NATURE OF HUMAN NATURE
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trouble viewing the video? Watch it here.
Ambling
through a forest. Drinking water from a pond. Pausing to munch on a few
crowberries.
A
small video cam fitted on a collar lets us peek into the life of a female polar
bear, following along as she navigates Akimiski Island in James Bay, Canada.
Its
purpose? To help scientists understand how polar bears in seasonal ice
areas—where the sea ice melts completely summer—spend their time and energy
when forced ashore.
“New
technology lets us actually see what the bears are seeing and learn what they
are doing in places rarely accessed and at times of the year when it’s hard to
follow them,” said Geoff York, senior director of conservation at Polar Bears
International.
“The
footage is visually stunning, but it’s also important from a research
perspective. It provides unique insights into polar bear activity that will
help scientists better understand and interpret the data received from bears
without cameras.”
Scientists
plan to correlate the footage with data gathered by an accelerometer, which
measures changes in motion. They will also calibrate it with movement and video
data gathered from polar bears in zoos.
Anthony
Pagano, a research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said the team
applied small video cameras and exercise-monitoring devices on three polar
bears on land.
“These
tools will allow us to see what the bears do when forced ashore and measure the
number of calories they spend,” Pagano said.
So
far, scientists have analyzed data from one bear. That bear spent 78 percent of
her time resting, 8 percent eating berries, 4 percent walking, and 10 percent
doing other things, like drinking or grooming. She was most active in the
morning (7 a.m. to noon) and least active in the evening (5 p.m. to 8 p.m.).
The
study complements an earlier USGS project that involved polar bears on the sea
ice—one that included time swimming, hunting and catching seals, breeding, and
resting. Scientists will compare the data from the sea ice study with data from
bears on land.
“These
studies are providing us with greater insights into the behaviors and
nutritional demands of polar bears so we can better understand how they are
being affected by declines in sea ice,” Pagano said.
Those
few berries, for example? Tasty perhaps, but probably not worth the effort
spent munching them.
The
project is a team effort involving Polar Bears International, the USGS,
explore.org, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, York University, San Diego
Zoo Institute of Conservation Research, Mehdi Bakhtiari at Exeye (inventor and
source of the cams), and Adam Ravetch at Arctic Bear Productions.
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