the barriers of language and culture to reach a common purpose.

Tracking the Beaufort bears: Day 8

From the field, General, Polar bears, ,

WWF’s polar bear coordinator, Geoff York, keeps up his field knowledge with trips out onto the ice to check on the condition of the bears. This year, he is keeping a daily blog of his experiences over two weeks. Keep visiting this blog for regular updates and live the life of a polar bear biologist.
By Geoff York
The weather has finally caught up to us this morning and its one of my least favorite North Slope forecasts: snow and blowing snow. Visibility is down to two miles and the snow is quickly forming new drifts around the village, so our decision is easy. It is no time to be out flying and is a welcome day of rest for our pilot. It will be a time for the rest of the crew to catch up with paperwork, label samples, and restock our pantry. As soon as the winds let up, and the snow subsides, the searching will be excellent out on the sea ice as any tracks will be fresh and the track maker not far ahead.
As I turn into bed tonight, the winds are rattling the bunkhouse and have picked up considerably. We are in a full Arctic spring storm and the sea ice will look quite different when the weather finally settles- which could be in the morning, or could be days away.
WWF’s polar bear coordinator, Geoff York, keeps up his field knowledge with trips out onto the ice to check on the condition of the bears. This year, he is keeping a daily blog of his experiences over two weeks. Keep visiting this blog for regular updates, photos, and maybe some video too, and live the life of a polar bear biologist.

‘Indigenous peoples need to be heard’

General, ,

Delegates from South America talk about impacts in Amazonia

Delegates from South America talk about impacts in Amazonia


People from around the world have gathered in Anchorage, Alaska this week for the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change. WWF Arctic Programme’s Head of Communications, Clive Tesar is there, and is filing reports all this week.
“There is no way that the people who created the problem of climate change should be allowed to sidestep their responsibility … we should never leave them one minute or one hour to feel comfortable in their neglect.”
Cletus Springer, a spokesman for the Caribbean region said clearly what many at this gathering felt.  As the Inuit leader Patricia Cochran put it, Indigenous peoples have seemed to be invisible in the debate on global warming, yet the the testimony of Indigenous peoples from around the world shows that they are disproportionately feeling the impacts.
Speakers from the South Pacific spoke of crops are withering in the heat, delegates from the Caribbean spoke of  living in fear of increasingly violent and frequent storms, and people from the Arctic spoke of the sudden, sometimes deadly unpredictability of time worn travel routes.
Delegates from a rainbow of cultures filled the Summit room

Delegates from a rainbow of cultures filled the Summit room


WWF’s Arctic Programme contributed money to this conference, because we believe that the Indigenous peoples need to be heard. Personally, I was raised in the north, and have lived among people who still rely heavily on the land. I know that the changes on the land are hitting people hard.
It is not just the economy of Indigenous settlements. It goes deeper than that, down to a very real fear that people have of changes on the land so profound that they become strangers to their own lands.
The encouraging thing is that the people here, and many of the people they represent, are not passively waiting for the changes to come. They refuse to be victims of a problem they did little to create. As the week goes on, people here are working collectively on a declaration that will outline how they plan to take their concerns onto the world stage, and to ensure that nobody can “feel comfortable in their neglect”.