I need a part-time job, but I don’t think I’m going to take up polar bear patrol:
Ruby Kaleak’s part-time job on polar bear patrol in the village of Kaktovik, Alaska, usually means chasing the animals back to the Beaufort Sea. But she wasn’t expecting to shoo one of the biggest bears she’s ever seen out of a house last week.
She was on duty Friday in the village of 300 people when a call came over the radio that a bear was inside a doorway, the Alaska Dispatch News reported (http://bit.ly/ZCfpKQ ). Kaleak heard two whispered words: “Qanitchaq, nanuq,” which in Inupiat means “arctic entryway, polar bear,” referring to the home’s narrow covered porch that serves as a barrier to the cold.
“They didn’t say where or who,” Kaleak said. “I thought that one of the young boys in town was pulling a prank.”
Armed with a 12-gauge shotgun that can fire rounds of beanbags, firecrackers or lethal slugs, Kaleak and a co-worker drove to a house where the call may have originated.
That’s where she saw a shadow in the home’s entryway that made her pause. Then, the head of a big polar bear popped up.
“I was shocked. It was humongous,” Kaleak said. “Just the neck and head was half the size of me, and I’m 5 (feet) 2 (inches).”
That’s a big animal. A quick check of teh Wiki tells me thaaaaaaaat
The polar bear is the largest living species of terrestrial predator. The only other bear of a similar size is the Kodiak bear, which is a subspecies of brown bear. Adult male polar bears weigh 350–700 kg (770–1,540 lb) and measure 2.4–3 metres (7 ft 10 in–9 ft 10 in) in total length. The Guinness Book of World Records listed the average male as having a body mass of 385 to 410 kg (849 to 904 lb) and a shoulder height of 133 cm (4 ft 4 in), slightly smaller than the average cited for male Kodiak bears. Around the Beaufort Sea, however, mature males reportedly average 450 kg (1,000 lb). Adult females are roughly half the size of males and normally weigh 150–250 kg (330–550 lb), measuring 1.8–2.4 metres (5 ft 11 in–7 ft 10 in) in length. Elsewhere, a slightly larger estimated average weight of 260 kg (570 lb) was claimed for adult females. When pregnant, however, females can weigh as much as 500 kg (1,100 lb).
That’s scary big.
Polar bears’ primary habitat is sea ice, where they hunt for seals and other prey. As ice has receded to deep water beyond the continental shelf, more bears are remaining on land to look for food, according to biologists with the U.S. Geological Survey.
The hungry bears are drawn to the village by whale bones left by hunters.
“I think the bears ran out of food to eat at the bone pile,” Kaleak said. “There is nothing for them to eat out there.”
I wonder why the ice has receded. Can’t have anything to do with climate change can it?
