Monday - December 22, 2008
EYE CANDY FOR KIDS OF ANY AGE ….
Happened across this pix and since the animal world has NO liberals and I like the critters, I thought it was a good idea to share this photo from the Telegraph.
Pictures of the day: 22 December 2008
This is Vincent the Dutch rabbit, who was born with no ears. Owner John Haigh, 16, from Selby, North Yorkshire, was shocked to find that his pet rabbit had given birth to an earless bunny
Picture: Ross Parry
It’s my understanding from some folks who have attended to these cute critters, THEY ARE LOUSY PETS!
Well, at least they aren’t liberals so that’s one thing in their favor.
Posted by peiper
on 12/22/2008 at 12:35 PM
Filed Under: • Animals • UK •
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Permalink • Sunday - December 21, 2008
Pet lovers and welfare organisations are rebelling against “ridiculous” government guidelines.
This really just a silly article and I really doubt that anyone is going to get themselves in any trouble.
It actually should be ignored by me BUT ...
I thought hey wait a minute. This is even sillier then originally supposed because ya gotta wonder how and what makes these folks come up with and then print this stuff. And ,,, what is the cost to the taxpayer. And ,,, haven’t they anything better to do with their time?
I guess not.
I have edited a lot of the story so see the link if you want more.
In a way, this is almost funny enough to be filed under ‘humor.’
The way I see it, ppl who loves their pets will take care of them and those that are mean or just plain careless will continue being that way. But never in pet ownership that I’ve heard about, has a govt. body decided to draw up ‘rules.’
Rebellion over Government’s rules on pets
Pet lovers and welfare organisations are rebelling against “ridiculous” government guidelines which tell them how to look after animals.
By Jasper Copping
The recommendations – including “cat-proofing” windows and balconies to prevent falls, having at least one litter tray per cat, and guaranteeing that dogs wear collars and identity tags in public places – were announced in November.
Now, angry animal experts and pet owners believe that the rules risk criminalising responsible animal lovers.
Dog owners fear that they could be prosecuted for leaving their animals alone in a car for even just a few moments, or for not grooming their pets often enough.
Cat owners have expressed concern that they could face action for having only one litter tray when they own two cats.
Shooters and gamekeepers are worried that they could be prosecuted for not putting collars on their gundogs, which would put the animals at risk of serious injury should they become snared on branches and undergrowth.
Three separate codes of practice – on dogs, cats and horses – have been drawn up to outline how people should meet their responsibilities under the 2006 Animal Welfare Act.
While breaching the codes will not in itself be a crime, Defra has warned that breaches could prove the deciding factor in whether an individual is prosecuted for animal cruelty. Those convicted face fines of up to £20,000 or 12 months in prison.
TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR PET OWNERS
Thou shalt groom your long-haired cats and dogs once a day
Thou shalt “cat proof” your windows and balconies to prevent your pet falling out
Thou shalt not walk your dog during the hottest part of the day
Thou shalt give each cat its own litter tray – even if your animals prefer to go outside.
Thou shalt use a plastic bag or “pooper scooper” to dispose of any dog faeces on your own property, no matter what the size of your garden, field or even farm.
Thou shalt not feed your dog from the table
Thou shalt not have a vegetarian cat. All cats must eat meat
Thou shalt play with your cat with toys if it refuses to go outdoors to hunt.
Thou shalt not use your hands or feet when playing with your cat as this may encourage aggressive behaviour
Thou shalt change your dog’s toys regularly to avoid it becoming bored
Posted by peiper
on 12/21/2008 at 10:15 AM
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Permalink • Tuesday - December 09, 2008
RIGHT OUT OF JAWS … SHARK ATTACK. FILM AT 11.
Ran across this tonight. High WOW factor. Busy day so light on posts.
Be sure to click on the link for more photos. The link has some stills but there’s video HERE as well. Two versions and high quality. YouTube has upgraded I guess. There are ads on the video. Haven’t seen that before on YT.
Two escape as great white shark tears apart diving cage
A pair of scuba divers off the coast of Mexico survived a terrifying ordeal straight out of Jaws when a great white shark burst through the side of their metal cage.
Last Updated: 2:02PM GMT 09 Dec 2008
One moment they were watching the animal feeding off a school of tuna in the azure waters around the Isle de Guadalupe.
But the next, it was charging straight towards them: seconds later it crashed through their protective cage, its huge head ripping apart the bars.
The pair, whose film of last year’s incident has become a huge hit on YouTube, had to crouch down into the corner of their cage while the enormous predator thrashed wildly around.
They then managed to escape from the water and onto the Searcher boat owned by a tour company, which offers shark dives for £2,000 apiece.
With equipment just six years old, the company has now pledged to upgrade. And in a statement commenting on the incident they said: “When we said ‘you can get face-to-face with the ultimate predator’ this is not what we had in mind”.
One of the two divers - who goes by the YouTube nickname ScubaDubaDive - said on the website that the shark had hit them by accident.
“After it hit the tuna in front of the cage its eyes were closed to protect them,” he said. “It hit the cage and then reacted.”
Posted by peiper
on 12/09/2008 at 11:45 AM
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Permalink • Friday - December 05, 2008
Rare leopard cubs born in Kent, England. Not the usual fare for a political blog site I guess but
This is really fascinating and when I found it I just had to post. Pretty special. At least I believe so.
Take a look.
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:41 PM on 05th December 2008This pair of little big cats pounce and prowl like any curious kittens, blissfully unaware they are two of the rarest leopards in the world.
Baby Amur leopards Argun and Anuy were born at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation (WHF), a conservation charity based in Smarden, Kent, which supports rare and endangered big cats.
It is thought no more than 40 Amur leopards survive in the wild.
Mark Edgerley, who runs the centre where the eight-week-old cubs were born, said the pair were beginning to become more confident and could often be seen playing together in their enclosure while their mother, three-year-old Xizi, looks on.
They have no access to their father, Artur, six, who is their biggest danger due to the male leopard’s lack of paternal instinct.
Mr Edgerley said: ‘They are like little kittens; they chase straw and if they see a bit of sunlight falling on the ground they will go after that. They look as if they had not got a care in the world.’
When they are fully grown the leopards will, like all the other big cats at the centre, eat up to 18kg (40lb) of meat a week, including a mixture of horse, calf and rabbit meat.
The Amur leopard’s natural habitat is the Russian Far East, within a forest region known as Primorskii Krai where the River Amur flows.
There the animal is under threat of extinction due to the burning of the forest to make way for agricultural land.
A strategy to increase their numbers is to establish a second population at a separate site by breeding animals in captivity.
There are around 140 Amur leopards living within a carefully managed European breeding programme, which the WHF is a part of, but Mr Edgerley said that Argun and Anuy will never be released into the wild.
‘Animals that are bred in captivity cannot just be let loose to fend for themselves. It won’t be first-generation zoo animals that are released but second-generation ones,’ he said.
Posted by peiper
on 12/05/2008 at 09:06 AM
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Permalink • It’s a dog saves dog world
Rachel Lucas, known and loved for being a dog lover, among other things, says the following about this video:
I had a video on here but it crashed my page AND made people cry so I took out the video code it but here’s what it was .
It’s traffic-camera footage of a dog being hit by (at least one) car, then laying there unmoving, and then another dog runs out to him, hovers over him protectively, and then DRAGS HIM BACK TO SAFETY.
At the risk of crashing BMEWS, here is the video. Amazing.
Okay, that was causing problems just during my attempt to post it! Here is the link to the video
Posted by Christopher
on 12/05/2008 at 06:55 AM
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Permalink • Wednesday - November 19, 2008
Not Completely Dead Yet
Well this is nice.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Researchers studying a rare and endangered species of penguin have uncovered a previously unknown species that disappeared about 500 years ago.
The yellow-eyed penguin is considered one of the world’s rarest. An estimated population of 7,000 in New Zealand is the focus of an extensive conservation effort.
Mouse-sized primates called pygmy tarsiers, not seen alive in 85 years, have come out of hiding from a
mountaintop in a cloud forest in Indonesia. Weighing just 2 ounces (57 grams), they resemble mini-gremlin creatures, as they have big eyes and are covered in dense coats of fur to keep warm in a damp, chilly habitat.
The last sighting of this primate alive was in 1921 when live specimens were collected and processed for a museum collection.
This past summer, the team trapped two males and a female. They placed radio collars on the animals for tracking.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/19/2008 at 12:10 PM
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Permalink • Wednesday - October 22, 2008
No need for hunting
This happened less than 6 miles from where I live. I went past the scene on the way home from bowling Monday night. I figured it was just another accident.
Car kills bear in Hunterdon County
by George Berkin/The Star-Ledger
Monday October 20, 2008, 9:14 PMA car collided with a 400-pound bear in Hunterdon County tonight, slightly injuring the driver but killing the bruin, State Police said.
The collision occurred at 8 p.m. on Route 31 North in Glen Gardner, said Sgt. Mark Dellavalle of the State Police barracks at Perryville.
A police dispatcher said it appeared the bear was attempting to cross the highway when it was hit.
The name of the driver was not immediately available. Two adult passengers in her car were not injured. No additional details were released.
A 400 pound black bear is quite a lot of bear. Certainly big enough to kill you with just a swipe or a bite or two. Living here in outer-surburbia in the most densely populated state in the nation. Nonchalantly crossing a very busy local highway after dark. 400 pounds. In rural Wisconsin some consider a bear of that size to be a “super heavyweight”. In parts of Canada, that size bear is one for the record books. Here in suburban NJ it’s just nuisance roadkill. “Aw geez, somebody hit another freakin beah. Now we’re gonna be stuck in freakin traffic freakin foreva!”
400 pounds. Probably very well fed on deer, road kill, trash can refuse, etc. And such bears are not really uncommon around here; several bears over 500 pounds have been shot recently just across the border in PA, not 20 miles away. Forget this greenie nonsense about encroaching habitats. Wildlife has adapted, and is doing much better living around people than it ever would out in the dirty old forest.
It truly is a wonder that these bears haven’t killed anyone at this point. Maybe that’s why we have such a ruckus every time the state brings up the subject of hunting them; it’s all fun and games and Bambi-World until someone loses a child. I guess it will take some fatalities to change people’s minds.
But I think I’ve just decided that I’m only going to take the garbage and the recycling out in the daytime.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/22/2008 at 11:07 AM
Filed Under: • Animals • Daily Life •
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Permalink • Thursday - October 09, 2008
Tiny mouse turned the tables on a deadly snake and turned from hunted to hunter.
WELL GIVE THREE CHEERS AND THREE CHEERS MORE ..............
DANGER MOUSE
Pictured: The moment a tiny mouse turned the tables on a deadly snake and turned from hunted to hunterBy Eddie Wrenn
Last updated at 1:38 PM on 09th October 2008A plucky little mouse turned the tables on a venomous snake after it was served up as lunch and bit the reptile to death.
The rodent was thrown into the snake’s cage but proceeded to fight for its life.It went on the offensive and, after an epic half-hour scrap, got the upper hand with the serpent.
Face-off: The snake and mouse stare each other down as battle commences.
Open wide: The mouse served up as lunch makes a counter-attack on the viper, leading to a 30 minute fight to the death.The snake had been found in a home in Nantoun, Taiwan, and firefighters took it back to the station before deciding to serve it a light lunch. But they weren’t expecting the prey to become the killer.
A spokesman for the station said: ‘It attacked the snake continuously, biting and scratching it. Perhaps the snake used up all its venom.’
Posted by Drew458
on 10/09/2008 at 01:09 PM
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Permalink • Thursday - September 18, 2008
No pole, just goat
Ok, this sounds like a story from some turd world country on a slow news day. No. Happened right here in the USA in wonderful wacky Massachusetts!
SEEKONK, Mass. (WPRI) - It’s a crime you don’t hear about every day. A Rhode Island man is accused of stealing a goat from a Seekonk family, all to settle a bad debt.
According to officers, Tania DaSilva saw 50-year-old Anthony Pereira Sunday morning riding away
from her family’s Elm St. home on a bicycle. She said he was also carrying a goat he had taken from their barn.
When police stopped Pereira a short time later, they said he was riding his bicycle and was still carrying the goat.
Pereira told police he stopped by the home because DaSilva’s father, Alberto, owed him money for work he had done on the property. However, when no one answered the door, he decided to take the goat instead.
Police arrested Pereira on three warrants and charged him with breaking and entering for a misdemeanor and larceny over $250.
Pereira was arraigned Monday at Taunton District Court. The case has been continued to Oct. 14.
The goat was returned to the DaSilva family unharmed.
Posted by Drew458
on 09/18/2008 at 04:52 PM
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Permalink • Sunday - July 06, 2008
Police sniffer dogs may wear bootees to avoid offending Muslims
I JUST THIS VERY SECOND MINUTE TRIPPED OVER THIS STORY. JUST WHEN I THOUGHT LAST WEEKS POST ABOUT DOGS AND MUSLIMS WAS AS DUMB AS IT COULD POSSIBLY GET .............
ALONG COMES THIS!
SO HERE WE GD GO AGAIN. DAMN IT. ARE THE AUTHORITIES OUT THERE LOOKING FOR ANY TINY LITTLE THING THAT IS GOING TO OFFEND SOME MINORITY THAT SHOULDN’T BE HERE ANYWAY? AND CAN I BE ARRESTED FOR SUGGESTING THAT? JEEEEEZZZZ. THIS PLACE IS STARK RAVING FREEKIN MAD. MAD I TELL YA.
note to Drew. Can we keep this on top for Monday somehow? Unless there something even more stupidly bizarre out there. But surely there can’t be. This HAS to be the ultimate. Right?
POLICE SNIFFER DOGS MAY WEAR BOOTEES TO AVOID OFFENDING MUSLIMS
Last Updated: 3:00PM BST 06/07/2008Police sniffer dogs may be forced to wear bootees when entering mosques and Muslims’ homes to avoid causing offence.
In a bid to respect cultural sensitivities, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is considering the move while drawing up new guidelines on the use of police dogs.
Many Muslims refuse to have direct contact with the animals, which are considered “unclean” in Islamic culture.
An ACPO spokeswoman said current guidelines were being re-drafted, but the suggestion that police dogs wear bootees had not been ruled in or out.
“Where possible the police will take cultural sensitivities into account, providing this does not interfere with effective operational policing,” she said.
The suggestion comes after a police force apologised to Islamic leaders after a police advert featured a puppy sitting in an officer’s hat.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/06/2008 at 09:04 AM
Filed Under: • Animals • Insanity • RoPMA • Stoopid-People • Typical White People: Stupid, Evil, Willfully Blind • UK •
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Permalink • Wednesday - July 02, 2008
Colourful Kingfisher caught , some awesome photography of a beautiful bird.
Pictured: Colourful Kingfisher caught before being ringed
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:28 AM on 02nd July 2008
Beak wide open and clearly in distress, this bird appears to have hopelessly trapped itself in garden netting.
In fact the tiny kingfisher in this extraordinary photograph was captured by experts recording bird numbers and movements.
They used a fine-mesh ‘mist net’ to trap 26 more specimens including goldfinches, wrens, robins, starlings, goldcrests and reed warblers.
The work was carried out by the British Trust for Ornithology on the Axe estuary in East Devon last week.
Mike Tyler, who led the exercise, said his team caught five kingfishers in three hours.
‘This is the highest number we have got in one go,’ he said. ‘Kingfishers travel so fast that people tend not to see them.
‘These photographs were taken with a very fast digital camera.’
The birds were added to the trust’s database which every year logs 800,000 specimens across Britain and Ireland.
All the captives are weighed, measured and given a visual health check before being released with a leg ring (circled right) to identify them if they are found or caught again.
Mr Tyler added: ‘It’s important we do not harm the birds because the idea of ringing them is to see how far they go, where they go, and how long they live.’
Posted by Drew458
on 07/02/2008 at 03:24 PM
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Permalink • Saturday - May 24, 2008
Humpback Whales Make Amazing Comeback: Climate And Diet May Be Key
A bit of learning for a Saturday. Why turn on the TV when BMEWS can bring you the latest bits of science and nature to help you entertain your 4 year old? This is from an email I got from Knowledge News. Sign up for just $39 you can get access to all sorts of interesting stuff, forever.
Species Safety In Numbers?
Whale watchers worldwide got a bit of good news this week, with the release of a new study that says humpback whales are making a comeback in the North Pacific.
According to the study, the number of whales in the North Pacific may have reached 20,000 for the period between 2004 and 2006. That’s up from a total of fewer than 1,500 whales 40 years ago, when humpback hunting was banned.
Experts still worry that some humpback subgroups are taking longer to bounce back, but one described the news as “definitely very encouraging in terms of the recovery of the species.” It’s certainly enough to make us want to dive in for a closer look at one of the ocean’s marvelous mammals.
Other experts are thrilled that the humpback’s number have increased so dramatically, and wonder weather climate change and dietary change may have something to do with it. “A humpback cow only calves once every 7 years. She gives birth to a single calf, and that calf isn’t ready to breed until she’s 10 years old. Considering the standard rate of infant mortality among even the higher mammals in the wild, something unusual must be going on. To get these kind of numbers in just 40 years means that not only are the females surviving more than we expected, they must be growing faster and breeding younger. Slightly warmer seawater from climate change means the whales have to spend less energy to stay warm, and that helps. But that isn’t enough; they must be getting much higher levels of protein in their diets than you would normally get from eating a ton or so of krill every day.”
Uproarious Rorquals
Humpbacks hail from the family of whales called “rorquals,” which includes the fin whale, the sei whale, and the blue whale, the world’s largest animal. Blue whales can grow to 100 feet (30 meters) and weigh up to 330,000 pounds (150 metric tons), bigger than any dinosaur we’ve yet discovered.At 45 feet (14 meters) and 80,000 pounds (36 metric tons), humpbacks aren’t nearly as big as cousin Blue. But they can really sing. In fact, according to a 2006 study, humpback whales sing grammatically, combining sounds into phrases, and phrases into songs, according to complex rules called a “hierarchical syntax.” It’s similar to our ability to combine words into clauses and clauses into sentences.
Humpbacks can dance, too. They are among the most acrobatic of whales, sometimes leaping entirely out of the water. Such breaching is common among males during mating season, when humpbacks migrate from polar feeding grounds to tropical breeding grounds. It’s also during mating season that humpback males sing their syntactically sophisticated songs, presumably in pursuit of humpback gals. Until recently, breaching had only been observed in the breeding grounds. Recent whale studies though have found humpbacks breaching in the ice littoral areas on the edge of the polar regions. That’s the edge of the pack ice which in the spring becomes a morass of small bergs and chunks of ice. Humpbacks have been observed breaching right next to smaller pieces of the flow, and sometimes even striking the edge of them without apparent injury. Needless to say, 36 tons of flying whale hitting a bit of ice sheet sends the ice tumbling. Humpbacks are also known to “hover” by resting vertically at the surface with their heads protruding from the water. It is thought that this lets the humpbacks have a look around above the water. Breaching may let them see even further, possibly in an attempt to spot schools of fish feeding at the surface nearby. This is a very hotly debated subject amongst whale researchers.
Straining for Snacks
Like all rorquals, humpbacks are baleen whales. They feed by taking huge mouthfuls of seawater--literally tons of it--then forcing the water out between hundreds of plates of baleen (a.k.a. “whalebone") that hang from the roofs of their mouths. The baleen plates work like a sieve, letting water out but keeping krill and other munchable marine life in.
To catch that seafood dinner, humpbacks sometimes use a special technique called “bubblenet.” First, one or more humpbacks swim in a circle beneath a school of fish, blowing bubbles that float up to form a wall around their prey. Then the humpbacks swim up through their “bubblenet,” slurping the fish-filled water as they go. Bubblenetting is a typical humpback feeding behavior. In the polar regions a pod of whales will often bubblenet around smaller pieces of loose pack ice. The very warm airbubbles are thought to confuse and dislodge small fish and other creatures that use the ice as cover.
Lunge feeding
Humpback whales have yet another ingenious way of getting thier dinner called lunge feeding. Instead of slowly trawling along processing thousands of gallons of seawater for the occassional shrimp, humpbacks also engage in this type of nearly hunting behavior. Whether alone or in pods, whether used with a bubblenet or not, tropical or polar, sometimes humpbacks will dive deep, turn around, and race towards the surface. As they get there they open their mouths wide and snap up whatever they find. Whale research scientists are very impressed with lunge feeding. “There are some fish that live near the surface. If the whales were to come up behind them the fish would sense it and dart away. It’s like trout and mayflies, only much much larger. Lunge feeding lets the whale catch much bigger creatures we ever realized, especially when they are in a pod in the arctic and making bubblnets. The old idea of the giant gentle humpback getting by on enormous amounts of plankton may just have to be tossed overboard.”
It’s clever, and tremendously effective. A humpback whale can catch, and eat, as much as 3,000 pounds (1,360 kg) of food in a day. But that’s not too surprising--coming from a creature smart enough to sing in syntax. Every year brings exciting new discoveries in the field of whale science. Subscribe to Knowledge News today so you can stay informed!
UPDATE !! Breaking News: researchers find the humpback’s secret protien source.
I had to make up almost a quarter of the above article to do the set up for this pic. Yes, I am that desperate to make teh funny sometimes.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/24/2008 at 08:34 PM
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • Animals •
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Permalink • Thursday - May 22, 2008
MAJOR MOONBAT ALERT!! Activists want chimpanzee declared a person
A British woman is leading a court challenge to have a chimpanzee declared a “person” so the animal can enjoy “human rights”.
Paula Stibbe and a group of Austrian animal rights activists want the European Court to declare that the ape, who they have given the name Matthew Hiasl Pan to make him sound “more human”, legally declared a person so she can be appointed his guardian.
Mrs Stibbe wants the declaration so she can take care of the 26-year-old chimp if the bankrupt animal sanctuary in Voesendorf, south of Vienna, where he currently lives, is forced to close.
The European Court of Human Rights case comes after Austria’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling against the group - known as the Association Against Animal Factories - who wanted a trustee appointed for Matthew so Mrs Stibbe could look after him using money pledged by a benefactor.
The court ruled the chimp was neither mentally impaired nor in danger, which are the legal grounds required for a guardian to be appointed.
“We appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, because everybody is entitled to a fair trial, even chimps,” said Martin Balluch, the group’s president.
He said humans and chimps had so much DNA in common, that the court should declare Matthew a person.
“This question is of paramount importance,” said Mr Balluch, who said he would use expert opinions from prominent scientists, anthropologists, lawyers and philosophers in the case.
Mr Balluch said activists wanted to ensure the ape, which was captured as an infant in Sierra Leone in 1982 and smuggled to Austria for use in pharmaceutical experiments, is cared for if the shelter was closed.
Matthew, and another chimp at the sanctuary, cost about £4,000 a month to keep and while a donor has offered to pay for the upkeep, under Austrian law, only a person can receive gifts. Matthew is expected to live until he is 60 and activists say only a “declaration of personhood” would ensure he was not sold for profit.
OK, I understand their well meant strategy but, it’s still >>>>>
Posted by Drew458
on 05/22/2008 at 09:54 AM
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Permalink • Wednesday - May 14, 2008
Did I miss the “Denial Of Reality” memo?
US Declares Polar Bears “Threatened” U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced that the polar bear will receive protection as a “threatened” species under the U. S. Endangered Species Act. Conservation groups had petitioned the U.S. to give full “endangered” protection to the mammals — citing a rapid decline in Arctic sea ice, and U.S. government studies predicting a rapid decline for the bear population due to loss of habitat. The government was under federal court order to rule on the bears’ status by tomorrow.
Just in case you were wondering, here is yesterday’s picture of the sea ice, compared to the sea ice in mid January.
The purpley blob surrounded by white in the left area of both photos is Hudson Bay, where lots of P-bears live. Yeah, the ice is starting to melt. So is the snow cover on the land! Hello, Spring is already half over; summer starts in 5 weeks.
Lost of habitat indeed. The parts of the world where Ursus Maritimus (the old pole bar) lives are the least habitated areas on the planet. And the ice pack seems to be doing just fine. Heck, if this fellow is reporting things properly (looks that way to me) then there is actually far more ice around right this minute than is usual for this time of year, for the past 25 years!
On a global basis, world sea ice in April 2008 reached levels that were “unprecedented” for the month of April in over 25 years. Levels are the third highest (for April) since the commencement of records in 1979, exceeded only by levels in 1979 and 1982. This continues a pattern established earlier in 2008, as global sea ice in March 2008 was also the third highest March on record, while January 2008 sea ice was the second highest January on record. It was also the second highest single month in the past 20 years (second only to Sept 1996).
But, but, but, if it isn’t the ice pack, or the habitat, something must be killing of the polar bears. Right? Otherwise they wouldn’t get put on the Threatened List. Right? So maybe it’s from hunting? Just how few bears are left, and how many did there used to be? Well, according to Polar Bears International
“In the 1950s the polar bear population up north was estimated at 5,000. Today it’s 20- to 25,000, a number that has either held steady over the last 20 years or has risen slightly. In Canada, the manager of wildlife resources for the Nunavut territory of Canada has found that the population there has increased by 25 percent.”
So the P-bear population is 4 or 5 times higher than it used to be. Gee, that seems really threatening. But wait, I was wrong. (which is why you should always follow the links and read things for yourself.) Mr. Dr. Expert at that web site says this is a bogus statement, and the real truth is ... um ... well ... we don’t exactly know, and we never really did know, exactly or even roughly how many bears there are or used to be. Hey, maybe because they’re hard to see? Especially in snowstorms! But let me not knock Mr. Dr. Expert On Polar Bears. He is giving us an answer, and it’s a very scientific and wordy “we don’t know”. At least that’s honest science. For once.
So maybe people should lay off hunting the bears for a few decades, just to see what happens. It worked here in NJ with our regular bears, and now they’re damn near everywhere. I’m sure that when the P-bear population rises enough so that they start competing with California coyotes for tasty little children to snack on, then it will be time to think about “managing” their numbers.
So, let’s have a tiny bit of truth in government. Ain’t nothing wrong with the polar bear habitat. And nobody can tell if their numbers are growing or shrinking. Nope, they just got the special treatment from the evinron-mentalists because they’re cute when they’re babies.
UPDATE
HA! The thing about news blogging is that everyone else is going to jump on the same story. There are no exclusives, and nobody really cares if you get there first. So Michelle Malkin has put up her version of this story, which links over to the American Enterprise Institute. Where they say, and she quotes
At present, polar bear populations are robust and, according to native people, are considerably larger than they were in previous decades. Predictions of polar bear endangerment are based on two sets of computer models: one set predicts how much Arctic sea ice will melt as a result of global warming, and the other predicts how polar bear populations will respond. But computer models of climate are known to be fraught with problems, and the ecological models used to predict polar bear response are equally limited.
Because of extreme limitations in data, it is essentially impossible to decide whether polar bears are endangered and whether their habitat is threatened by man-made global warming or other natural climate cycles. This is acknowledged by the experts themselves–the actual IUCN/SSC report is more broad in naming causes and more conservative about estimating their effects.
What we do know about polar bears is that, contrary to media portrayals, they are not fragile “canary in the coal mine” animals, but are robust creatures that have survived past periods of extensive deglaciation. Polar bear fossils have been dated to over one hundred thousand years, which means that polar bears have already survived an interglacial period when temperatures were considerably warmer than they are at present and when, quite probably, levels of summertime Arctic sea ice were correspondingly low.
In discussions of whether to drill in the Arctic, one of the arguments raised by environmentalists is that this would harm the habitats of the many creatures, including polar bears, that make their homes in Alaska. If polar bears are placed on the endangered species list, the legal hurdles to oil and gas drilling will increase.
Now, I have to say that I didn’t think of that, perhaps because the news articles I heard and read said “threatened”. But it nice to see that both AEI and Ms. Malkin notice the same Global Warming tie-in I wrote about. Even sweeter is AEI’s title for their article - “Is the Polar Bear Endangered, or Just Conveniently Charismatic?” which really says exactly the same thing I did, although maybe in a little more polished manner: the darn bears got on the list because they’re cute.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/14/2008 at 02:41 PM
Filed Under: • Animals • Climate-Weather • Government •
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