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Polar bears don’t eat Cheerios
Also, when females don’t want to go on a date, they use the excuse, “I have to wash my hair that day”.
Posted by Steph Morgan
Last week a few other WWFers and I went to hear Dr. Ian Stirling (polar bear expert extraordinaire) speak at the Royal York in Toronto. And what a talk it was! Aside from having an impressive amount of in-the-field work under his belt, his deep knowledge and understanding of the bears is brilliant.
(C) Steph Morgan/ WWF-Canada
His way of talking about them and making the audience relate was both humorous and insightful. He started with a disclaimer about the photos in his presentation. “Polar bears don’t eat Cheerios” is another way of saying that there would be seal blood a-plenty. When describing the mating process, he explained that females will pretend to hunt in order to hold off mating until they’re ready. Or, as Dr. Stirling put it, they tell the males that they have to wash their hair that day.
Those were some funny little bits he threw in, in a very casual and nonchalant manner, but he also used some great metaphors to help show us how polar bears survive in such an extreme climate. For example, when describing polar bears’ massive paws, he said they are much like snow shoes – a large surface area that distributes their weight in order to avoid sinking down into the snow.
He also discussed with us the direct effects of climate change on these beautiful animals. He has been researching polar bear ecology in the Beaufort Sea since 1980 and has seen changes in the sea ice, prey availability, and polar bear health first hand. It’s not just media hype, it’s real. And when you hear a down-to-earth, knowledgeable man say this with no agenda, it really hits home. We’re living it and we need to work our butts off to protect our planet.
Not only was Dr. Stirling an excellent speaker, we were also lucky enough to receive copies of his book on polar bears, which is chock-full of stunning photographs, stories of his first-hand experiences, and more information on polar bears than you could ever imagine. If you ever get the chance to hear him speak or buy his book, I highly recommend it.
Now, what kind of a WWF employee would I be if I didn’t take a quick moment to ask that you please donate anything you can to our Arctic Home campaign? I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t believe in its power. The campaign has raised tons of awareness for polar bears and climate change already. And right now is the best time to donate because Coke will match your donation dollar for dollar – you’ll be making double the difference!
Let’s work together to keep climate change in check and keep the sea ice around so that we won’t have to start feeding polar bears Cheerios. Not that that’s an option… Your generous support is greatly appreciated. Really – thank you. And happy holidays!
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I lived in the north since I was born as of right now it’s -36 wind chills -45 we have no farms up here nor do we herd any animals, if Dr. Ian Stirling is so great how come we never seen him living up here in the high arctic year round,,Probably most of his research would be flawed and in some cases untrue,,how come we inuit who live up here 24/7 36 days a year are always left out in these discussions. It’s hurtful for us when animal rights activist groups don’t seem to target the big companies that are destroying the world to reduce their pollution as the air we breath don’t know the borders around the world either that or give us free money of up to $5000.00 a month so we can stop hunting for food then we would be able to shop from the stores. We put up with high cost of living up here like 4.5 kg. pork chop cost $52.79 that’s like $11.59 a kg. and exempt us from paying gst all together and reduce the taxes we pay by 75% as we are the highest tax payers in Canada
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