Tag archives for bears
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From Seward, we left Resurrection Bay, past Rugged Island, and felt the full roll of an ocean swell addressing us broadside from the southeast, rolling us as we plowed forward. Around us, some of the world’s most spectacular coast. Sheer shores spired by eagle-topped spruces rising to snowy peaks that gleamed in the afternoon. In…
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Victoria Hillman is a National Geographic Explorer and Research Director for the Transylvanian Wildlife Project overseeing research on carnivores and biodiversity of Europe’s last great wilderness. Follow the expedition here on Explorers Journal through updates from the team.
Geography in the News: Grizzlies’ Territory
Posted by Neal Lineback of Maps101.com and Maps.com on May 31, 2013 By Neal Lineback and Mandy Lineback Gritzner, Geography in the NewsTM and Maps.com THE GRIZZLIES’ TERRITORY IS CONTRACTING At the end of July, 2010, a female grizzly bear with her three cubs in tow attacked three different tents near Yellowstone National Park in Montana. The middle-of-the-night maulings, the most brazen attacks in the area since…
Vietnam PM Grants Bear Sanctuary a Reprieve
Posted by Guest Blogger on April 2, 2013 
By Leanne Younes Moon bears ‘Mara’ and ‘Angus’ – two of the rescued bears at the Animals Asia sanctuary in North Vietnam – are free to enjoy their freedom a while longer, following a last-minute reprieve (see our previous post on this sanctuary). In an 11th hour decision in January, the Prime Minister of Vietnam,…
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This week on National Geographic Weekend, join host Boyd Matson we go undercover to hunt for ivory poachers in Kenya, spy from the safety of a drone, hide from hippos while paddling down the Gambia River, learn to attract poison dart frogs for mates, and much more.
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First it was the raccoons. Next came the coyotes. And then? Bigger carnivores. Urban and suburban areas in North America are home to a lot of small, wild predators, and now scientists believe that the coyote’s success in adapting to an urban lifestyle could pave the way for larger carnivores to move in. Ohio State…
BioBlitz Poetic Inventory: Black Bear
Posted by Andrew Howley of NG Staff on August 24, 2012 
While volunteers and researchers record the science of the many species found at this year’s BioBlitz, writers across Colorado are putting down a record of their own as well.
What It Means To Be ‘Bear Aware’
Posted by Jordan Carlton Schaul of University of Alaska on April 10, 2012 To be “Bear Aware” has come to mean different things to different people and different communities, which is why I am not always a fan of choosing such phrasiology. At it’s most fundamental level “Bear Awareness” emphasizes a commitment to keeping bears wild. It suggests a certain stewardship of these iconic species, a respect for…
“Bear Sanctuary”–A New Book Promoting Captive Bear Welfare Through Designated Sanctuaries
Posted by Jordan Carlton Schaul of University of Alaska on February 14, 2012 In a new book entitled “Bear Sanctuary“, my colleague Victor Watkins of the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), examines the plight of of the world’s eight species of bears. From a conservation perspective six of the eight species are greatly imperiled and subspecies or certain populations of the remainder are also in…
The winning film by Trip Jennings and Andy Maser follows photographers as they search for the legendary “spirit bear”–a black bear with white fur–to draw attention to the beauty of the Great Bear Rainforest, which is endangered by plans to make this area the main Pacific port for oil from Canada’s tar sands.
Cabbage Conundrum: What Do You Do with a 125 lb Cabbage?
Posted by Jordan Carlton Schaul of University of Alaska on September 11, 2011 What to do with a giant cabbage? Eat it? Show it? How about feed it to an 800 lb grizzly bear? The 14th Annual Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off at the Alaska State Fair produced some gigantic heads of cabbage. I mean gigantic! When I first moved to Alaska I was aware that the citizens of the Frontier…
Renowned Portrait Artist to the Stars Takes on Bears
Posted by Jordan Carlton Schaul of University of Alaska on September 2, 2011 Contributing Editor, and bear conservationist, Dr. Jordan Schaul, recognizes another bear aficionado–renowned celebrity portrait artist and photographer–Jill Greenberg. I was touched when I first learned that Jill Greenberg turned her attention to bear portraiture. The American photographer has worked with numerous celebrity subjects, but more recently, she has captured some fabulous fauna on film. Jill’s celebrity portraits have…
Posted by In the new film Zookeeper, Kevin James stars as a bumbling zookeeper who seeks relationship advice from his closest friends—the animals. Different animals at the zoo take turns giving their view on how to get the girl. But do these cinematic animals know what they’re talking about? We talked to biologists to get the truth about animal mating. Here’s a look at the animals’ advice in the movie, and whether or not it holds up:
Carcass Disposal–A Conservation Tool for Predators: Interview with Dr. Seth Wilson
Posted by Jordan Carlton Schaul of University of Alaska on July 12, 2011 To your average Westerner, the words “management of predators” typically conjure up reactive, and terminal measures following a negative experience with dangerous, nuisance animals. Preventive measures to mitigate human-predator conflict are now commonly employed by ranchers. Why? Reactive management is very time consuming, for one thing. Secondly, the need to ‘put down’ an animal is often perceived as…
Posted by Last week a group email went out to the staff of National Geographic. This is what it said: “A package arrived at Geo…(talk about weird) 2 small bottles of Pee. Bear Urine. No… really. Can you please send a blast to see if some brave soul will claim the urine.”
Ininkari Brown Bear– Japan’s White Colored Brown Bear and the Plight of the Bear Educator
Posted by Jordan Carlton Schaul of University of Alaska on June 2, 2011 Contributing Editor Jordan Schaul shares a report of the only white brown bears found anywhere in the world and addresses the plight of the bear and the bear educator. The study investigating the distribution of white-colored brown bears inhabiting the Kuril Islands was published in the most recent issue of the journal Ursus. “It is a grizzly…
Captive Bear Workshops to be Held at The 20th International Conference on Bear Research & Management (Ottawa, Canada)
Posted by Jordan Carlton Schaul of University of Alaska on May 19, 2011 On July 17th - July 23rd bear biologists from around the world will convene in Ottawa, Canada for the 20th International Conference on Bear Research & Management. The week-long meeting includes key-note addresses by Ian Stirling and Stephen Herrero– two distinguished, veteran bear biologists. The conference is hosted by the International Association for Bear Research & Management (IBA) . For more…
The Art and Science of Captive Animal Enrichment: Part 1 – Bears
Posted by Jordan Carlton Schaul of University of Alaska on May 19, 2011 In celebration of Bear Awareness Week (May 15th – May 21st), Contributing Editor Jordan Schaul discusses enriching the lives of bears in captivity and particularly those at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center is home to the largest bear exhibit in the United States. Zoo Keepers can relate to that puzzled expression…
Salmon in the Trees: Life in Alaska’s Tongass Rain Forest
Posted by International League of Conservation Photographers on May 19, 2011 
One of the rarest ecosystems on Earth, the Tongass rain forest fringes the coastal panhandle of Alaska and covers thousands of islands in the Alexander Archipelago. It’s a place where humpback whales, orcas, and sea lions cruise the forested shorelines. Conservation photographer Amy Gulick spent two years paddling and trekking among the bears, misty islands, and salmon streams to document the intricate connections within the Tongass. Here she shares some of her thoughts and photos of this iconic wilderness.
Bears of the Last Frontier: Interview with Chris Morgan (Ecologist, Author, TV Host)
Posted by Jordan Carlton Schaul of University of Alaska on May 5, 2011 News Watch Contributing Editor, Jordan Schaul, interviews his colleague, Chris Morgan, co-creator of the soon-to-be-released film ‘Bears of the Last Frontier’ and author of the book by the same title.
Posted by Kodiak bears are a large subspecies of brown bear, found only on the Kodiak archipelago off the Alaska coast. The population of Kodiak bears is considered to be healthy relative to populations of other brown bears, so there is no need to develop a breeding program. Consequently, bears orphaned on Kodiak are often left to…
By Jordan Schaul Today is the 50th anniversary of the largest, most remote and perhaps, most rustic protected wilderness area in the United States. Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the most well known refuge in the system, turns 50 on January 6 with celebrations throughout central and south central Alaska. A bull caribou in…
Steven C. Amstrup, a former chairman of the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group and a world authority on polar bears, has joined the conservation group Polar Bears International as senior scientist. A long time scientific advisor to PBI, Amstrup was previously wildlife biologist with the United States Geological Surveys’s Alaska Science Center in Anchorage. He…
By Jordan Schaul Polar Bears International is not just another conservation group trying to save another vanishing species. It’s an organization that questions how we choose to live on this planet. Will we continue to exploit natural resources and destroy the very environment that we rely on ourselves for survival? Or will we change our…
San Diego Zoo scientists often come back from the field with wonderful tales of their adventures and interesting findings. One of the zoo’s newer programs is about Andean (spectacled) bears in the cloud forests of southeastern Peru, near the route of the Interoceanic Highway that is under construction. Russ Van Horn works with biologists in…
