In recent years, this fascination with polar bears has taken on a new dimension as the public has become aware of the possible fate of polar bears if global climate change continues to warm the Arctic and melt the sea ice. Can you imagine an Arctic without polar bears? I can’t! Researchers and animal care staff here at the San Diego Zoo, in collaboration with Polar Bears International, are doing everything we can to help polar bears survive in the wild through conservation-based scientific research and education.

Conservation Status of Polar Bears: How are they doing and what are the threats to their continued survival?

In the 1950s and 1960s, polar bears were reduced to as few as 5,000 individuals worldwide due to overhunting. The current total number of polar bears is estimated to be about 22,000 bears, divided amongst 19 subpopulations. The worldwide population has remained stable at this level for many years now, thanks to intensive management of hunting quotas. The rebound in the polar bear population numbers is a great reminder that humans can make a positive difference. Unfortunately, in recent years scientists are starting to see declines in population numbers in several subpopulations. These declines are undoubtedly the result of the loss of sea ice resulting from global climate change.

Through science-based management of hunting, and the fact that the Arctic has long been inhospitable to large-scale human development, polar bears are the only species of bear that still inhabits the entirety of its historic range. But that range, the Arctic sea ice, is disappearing at an alarming rate. If global climate warming continues at its current pace, the Arctic summer sea ice (that is, the ice that should be in the Arctic year-round) could be gone within 50 years. This stark statement is actually a relatively moderate prediction put forth by the ACIA (Arctic Climate Impact Assessment) working group, and is based on an average of predictions from various, reputable, climactic models. This prediction, along with others, prompted the Center for Biological Diversity to file a petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in January of 2007 to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (1972). The decision as to whether or not the polar bear should be “listed” under the ESA is imminent, and most polar bear biologists agree that “all, or a significant proportion of the total population [of polar bears] will become endangered in the foreseeable future” if no action is taken.

What does this mean for polar bears? Action needs to be taken to slow down, and ultimately reverse, the melting of the Arctic sea ice because polar bears (and many other animals) depend on this sea ice to survive. They feed on it, they find each other and breed on it, and many females’ den and give birth to cubs on it. Although polar bears are adept swimmers and are classified as marine mammals under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (1973), they are not adapted to a fully aquatic existence in the way that seals and whales are. The marine environment in which they thrive is that frozen platform of ocean that gives them an ideal perch from which to hunt seals. The fat from these seals provides polar bears with all the calories they need to survive in the Arctic cold. In fact, polar bears typically only eat the fat from the seals, leaving the remaining carcass for Arctic foxes and other scavengers. Polar bears, like all bears, will feed opportunistically on other food items. But the nutrition gained from these other sources simply does not provide the energy that a polar bear requires to survive.

Zoo Based Research: Filling in the details

Although exhibiting happy and healthy animals is a major focus of our work here at the San Diego Zoo, another of our goals is to study the animals in our charge in a scientific and systematic way. By making this a priority, we are contributing to the body of knowledge on polar bears and other animals that allows for good management in the wild. Polar bears can be difficult to study in the wild. Their harsh Arctic habitat and vastly roaming, solitary lifestyle makes the study of certain aspects of their biology virtually impossible. An example of this would be how their sensory systems are tailored to the environment in which they live, and how sensitive are these senses to human disturbance. At the San Diego Zoo, scientists are leading research that will help clarify how polar bears perceive the world around them. Some of our projects:

Polar Bear Hearing Sensitivity: Wildlife managers are concerned about the noise emitted from human industrial activities (such as petroleum exploration and extraction). But how sensitive are polar bears to noise? Researchers from our Zoo, in collaboration with Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, and animal care staff from both institutions, are completing research that will tell us a lot about how sensitive polar bear hearing is (see blog: Can You Hear Me Now?).

Scent Communication: As warming in the Arctic and the level of fragmentation of the polar bears’ sea ice habitat increases, how will this impact their ability to find each other over hundreds of miles during the breeding season? For that matter, how do they find each other over hundreds of miles? Again, researchers from the San Diego Zoo, with support from Polar Bears International, and participation from zoos around the country, are embarking on research that will give us insight into how important olfactory (aka scent) communication is to polar bears when they need to find each other over great distances (see blog: Is It the Perfume?).

Zoo Experience: A first-hand education in the beauty and inherent value of polar bears

San Diego is an enormously popular tourist destination, and one of the star attractions for any visitor is a trip to the San Diego Zoo or Wild Animal Park. For those of us who work here at the Zoo, we see this as a golden opportunity to not only introduce people to the beauty and wonder of polar bears and other exotic animals, but to let people know what these animals need to survive and thrive in the wild. Photographs and words can bring people closer to wildlife and enhance one’s appreciation for animals, but there is nothing like a polar bear swimming gracefully in the water a few feet away to convince people that they are majestic creatures truly deserving of our stewardship and protection. Couple this experience with some basic information regarding what polar bears need to survive in the wild, and how an average person can make a difference, and you have a life changing conservation experience.

Conservation in Action: What can you do to help the polar bear?

You’ve probably heard it before: Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle! These three words can guide each and every one of us to a lifestyle that will help the environment, reduce greenhouse gases, and help slow-down, and ultimately reverse, global climate change. Every year the average American produces about 7 tons of CO2 (the primary greenhouse gas responsible for global temperature change). Simple actions, such as driving less and in fuel-efficient vehicles, can greatly reduce this number. The take-home message is that we can all make a difference: By changing the way we live in our homes, we can help polar bears survive in their home. To learn more about what you can do to cut down on your CO2 emissions, join Polar Bears International’s “Project Polar Bear.” This innovative program is a great way for young people to make a big difference and help reduce atmospheric levels of CO2.

Megan Owen is a conservation program specialist in the San Diego Zoo’s Applied Animal Ecology Division.

View the Zoo’s polar bears daily on Polar Cam…

Listen to an iZoofari Chat about polar bears with Megan…

Don’t forget Bear Awareness Days at the San Diego Zoo, May 8–11.

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

Each year for this event, the San Diego Zoo tries to come up with fun and interesting auction items that the public can bid on. All of the money that we raise with these items goes towards supporting bear conservation. Auction items included bear paw prints and behind-the-scenes tours here at the Zoo. The auction begins on Monday, May 5.

So, have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at the Giant Panda Research Station? For this year’s event, we’re auctioning off a one-of-a-kind experience: a behind-the-scenes tour of the Panda Station. If you’re the highest bidder, you’ll meet with a panda keeper and get to tour our state-of-the-art research facility. You’ll learn all about how we care for our pandas, and you might even get to have a private viewing with one of them. During the tour, you’ll learn all about our ongoing research projects and how our research efforts are helping the conservation of this highly endangered species. A behind-the-scenes tour of Polar Bear Plunge is also being offered for auction!

So please come join us here at the San Diego Zoo during our Bear Awareness Days. It’s sure to be an exciting event with lots of fun opportunities to learn about bears and ways that you can help support their conservation needs. And be sure to check out this year’s auction items. If you’re a panda fan, I’d highly recommend bidding on the behind-the-scenes tour of the Panda Research Station or Polar Bear Plunge. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Pamela Crowe is a research technician for the San Diego Zoo.

Listen to iZoofari chats with our bear keepers and researchers…

Help the Zoo’s bears and bear research in the wild by donating to our Bear Wish List…

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

These same fat stores also help to insulate them from the harsh Arctic environment. It’s estimated that an adult polar bear needs approximately 43 ringed seal kills in order to sustain itself for a year. With a success rate of one seal catch every three to four days and a warming climate, this makes life very tough for the polar bears left in the wild.

Fortunately for Chinook, Kalluk, and Tatqiq, they live at the San Diego Zoo and don’t need to worry about hunting a seal for a meal or storing up fat. They get to eat year round and keep a slimmer, trimmer figure. For a polar bear in the wild, seals constitute about a 95 percent fat content diet; here, they get fed a more protein-based diet with only about 5 percent fat. If we allowed our bears to obtain the four inches of blubber they would normally need in the wild, they would not be well suited for our climate, and there would be more potential for overheating and health concerns. So we provide them with a variety of dry chows, fish, and what is known as zoo carnivore diet, which is a beef-based product. As with most carnivores, after a kill is made the bears consume the fur, tendons, bones, etc. To mimic this, we also offer rabbits and cow femur bones a few days a week.

All three bears get a tailored diet based on age, size, and requirements. They are fed this individually, as we do monitor their weights closely to keep them within a reasonable range. But they still go through natural tendencies to want to bulk up or feast during the hunting season. We accommodate this with vegetables. Yes, our bears love to eat their veggies! This provides them the opportunity to eat more without utilizing the calories as fat. It gives them a nice full feeling in their tummy, and the hard crunchy items help keep their teeth clean. The same behavior has been seen of bears in the wild when they’ve come across a nice bed of kelp. Some of you may think this wouldn’t sound appealing to a polar bear, but I have witnessed Kalluk walk right past a bone in order to get to a pile of carrots or a head of lettuce.

Now that you know what we feed our polar bears here at the Zoo, how would you like to share a breakfast with them? Of course, the menu would be a little different for you. During Bear Awareness Days we will be selling tickets to a unique breakfast with the polar bears. You’ll get a special early morning experience out at Polar Bear Plunge, complete with enrichment for the bears and a keeper talk. Then you head over to pandas for another close encounter. And then it’s upstairs to the conference room at the Giant Panda Research Station for a hearty breakfast and an opportunity to speak one on one with some of the bear keepers who take care of these magnificent animals. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, just keep checking the Web site for updated information. Bear Awareness Days (May 8–11) are just around the corner!

Kelly Murphy is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Here’s more information about Polars, Pandas, and Pancakes…

Listen to an iZoofari Chat with Kelly…
Listen to iZoofari Chats about bears, featuring keepers and researchers…

Help the Zoo’s bears and bear research in the wild by donating to our Bear Wish List…

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

Most of the time, the mornings start off with Kalluk and Chinook on exhibit. (We have researchers who have been doing daily observations to help us monitor the season.) Sometimes the bears start off right away with play while other times they simply acknowledge each other, forage some, and then settle down in different places for their morning naps. Usually before noon, we do our first switch to allow Kalluk and Tatqiq time together on exhibit. Our final switch of bears usually comes around 1:30 p.m., where the kids get to go back out together or Chinook gets the exhibit by herself.

Tatqiq seems to be getting a little tired of her time in the bedrooms, so she’s been a bit more playful now. She and her brother have had several good play sessions over the past few weeks. She’s also been a little slower coming off exhibit, too. This is an example of her behavior telling us what her needs are and it’s up to us to meet them. But she’s not the only one. Chinook has been a little slower to go onto exhibit. Chinook and Tatqiq have also had some interesting interactions in the back area through the doors. We may need to reevaluate everything soon and determine what direction to take from here.

This doesn’t mean that we’re giving up. There’s always the chance that Chinook might just come into a later estrous. We have experienced hormonal changes in these bears as late as June and into July. But for now, Kalluk and Chinook are just remaining good friends.

In the meantime, we continue to get things ready for Bear Awareness Days (May 8 to 11). We’ll kick it off with a fun enrichment activity on May 8, there will be keeper and researcher talks daily, and the weather is predicting snow on Saturday. We’ve also added a behind-the-scenes opportunity to our list of auction items. This will give someone the chance to have a special encounter with our polar bears and speak with a keeper about the daily management of the animals as well as some of the research that we’re participating in. You might even get to meet one of the polar bears up close. For more information, keep checking the Web site for the most recent updates. And I hope to see you all at the Bear Awareness Event!

Kelly Murphy is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

It is polar bear breeding season in zoos as well. Every year, typically beginning in February and ending late in May, we see behavioral changes in our adult female and male bears. Changes in appetite and an increased focus on bears of the opposite sex are the hallmark of breeding season in zoos around the world.

As we strive to more thoroughly understand the behavior and ecology of the polar bear, we have begun a new research project that is designed to understand how polar bears find appropriate mates over great distances.

Through support of Polar Bears International and in collaboration with polar bear biologists with the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska, we are presenting scents from adult males and females to zoo bears throughout North America. The basic hypothesis is that if a male bear uses scent to find an available female, then he should spend more time investigating her scent than that of either another male bear or a female that has cubs (and so is not able to breed). The ability to discriminate between different classes of polar bear scent makes sense for this species, as it does for many other wide-ranging, solitary mammals such as giant pandas. Why waste the energy to travel 300 miles (over 480 kilometers) to court a female that cannot breed? The ability to gather detailed information relating to individual identity greatly increases the efficiency of the courtship process.

One of our main conservation goals at the San Diego Zoo is to contribute as much as we possibly can to the conservation of free-ranging animals. By designing research studies with our animals here at the Zoo that address questions of the basic biology of threatened animals in the wild, we contribute to the knowledge base that allows wildlife managers to make informed decisions about how best to manage wild populations of bears.

Global climate change effectively fragments polar bear habitat in some areas. By discerning the importance of scent trails to the social lives of polar bears, we can begin to estimate how this habitat fragmentation might impact polar bear breeding success, and as follows, the production of new cubs each year.

Megan Owen is a conservation program specialist in the San Diego Zoo’s Applied Animal Ecology Division.

View the Zoo’s polar bears daily on Polar Cam…

Polar bears need teen spirit: Teens ages 14–18 are needed to form teams for Project Polar Bear. Teams work together to change their corner of the world to help polar bear habitat—and have a chance to win a trip to see the great ice bears in the wild or a VIP tour of Polar Bear Plunge! More…

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

Since 2005, Polar Bears International and animal care staff and researchers from the San Diego Zoo have been working together to better understand how human disturbance may impact polar bears. Our projects focus on the sensory ecology of polar bears, an area of polar bear biology that has been little studied over the years. Sensory ecology is an area of study that focuses on how animals’ senses allow them to interact dynamically with the environment and other animals. We are focusing on how polar bears communicate, both by sound and smell. Describing the fundamentals of these systems in polar bears will allow us to better understand how human activities and climate change may impact polar bears.

Humans can make a lot of noise! Sometimes, the noise we make can disrupt animal populations by inhibiting their ability to hear each other when they really need to or by stressing them to a point that their behavior and physiology are impacted negatively. Sometimes the noise we make bothers us more than it bothers them. In the end, the impact of our activities is best understood through systematic, scientific study. For the polar bear, an area of concern in recent years has been the noise associated with oil exploration and related activities on Alaska’s North Slope. The great concern centers around the fact that there are tremendous petroleum stores in the same area that is home to the one of the largest populations of land-based polar bear maternity dens in North America.

Our research into how noise impacts polar bears has three major components: How sensitive is polar bear hearing? How important is vocal communication to polar bears? What exactly does the noise produced by industrial activities in the Arctic look like and how well does it permeate polar bear dens?

We are about ¾ of the way through the data collection phase of our hearing study. Working closely with researchers at Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, we are beginning to better understand just how sensitive polar bear ears are.

Next week, I’ll get into the nitty-gritty of what it takes to give a polar bear a hearing test.

Megan Owen is a conservation program specialist in the San Diego Zoo’s Applied Animal Ecology Division.

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

The process itself is a little time consuming but well worth the entertainment. First the bedrooms at Polar Bear Plunge are prepped the night before. They are thoroughly cleaned and all toys and bedding removed, and then the drinkers are emptied and turned off. This allows for a clean, dry surface to paint on. Next comes the choice of paint. In the past, we typically used only one color, but we have recently expanded our palette to include two or three. Now keep in mind that painting is a messy business, so whatever colors you choose, the bears will be showing them off on exhibit later. Now it’s time to begin!

After applying a nice layer of color (or colors) to the floor of the bedroom, we simply give the bears access to the paint. This is where Kalluk usually has his first problem: he doesn’t seem to like to walk in it. Therefore, it’s usually tough to get a paw print when he manages to step over, around, and, well, pretty much anywhere except in the paint. Chinook and Tatqiq don’t seem to mind it quite as much. Of course, you have to allow for the sniffing, sitting, and sometimes lying down that occurs. Fortunately, it’s non-toxic paint so it’s not harmful to the bears. But then again, it makes for quite a sight for our guests watching them on exhibit.

After they have effectively coated themselves, we then shift them to a bedroom that has the canvases inside. Then it’s really up to the individual bear as to what and how they want to decorate. This is where Tatqiq’s paintings leave something to the imagination: while she covers the canvas beautifully, she has some of the furriest paws that we’ve ever seen. Her paintings would tend to fall into more of the “abstract” category! While we all enjoy Tatqiq’s creations, Chinook really shows her paws off well.

Some of you may recall that we’ve recently started a tradition of celebrating Bear Awareness Days. I’m happy to report that this will be our third year. This year’s event will take place May 8 – 11 and, like last year’s, will feature an auction to be held on our Web site. We will be featuring some of Chinook’s artwork for the auction. I will keep you posted as to the details of the event as well as the auction as it approaches. In the meantime, we continue our journey through breeding season, however slow it may be.

Kelly Murphy is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

My first day observing Chinook and Kalluk came chock-full with several moments of awe. The first was upon getting a good look at Kalluk. He’s a young male, less than half of giant panda Gao Gao’s age, and yet the size difference between them is astonishing. Kalluk, as a representative of the largest bear species on the planet, is a towering hulk. Despite his lean frame, I am told he weighs in excess of 850 pounds, or 380 kilograms (compare that to Gao Gao’s mere 160-pound, or 70-kilogram, weight). Resting on his backside in an erect seated posture, he is taller than I am. And when he stands on his rear legs to get a look at something placed up high…well, even NBA stars would have a run for their money looking big next to Kalluk.

I have spent most of my time over the last few years working with the (not so?) giant panda and the sun bear, the two smallest living bears. What factors might account for the great difference in size that we see in the spectrum from these smallish bears to the massive polar and brown bear species? One major contributing factor is the different environmental niches that these species inhabit.

The largest bears are cold weather animals, living in harsh, extreme climates much of the year. Coping mechanisms to deal with cold and its resultant food shortages include hibernation periods, insulating fat deposits to keep the heat in, and (in the case of the polar bear) translucent hairs which aid in conducting sunlight down to the skin to increase heat absorption. But increased size is also a fundamental way of coping with coldness, as the basic principle of surface-to-volume ratios indicates: the larger the body, the smaller the surface area relative to body volume. This reduced surface area ratio allows for a lower rate of heat loss.

Compared to the harsh, cold climates polar bears inhabit, sun bears enjoy warm, tropical habitats. The steamy rain forests from Borneo to Thailand and India were the birthing grounds of this species, and the bear benefited from a smaller size to aid in rapid dissipation of heat to avoid thermostress. But what about pandas? Don’t they typically inhabit snowy, cold mountain passes more closely resembling the habitat of a larger brown bear? Why aren’t they so large?

One answer to this question lies in the evolutionary history of the panda. Long before man came to be so populous in China, pandas could readily be found in the lowlands of southeastern China, at about 1,600 feet (500 meters) above sea level. The panda populations probably expanded and contracted in range many times as the temperature alternately warmed and cooled, with warm weather allowing expansion due to the increasingly favorable conditions for bamboo growth in warm seasons. Thus, at some points in the panda’s evolutionary history, this ancient bear species enjoyed warmer climates and survived well with a smaller size.

Of course, the question of size differences among bears is more complicated than the surface-to-volume picture I have sketched here, but it does provide a partial answer to the wide variety of sizes achieved across the eight living bear species. It even explains some of the differences seen between subspecies, such as the discrepancy between the warm summering grizzly populations relative to their colder cousins, the big Kodiak brown bear. Next time you have a chance to visit your local zoo and observe the bears housed there, maybe you will see their body sizes in a whole new light!

Suzanne Hall is a senior research technician with the San Diego Zoo’s Giant Panda Unit.

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

Now some of you may be wondering how on earth this was even considered in the first place; it was a novel idea tried years ago. Originally ia kiddie pool was placed in the bedrooms and filled with water. I must say that it didn’t last too long. From there it received the usual testing of folding, pouncing, and biting. It wasn’t long before the bears discovered the pool made a good polar bear taco (with your choice of bear inside, of course!) or a nice comfy bed in which to take a nap; Kalluk even tried giving Tatqiq rides on it through the bedrooms. Unfortunately, due to the narrower tunnel, that proved to be a bit challenging. Overall, since the pools seemed to be a hit, we went ahead and allowed the bears to have them on exhibit. Again, they delighted themselves with various and creative uses.

Of course this is a “specialty” item because the pools only come out seasonally, and it’s not something they get often. So I figured I couldn’t miss with this enrichment activity. Well, I won’t say it was a complete dud, but it definitely didn’t make the splash I was hoping for. Kalluk (pictured) and Chinook were first up. They both investigated the pools and, as usual, put them in the water (that’s where everything goes). But Chinook seemed to be having one of her lazy mornings and decided to settle down for a nap. Kalluk did eventually end up in the water and did play some, but not specifically with the pools.

I went ahead and did an afternoon switch and put Kalluk back out but this time with his sister, Tatqiq. I knew she wouldn’t let me down. Kalluk apparently decided to take his cue from Chinook earlier, and he settled down for a nap. Tatqiq was intrigued, though, and it wasn’t long before she decided to go for a swim. But do you think it was all about the kiddie pools? Of course not! She played with her small Boomer balls, especially the pink and red ones. Tatqiq at least entertained the guests, but I was beginning to feel deflated from my earlier enthusiasm. (Maybe if I can find a pink pool it would turn out differently!)

At the end of the day, I did the final switch and it was Chinook’s turn again. Maybe her earlier napping left her with more energy, because after she finished exploring the exhibit she decided to have some fun. Now granted, it wasn’t all about the pools, but she definitely put on a show. She wore one like a hat, swam on her back as if she were a turtle in its shell, and—the favorite—got to a higher vantage point and pounced right in the center. So maybe my reinforcement wasn’t immediate, but Chinook did allow me to leave that day not feeling like a total failure.

Kelly Murphy is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.
Read Kelly’s previous blog, Polar Bear Update.

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

While all the bears continue to get along and do well, we seem to have hit a lull in our breeding season. In years past, Kalluk has usually reached a point by now where he’s gone off his food, spends most of his day pining for the female he can’t have, and overall is just very difficult to manage. There’s a part of me that is happy to say we’re not experiencing this just yet. Don’t get me wrong: he does have some moments when he prefers to be with Chinook or is choosy about what’s being offered on the menu, but nowhere near as bad as before.

Of course, we do have to keep in mind that this is the first time he’s actually been allowed to have access to a female during the breeding period. Yes, he’s always been with Tatqiq (pictured above), but we have used contraceptives in order to keep her from experiencing her estrous cycle and therefore not get pregnant. Chinook, too, is not showing all the behavior changes that we associate with this process. It may be possible that the actions of the past year have had some type of effect or maybe we’ll experience a later breeding season this year than usual.

Either way, we still allow Kalluk and Chinook time together every day and will continue to do so until their behavior tells us something different. They still have their boxing matches and sometimes curl up and take naps together. We’re pleased, too, that Tatqiq and Kalluk continue to get along and have some good sibling bonding time.

By no means have we given up on Chinook having a successful pregnancy and are still working toward achieving that goal. Plans for a den have been submitted, and now we are just waiting for a start date for the addition to take place. I’m also pleased to announce that it would appear that the Polar Cam is up and running again (at least I’ve had success when I’ve logged on). So, while we wait patiently for things to progress, please continue to watch the days unfold via the Web cam.

Tune in! As many of you know, we celebrate enrichment here at the Zoo during the second weekend of every month. This Saturday I plan on giving the bears a special surprise that I hope (and anticipate) will get some action going!

Kelly Murphy is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Here’s a schedule of enrichment activities for March 8 and 9…

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less