Black Bears

B.C. officer uses CPR to resuscitate bear

Posted: by dryan


A conservation officer in Prince George, B.C., used his CPR training to save a bear’s life after it was tranquillized. This photo was captured by cell phone camera.

Gary Van Spengen’s conservation team was called to a residential neighbourhood Monday after a female bear was spotted in a tree. A biologist tranquillized the bear while it was up the tree, and after what Van Spengen described as a “soft landing,” the bear stopped breathing after it hit the ground, but still had a heartbeat.

Van Spengen said he has never seen a bear stop breathing after being tranquillized in his 20 years as a conservation officer. “We could tell the heart was still beating … but the chest wasn’t moving at all. I didn’t want to lose this bear because I wanted to get a radio collar on it, so I started doing chest compressions on the bear to try to get air in and out of the lungs,” Van Spengen told CBC Radio’s B.C. Almanac on Tuesday .

While he said he did consider mouth-to-mouth breathing, another component of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), Van Spengen jokingly said, “[Bears] usually don’t carry breath mints.” Van Spengen said it was similar to doing chest compressions on a person, where the diaphragm is pushed up and down, to move air in and out of the chest cavity.

“I’ve gotten a bit of razzing from it, but it’s all in good fun,” he said. After 10 to 15 minutes, the bear started breathing on her own. After being fitted with a radio collar, the bear was released south of Prince George.

Conservation officers plan to track the bear’s movements as part of a study on the interaction between humans and bears in the area. Van Spengen said this particular bear was a good candidate because it hadn’t started eating garbage, so would not be considered a nuisance bear. “She’s wandering around doing bear things right now, eating and trying to fatten up for the winter,” he said.

Source: CBC news

Bear’s Quest for Calories

Posted: by wgardner


Living around humans, bears have developed a taste for people’s garbage because it is often higher in calories than their natural food sources. Below, common types of human foods are contrasted with how many acorns a bear would have to eat to get the same amount of calories.

A dozen eggs is 888 calories. That is equql to 234 acorns.

A pound of hot dogs is 1,456 calories. That is equal to 384 acorns.

A McDonald’s double cheeseburger combo is 1,620 calories. That is equal to 427 acorns.

A pound of Black oil sunflower seeds is 1,740 calories. That is equal to 458 acorns.

A dozen Jelly donuts is 2,640 calories. That is equal to 695 acorns.

A large Pepperoni Pizza is 17,352 calories. That is equal to 4,566 acorns.

Compare that to 25 pounds of Purina dog chow. That is 42,425 calories. That is equal to 11,165 acorns.

I think that now you are getting the picture why bears prefer human food over acrons. Plus acrons don’t taste that good!

Bear Vocalizations: What Do They Mean?

Posted: by wgardner

Being a zoo keeper I get asked a lot of questions about the animals I work with and one question that comes up a lot is: what type of vocalizations do animals make and what do they mean?

Bears have several types of vocalizations. Some species vocalize more than others. Knowing what these sounds mean can help us understand bear behavior and help with their care.

Photo of brown bear yearlings play-fighting and vocalizing in Alaska. photo credit: Chris Morgan.

Giant pandas have some unique vocalizations. They bleat which is a friendly greeting, honk when anxious or distressed and during the breeding season a receptive female will chirp when meeting a male. Sloth bears make a huffing sound when sucking up food, which sounds like a vacuum.

Most bear species make vocalizations that sound like a huff, chomp, woof, growl, and/or bark which mean the bear is agitated, angry or annoyed. A bawl, bellow, squeal or whimper indicates pain. A mumble, hum, or purr indicates contentment.

In many cases vocalizations are done along with some type of body posturing. These are visual clues as to how the bear is feeling. Depending on how the bear is standing, holding its head, the ear placement and how they move can tell a lot about what the bear is thinking and whether it is a dominant or subordinate animal. Bears would rather avoid a fight so using vocalizations and posturing can help eliminate serious conflicts and injuries and along with this, conserve energy they need to survive.

Vocalizations can be heard on the North American Bear Center’s website.

Wendy Gardner, GBOP team

Bear Vision

Posted: by wgardner

Bears can see almost as well as humans, they tend to be nearsighted but have good depth perception. They have a layer of tissue called the tapetum lucidum that lies behind the retina that reflects light and improves their night vision. All bears have round pupils except giant pandas which have slits. Polar bears have a transparent eyelid (nictitating membrane) to filter snow glare and help them see underwater.

http://members.tripod.com/panowl/id27.htm

Studies have shown that bears can see colors. In a study done with giant pandas at Zoo Atlanta, it was not determined whether they could differentiate between colors but they could tell the difference between colors and gray. Being able to see colors may help bears find and distinguish ripe foods like berries, or fresh bamboo in the case of giant pandas.

For year’s people thought bears were colorblind and could not see well but research is showing this is not the case. We still have so much to learn about bears, it will be interesting to see what new things we learn in the future.

Giant Panda color vision study
Black bear and polar bear color vision study

Wendy Gardner, GBOP field specialist

Winter Bear Idiosyncrasies

Posted: by cmorgan

Bears have some fascinating physiological traits, several of which are manifested during their winter denning period. These include: delayed implantation of the embryo for 3-4 months following the summer breeding season, and maintenance of energy and water balance during the 3-5 month denning period.

Energy and Water Balance During Winter Denning

During winter denning, which varies in length from 3-5 months, black and grizzly bears derive all of their sustenance from their own bodies. During this denning period they do not eat, drink, urinate, defecate or exercise.

Bears break down fat tissue to create water and up to 4,000 calories per day. They break down muscle and organ tissues to create protein.

Even though bears drink no water during denning, they do not become dehydrated. In a study published in the American Journal of Physiology, researchers at the Mayo Clinic found that bears were in “almost perfect water balance” after 100 days of hibernation. The metabolism of bears is of interest to researchers because a greater understanding may yield information that helps people suffering from chronic kidney failure and other health issues.

Another unique strategy is that bears are able to take urea – a primary component of urine – and use it to build new protein. Consequently bears are able use newly created protein to restore muscle and organ tissue even when they are not eating and are losing weight, something that humans most definitely cannot do!

Delayed Embryo Implantation as an Advantageous Evolutionary Feature

Delayed implantation, or embryonic diapause, is a reproductive strategy used by nearly 100 mammals including: armadillos, bats, bears, otters and badgers, seals, walrus and kangaroos. Delayed implantation results in the embryo not immediately implanting itself in the uterus following fertilization, and instead being maintained in a state of dormancy for a period of time. As a result, the normal gestation period is extended, sometimes for many months. Because delayed implantation is found in diverse species of mammals, it is likely the result of separate evolutionary processes in response to different selective pressures.

In the case of bears, it allows the female to time the delivery of cubs so that they are born during favorable environmental conditions – so that they do not arrive too early nor too late. It also protects the mother if food is scarce, as the embryo will spontaneously abort if the mother goes into the den with inadequate food stores to carry out gestation and lactation.

Bear Haiku:

Tiny twin bear cubs
Birthed into winter’s darkness
Bellies full of milk

Brown bear sleeps soundly
Winter shifts to spring’s great thaw
And life starts anew

Nan Laney, GBOP field coordinator