Polar Bear Plight Exaggerated?

Are polar bear numbers declining from global warming as much as we think? Perhaps not! Read on to find out the truth!

We've all seen the popular images of polar bears floating on fractured sea blocks in the Arctic, or seen those video clips of polar bears swimming miles out to see, trying to find fragments of sea ice for them to live upon. If alarmists are to be believed, polar bears are dying out at an alarming rate because the icecaps they need for survival are disappearing; and it's all our fault because we release deadly amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere via automobiles via factories. But how much of this is true? Well, recent studies of polar bear populations in Pamiuq Peninsula about 50 miles northwest of Nome, Alaska suggests that this might not actually be the case.

First of all, what is this Pamiuq Peninsula? Well, it's a relatively small peninsula, “about 200 miles north of freezing and 200 south of frostbite”, as the locals say. Pamiuq Peninsula gets its name from the Inuit (otherwise known as an Eskimo) word “Pamiuq”, which means “seal tail”, because the Inuits who first arrived in this area about 4,120 years ago thought it looked like the tail of a seal. One of the animals these Inuit pioneers encountered still strikes us with fear and wonder today, the polar bear. Polar bears began to inhabit the northern polar regions of our world around 4,150 years ago; descending from a population of brown bears, Ursus maritimus adapted to survive in one of the coldest climates on earth. Everything about the polar bear is designed to keep it alive in the frigid arctic: it has two layers of fur (one for warmth and the other to keep its body dry when swimming), black skin (which helps it to retain warmth), claws for digging through snow, catching prey or to keep them upright on slippery ice and an excellent sense of smell, capable of sniffing something out from over 20 miles away.

With all these adaptations, it makes sense that people would get worry about the polar bear's survival if global warming caused the ice and snow in their habitat to melt. Many of these alarmists, such as meteorologist Dr. Bill Manly, is quoted for saying, “Global warming...[is] a real problem that is occurring as we speak! Resent studies have concluded that if global warming doesn't stop, the sea ice in the polar regions will be gone by 2040, polar bears won't have a place to live and sea levels will rise to over 20 feet above their present level. We must act now to save our planet from [this] global crisis! Polar bears will suffer! We will suffer! The planet suffer!” But how true are these claims in regards to polar bears? Well, my trusty, junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater, and I went to Animal Adventures Institute's head zoologist (and certified ecologist) Dr. Arizona Stevenson, who was actually involved in the recent polar bear population study in Pamiuq, to find out the truth.

“In 2012,” Dr. Arizona explained, “I became involved with PESP, the Pamiuq Ecological Surveillance Project. Set up in 1985, this project started it up so that scientists could constantly keep track of how healthy the animal population is in that part of Alaska. We especially wanted to find out how the animals were doing despite threats of global warming.” And according to Dr. Arizona, the results are nonetheless surprising. One of their primary focuses was the apex predator of the region: polar bears. In order to learn how the polar bears were coping, they looked at everything: how many cubs were being birthed each year, how were the fish and seal stocks (seals are the favorite food of polar bears), and how much the climate and environment (e.g. amounts of sea ice developing each year) had changed in the past several years to see if a warming trend was visible.

Dr. Arizona is quoted for saying, “Essentially, what we found that the reports – even peer-reviewed ones – that spoke of doom for polar bear populations as sea ice vanished were a bunch of hogwash, (or rather, bear-wash).” The original studies done on polar bear populations in the Pamiuq area and the other 18 bear populations worldwide, concluded that, yes, polar bear numbers did drop...but the drop was between the years 2004 and 2006. “But what they didn't mention,” Dr. Arizona further explained, “was that polar bear numbers worldwide (especially in Davis Strait, in northeastern Canada and Pamiuq Peninsula) actually increased in 2007, and again in 2010. Yet, the decline in sea ice remained the same.” In fact, polar bear populations in Pamiuq had grown from a measly 850 bears when the research here began in the mid-80's, to over 2,100 as of last year! Talk about population BOOM! “Many people try to claim that polar bears are endangered,” Dr. Arizona says. “But they're not.” In addition to this, Dr. Arizona's team concluded that the assertions that sea ice would be absent by 2040 and that the sea levels would rise 20 feet to be unfounded.

Animal Adventures Institute's chief paleontologist Dr. Samuel Adamson, also had something to say regarding the study. “We shouldn't really be surprised to find an unstable climate,” he says, “in fact, it's been changing ever since the Genesis Flood described in Genesis 6-9 in the Bible occurred! Soon after the Flood, we find evidence of rainforests stretching as far north as Alaska and Germany, all the way down to Antarctica. It was literally a 'greenhouse earth'. Afterward, the planet got cooler and drier as the Ice Age came forth; this time in history, the earth was held in an icy grip. Enormous glaciers, some over 2,000 feet high, covered 1/3 of the total land area. Since the Flood, earth's climate has never been stable.”

Since polar bears clearly aren't threatened by global warming as we once thought, that must mean we don't need to be concerned about them, right? Dr. Arizona doesn't think so. “Polar bears are considered a vulnerable species,” Dr. Arizona explains, “meaning they could become endangered in the future if we're not careful about our actions. There are many things threatening the lives of polar bears that have nothing to do with global warming. Pollution in general, oil and gas development, habitat loss, and with some populations, illegal hunting practices, are doing these bears harm. If we want to have polar bears in our future, they must continued to be monitored and protected.”

Written by: Mr. Smiley
Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater
Edited by: Christian Ryan

For more information on how polar bear populations are really fairing, please visit the two links below:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0503/p13s01-wogi.html
https://answersingenesis.org/reviews/movies/arctic-tale-exaggerating-the-effects-of-global-warming/

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The Boa Constrictor Killing Method

Previously thought to kill their prey via suffocation, new studies reveal the real horrifying method boa constrictors use to put their prey to death! (Wikimedia Commons)

The boa constrictor is one of the few snakes animals organisms on the planet that people commonly refer to by using its scientific name: Boa constrictor. But for those who are unfamiliar with this serpent, it's a moderately-sized species of boa (still smaller than the anaconda, reticulated python and several others) that makes its home in Central and South America, living in habitats as dry as semi-desert country or as wet as the tropical rainforests. They can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh 22 to 33 pounds on average. This popular species of snake is known for being a constrictor, the group of snakes famous for constructing their prey to death in tight coils that causes the prey to die of suffocation. But guess what! A new discovery confirmed that this isn't really the case during an attack from one of these snakes!

A group of scientists from around the world decided to study how boa constrictors and their relatives, like the anacondas (yes, the anaconda is a species of boa), capture and kill their prey. It turned out that these snakes don't actually kill their prey by suffocation as has long been believed – instead, prey dies due to...blood constriction! Gosh, and I thought the boa's method of killing was nightmarish enough as everyone once thought it was! To get the full scoop on this discovery, my trusty, junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater, and I decided to pay a visit to one of the scientists involved in the study who actually works right here at Animal Adventures Inc.'s Animal Adventures Institute: Dr. Arizona Stevenson.

Dr. Arizona Stevenson, a personal friend of mine, is a zoologist and was surprised by the discovery they made. She's quoted for saying, “We initially wanted to study how boa constrictors attack and kill their prey, so we fed them rats and filmed them using slow-motion cameras. But we quickly noticed that the rats were dying too quickly for the cause of their death to be from suffocation.” She also explained that animals can remain alive (in an unconscious state) for longer periods of time than these rats were. “That's when one of my colleagues found a hypothesis put forward by a herpetologist in 1994 that boas don't kill their prey via suffocation, but by cardiac arrest. However, at the time the hypothesis had been ignored and untested.” So Dr. Arizona and her team decided to do just that!

They hooked up some live rats to a machine that would tell the scientists their blood pressure. When the rat was grabbed by the boa constrictor they used during the experiment, they found that indeed, the rat's blood pressure decreased as the snake tightened its coils around its body. “The boa constrictor's grip was so tight,” Dr. Arizona says, “that it cut off the rat's supply of blood to the brain, heart and other vital organs. The rats were out cold within seconds, proving the early hypothesis to be true!”

Dr. Arizona told me that this technique helps the snakes to kill prey far larger than themselves. “It takes a lot more time to suffocate a prey animal – like a capybara or a crocodile – than it does to kill it by cutting off circulation,” she said. “This is a good thing, because since the snakes lack legs, the more time they spend trying to kill their prey, the more time their prey has to potentially injure them.”

Dr. Arizona and the team are very impressed with the amount of scientific research and experimentation they've conducted over the course of the past several months. And since their work has completely debunked older “facts” about these animals, the scientists wonder what other well known animal “facts” that have been considered true for years are false.

“This discovery just goes to show us,” Dr. Arizona says, “that even when we think we know everything there is to know about something – in this case, boa constrictors – we learn that once again, scientific research is there to remind us how how little we really know.”

Written by: Mr. Smiley
Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater
Edited by: Christian Ryan

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