1 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:21,079 Welcome to the episode thirteen point five of Get Out Alive, a podcast where 2 00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:24,000 we talk about animal attacks, why they happen, and how you cannot get 3 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,519 attacked yourself. I'm your host, Ashley, I'm your host Nick, and 4 00:00:27,559 --> 00:00:32,320 this is the remix. No, it's just the interview episode of our Polar 5 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:38,479 Bear Stories. Yeah. Yeah, So today we're talking to Danielle Rivett and 6 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:44,399 she is studying polar bears in the Arctic Circle, so she knows a whole 7 00:00:44,399 --> 00:00:47,759 lot more than we do. She knows infinitely more than we do. Slash 8 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:51,560 did because we know basically nothing. I learned so much from her. Oh, 9 00:00:51,719 --> 00:00:55,320 I don't want to take up too much time. But basically, if 10 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:59,200 you join us on patreon dot com slash Ghetto Alive at the five or fifteen 11 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:03,120 dollars level, then you're getting this right after the episode releases, which is 12 00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:07,319 on November ten, and if not, you're getting it a week after. 13 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:10,400 And that's fine too. Yeah, but maybe you should listen to the other 14 00:01:10,439 --> 00:01:12,319 one first. Probably, I don't know. It doesn't meant I'm not going 15 00:01:12,359 --> 00:01:15,280 to tell you how to live your life. I don't want to take up 16 00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:17,519 too much time. I think we should just get right into it because it's 17 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:22,280 very long and all of it is very good. Let's do it. My 18 00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:27,519 name is Danielle Rivett. I am a PhD candidate at the University of Saskatchewan 19 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:34,840 and I currently work with Doug Clark and I am working on finishing up my 20 00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:42,560 PhD project looking at anthropogenic drivers and environmental drivers of polar bear movement in Wapis 21 00:01:42,719 --> 00:01:47,120 National Park in Manitoba. And we're trying to figure out what types of bears 22 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:52,280 are moving through certain areas there in the park, at what times, and 23 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:55,959 what is making them move through those areas. And we're doing all of that 24 00:01:56,439 --> 00:02:00,040 based on remote camera trap data that we get from cameras that have been placed 25 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:05,120 out in the park. With the help of Parks Canada and the people at 26 00:02:05,159 --> 00:02:07,439 the Churchill Northern Study Center, which is really awesome, we get all of 27 00:02:07,439 --> 00:02:12,159 this data, we can put it together and then hopefully use that information to 28 00:02:12,439 --> 00:02:17,840 provide to conservation officers and wildlife managers to kind of help them understand better what's 29 00:02:17,879 --> 00:02:23,319 going on in that ecosystem and to hopefully help mitigate a lot of polar bear 30 00:02:23,439 --> 00:02:27,439 human conflict that's going on in some of those areas. Gotcha, and I 31 00:02:27,639 --> 00:02:30,280 just have to ask because I know that your masters was on Grizzly Bears. 32 00:02:30,319 --> 00:02:36,520 Correct? Correct? How did you get so lucky to work with Bears in 33 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:39,680 both your masters and your PhD? So it's actually kind of a funny story. 34 00:02:39,719 --> 00:02:43,960 I really just fell into it. For my masters. I did my 35 00:02:44,159 --> 00:02:50,400 undergraduate program at sunni Oswego in Central New York, right on Lake Ontario, 36 00:02:50,719 --> 00:02:54,120 and I majored in zoology. But I was actually working with River Otters for 37 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:59,319 my honors thesis while I was there. That's awesome, just observation stuff, 38 00:02:59,319 --> 00:03:02,960 you know, nothing, And I started kind of poking around and looking for 39 00:03:04,159 --> 00:03:08,199 master's programs, hopefully something that was funded. And I just found a listing 40 00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:14,439 for Washington State University on the Texas A and M Biology job boards saying that 41 00:03:14,479 --> 00:03:19,120 they were just kind of accepting grad students overall. So I went to their 42 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:23,680 website and I poked around in the department and I found a link to the 43 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:29,879 Bear Center and I emailed Charlie Robbins, who's the director there at the time. 44 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:31,479 I'm not sure if he still is, he might be currently, but 45 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:35,080 I emailed him and I was like, Hey, you know what's going on 46 00:03:35,159 --> 00:03:38,759 over there? And you guys have funded programs. I'm really interested in bears 47 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:40,960 and hibernation and that kind of stuff, and he emailed me back and he's 48 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:45,759 like, let's have an interview. So I kind of went from there and 49 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:49,879 I had to go there in person for an interview, and within a week 50 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:54,000 after my interview, I had a letter from WSU saying that I was accepted. 51 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:59,840 So it just kind of happened on accident, honestly. And then when 52 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:03,759 I started looking for my PhD program, I actually started off working with Columbian 53 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:09,800 ground squirrels because they also hibernate very differently from bears as it turns out. 54 00:04:10,039 --> 00:04:15,920 But I was kind of using my hibernation experience with the grizzlies to kind of 55 00:04:15,959 --> 00:04:20,160 fuel the beginning of that project, and it didn't super work out for me, 56 00:04:20,639 --> 00:04:25,319 and I was kind of looking for something else here at the same university. 57 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:28,680 At the university as a skatchman, and I just happened to email Doug 58 00:04:28,759 --> 00:04:31,120 because he was looking for a master student and I said, hey, do 59 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:34,199 you have room for a PhD student in your lab also? And he was 60 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:38,959 like, come on over. So I've been working with bears for almost ten 61 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:42,920 years now, which is awesome. That is awesome. Wow, because I 62 00:04:42,959 --> 00:04:46,519 know Nick, I mean, if you got that opportunity. Yeah, I'm 63 00:04:46,519 --> 00:04:50,759 a big bear guy. Yeah, bears are pretty cool. I don't know 64 00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:55,639 if you've listened to the Word or any episodes, but yeah, we're we're 65 00:04:55,639 --> 00:04:59,000 big into bears. It's a epsis for me. Yeah, Fat Bear Week 66 00:04:59,079 --> 00:05:00,560 was a big deal to us. Yes, so that Bear Week is very 67 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:04,800 exciting for everyone. So how did you feel about the outcome the winner? 68 00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:10,399 You know, I think it was kind of expected, but I feel like 69 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:14,560 Walker was maybe fatter. I don't know. Oh, okay, I don't 70 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:19,399 know. I tend to vote not necessarily based on which bear is absolutely the 71 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:25,279 fattest. I kind of do more like, oh I really liked this bear, 72 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:29,959 or I try and see, like maybe he's not the fattest bear, 73 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:33,079 but this one is actually put on the most weight or the most chunk since 74 00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:38,680 like the original photo was taken. So yeah, it's hard, That is 75 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:44,120 how I felt. It's very hard to vote sometimes. Yeah, absolutely, 76 00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:48,040 Yeah, Nick was really gunn for who is the seven forty seven? Yeah? 77 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:53,000 Yeah he won last year though I think didn't he he did? Yeah? 78 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:56,319 Past two years, past two years? Excuse me, just so we 79 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:59,240 all have our factory. Yeah, all right, go ahead, Nick, 80 00:06:00,279 --> 00:06:04,800 So you're gonna try and calm down from that bear controversy. Do you have 81 00:06:04,839 --> 00:06:09,759 any idea how common conflicts are between people and polar bears. I don't think 82 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:12,360 we have a lot of people really living up in the Arctic Circle. So 83 00:06:13,199 --> 00:06:16,360 most of the people that are up in that area are indigenous peoples and people 84 00:06:16,399 --> 00:06:20,800 in northern communities who have been experiencing this conflict for a very long time. 85 00:06:20,959 --> 00:06:25,560 Right, So a lot more of the increased conflict that's happening now, I 86 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:29,120 think is more people who are kind of transient through that area, people who 87 00:06:29,160 --> 00:06:32,800 are tourists, people who are there for certain kinds of industry work, because 88 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:39,199 that is really increasing a lot in some of those areas. But polar conflicts, 89 00:06:39,199 --> 00:06:43,240 I'm sure I have been going on for a long time. But polar 90 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:47,000 bear attacks are actually quite quite rare. There was a study put out by 91 00:06:47,079 --> 00:06:53,079 James Wilder at All I believe in twenty seventeen where they did an analysis looking 92 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:57,240 at the frequency of polar bear attacks trying to see, you know, just 93 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:00,839 understand what's going on there. Witch bears are in these attacks, How we 94 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:05,199 can mitigate that in the future because we think that stuff like that might be 95 00:07:05,319 --> 00:07:12,720 increasing. But they looked at attacks documented attacks from eighteen seventy to twenty fourteen, 96 00:07:12,879 --> 00:07:15,360 so one hundred and forty five years, and they only had seventy three. 97 00:07:15,959 --> 00:07:19,839 So seventy three attacks over one hundred and forty five years. Pretty small 98 00:07:19,959 --> 00:07:24,600 number, right, Like, they don't happen very often. Now, obviously 99 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:29,879 that can't include everything because not everything is documented. Things tend to be documented 100 00:07:29,959 --> 00:07:35,000 more when they're you know, their grievous injuries or fatalities or things like that. 101 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:40,720 But you know, just basic conflict where there are bears coming into towns 102 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:44,199 and stuff like that, that's not included in that. So that would only 103 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:47,480 be attacks, but it's pretty rare. But we would think with current conditions 104 00:07:47,519 --> 00:07:50,759 that things like that might be increasing. So would you say that, like, 105 00:07:51,079 --> 00:07:56,319 maybe conflicts are more because polar bears come into towns looking for food, 106 00:07:56,360 --> 00:07:59,600 not even necessarily like polar bears trying to attack people. It's just like kind 107 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:03,399 of budding into them when they're searching for just scraps. Essentially, most attacks, 108 00:08:03,639 --> 00:08:11,240 most conflict that we see is actually bears that are nutritionally stressed or younger 109 00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:13,920 bears like immature bears, right, because they might not necessarily know what's going 110 00:08:13,959 --> 00:08:16,720 on all the time. They haven't figured out how to be you know, 111 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:22,480 that big apex predator. They don't have their hunting skills honed in because they're 112 00:08:22,519 --> 00:08:26,399 still young and they're still learning how to do things. But in most cases 113 00:08:26,399 --> 00:08:30,519 that we see when polar bears are coming into conflict with people, they are 114 00:08:30,879 --> 00:08:35,519 either nutritionally stressed, they're very hungry, they've been on land perhaps and haven't 115 00:08:35,559 --> 00:08:39,000 had a whole lot of access to seals and you know, that's the food 116 00:08:39,039 --> 00:08:41,399 that they would commonly eat, or they're just younger bears that don't have a 117 00:08:41,399 --> 00:08:45,879 clue yet, they don't know what they're doing. So those would be the 118 00:08:45,919 --> 00:08:50,039 types of bears most likely involved in these incidents. There are, you know, 119 00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:54,720 occasionally female bears that have cubs that might be involved in an incident because 120 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:58,879 they're trying to defend their cub, But in most cases it's bears that are 121 00:08:58,919 --> 00:09:01,679 hungry, so they're coming into these areas because there's attractants, things that smell 122 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:05,240 good that might be food, or they're bears that haven't figured out this is 123 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:09,960 what I hunt somewhere else away from people just yet. Awesome. What are 124 00:09:11,279 --> 00:09:13,600 some things that people that do live those areas do to protect selves from bolar 125 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:18,679 bears? Yeah, so there are quite a few things that you can kind 126 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:24,000 of keep in mind, I guess when you're living in polar bear country or 127 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:28,000 recreating in polar bear country, because polar bears are a whole different ballgame than 128 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:31,120 black and brown bears, you know, the bears that we're used to. 129 00:09:33,399 --> 00:09:37,919 They actually have a whole different like set of behavioral things that they do. 130 00:09:39,159 --> 00:09:45,799 Like, polar bears will almost never bluff charge somebody. Yeah, so if 131 00:09:45,799 --> 00:09:48,759 a polar bear is, you know, following you or kind of acting like 132 00:09:48,799 --> 00:09:50,639 it's stalking or hunting you, it's going to be following you. It's going 133 00:09:50,679 --> 00:09:54,759 to be circling you. It's going to directly approach you. It's not going 134 00:09:54,759 --> 00:10:01,000 to act afraid. If it gets scared off, it might back if it's 135 00:10:01,039 --> 00:10:05,840 actually demonstrating those kind of predatory behaviors. And like I said, those types 136 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:09,759 of bears tend to be nutritionally stressed, so they might be wounded, they 137 00:10:09,799 --> 00:10:13,080 might be old, they might be skinny, things like that, but polar 138 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:18,080 bear is almost never bluff charge if they're coming at you. They're coming at 139 00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:20,919 you with the intent to do something. They're not going to turn away, 140 00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:26,519 usually at the last second. So you kind of have to be very, 141 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:31,559 very familiar with bear behavior because, like I said, polar bear is very 142 00:10:31,559 --> 00:10:35,799 different from black and brown bears. It's going to do different things. But 143 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:39,559 if you are just in that general area, then you kind of would do 144 00:10:39,639 --> 00:10:43,440 the same things that you would do in black or brown bear country. Right, 145 00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:46,879 don't leave your food out, don't leave out anything that could act as 146 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:52,200 an attractant. Travel in groups, you know, be with other people. 147 00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:56,519 A lot of these polar bear attacks or conflicts that occur, it's usually with 148 00:10:56,559 --> 00:11:01,200 two or less people in the groups. Like if you have a bigger group, 149 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:07,120 you're more likely to be safe. That's obviously not always the case sometimes 150 00:11:07,159 --> 00:11:11,240 things happen, but the bigger your group, the better off you are typically. 151 00:11:11,519 --> 00:11:16,039 I know, like when I was in Churchhill, we had various specific 152 00:11:16,159 --> 00:11:18,759 rules that we had to follow every time we left the study center, right, 153 00:11:18,919 --> 00:11:22,320 Like you look outside before you go out the door, just to make 154 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:28,080 sure that there aren't any bears outside. You have somebody in your group that 155 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:31,799 is basically acting as a bear monitor, so they're always kind of on alert, 156 00:11:31,879 --> 00:11:37,759 looking around, checking out the area. A lot of times, like 157 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:43,799 Parks Canada will actually provide somebody that is like a certified bear monitor for you. 158 00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:48,360 They do carry a firearm because that can be necessary sometimes, and they 159 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:52,759 are trained in recognizing polar bear behavior, and they're trained in how to use 160 00:11:52,799 --> 00:11:56,639 their firearm appropriately and all of those kinds of things. So, like having 161 00:11:56,679 --> 00:12:01,120 a bear monitor is very important. Usually depends on the size of your group. 162 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:03,279 You might have more than one, right, you might have somebody in 163 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:07,200 the front and somebody in the back and somebody in the middle paying attention, 164 00:12:07,759 --> 00:12:11,159 you know, just to make sure that everybody in the group is protected. 165 00:12:11,679 --> 00:12:18,600 We never walked through areas where there was limited visibility if we could avoid it. 166 00:12:18,039 --> 00:12:22,879 So we tried to stay away from really thick stands of willow because polar 167 00:12:22,919 --> 00:12:26,360 bears love to go into the willow and lay down and be cool and in 168 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:28,799 the shade. Right, So you would never go through like a really thick 169 00:12:28,840 --> 00:12:33,679 stand of willow without knowing that there could potentially be a polar bear in there. 170 00:12:33,039 --> 00:12:37,799 And Churchill is like the polar bear sanctuary, right, I was reading 171 00:12:37,879 --> 00:12:39,639 up a little bit. Yeah, it's considered the polar bear capital of the 172 00:12:39,679 --> 00:12:43,879 world. And that's because it's kind of like right on this prime piece of 173 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:48,960 land. It's one of the last places where the ice disappears in that area 174 00:12:48,320 --> 00:12:52,679 in the beginning of the summer, so it's where the bears come on shore 175 00:12:52,759 --> 00:12:56,879 when the ice goes away, and then they kind of slowly meander their way 176 00:12:56,960 --> 00:13:00,600 up the coast to Cape Churchill because that's the first place where the ice comes 177 00:13:00,639 --> 00:13:03,279 back in in the fall. So they just kind of hang out in that 178 00:13:03,399 --> 00:13:07,159 area, and a lot of the females, if they're pregnant, they'll go 179 00:13:07,200 --> 00:13:11,279 a little bit further inland to like a dinning area. They don't actually hibernate, 180 00:13:11,399 --> 00:13:15,279 but the females that are pregnant will go into this dinning area and they'll 181 00:13:15,279 --> 00:13:18,279 give birth to their cubs in these dens. And that's all like kind of 182 00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:22,360 right there in that general area, right there in wapisk and right around Churchill. 183 00:13:22,840 --> 00:13:26,279 That whole area is big for polar bears. But I mean there are 184 00:13:26,440 --> 00:13:30,440 polar bears all over the place. There's polar bears in Russia, there's polar 185 00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:33,240 bears in Alaska and Norway, and you know, like Small Bard is one 186 00:13:33,279 --> 00:13:37,960 of the big areas in Norway for polar bears. Greenland has polar bears, 187 00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:43,000 and in some of those places, the ice doesn't necessarily go away, right. 188 00:13:43,159 --> 00:13:46,840 They have ice some of these areas all year round, and so the 189 00:13:46,879 --> 00:13:52,279 situation is very different there where you might only experience polar bears in Churchill during 190 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:54,120 bear season, which would be in the fall when everybody's waiting for the ice 191 00:13:54,159 --> 00:14:00,000 to come back. So like September October is peak bear season, even sometimes 192 00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:03,679 to November depending on how late the ice is. But in places like Greenland 193 00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:07,919 and Norway, you could have bear encounters all the time, like it's unpredictable, 194 00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:11,879 so you just kind of have to be aware of the situation and make 195 00:14:11,919 --> 00:14:16,240 sure that you're being as safe as you can because you could encounter a bear 196 00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:18,639 at anytime. Gotcha. And we have a question from a patron member, 197 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:24,279 Jeremy Montoya, who heard when he was younger that polar bears will basically relentlessly 198 00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:26,960 track humans if other food is scarce. Those curious if that was true and 199 00:14:28,159 --> 00:14:31,919 our if humans are easier prey than like seals and whatnot. So you kind 200 00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:33,799 of let onto that a little bit where you said, if they're coming after 201 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:39,120 you they're basically coming after you, So like, if that happens, what 202 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:41,720 can you do to stop them in that case? Yeah, I think that 203 00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:46,039 kind of might be a common misconception that they're you know, if you see 204 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:48,799 a polar bear, it's absolutely out there to get you, right, Like, 205 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:52,960 that's not the case, because if it if it were the case, 206 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:56,440 then polar bear attacks would be way more frequent and more common than they are. 207 00:14:56,600 --> 00:15:00,720 Right. There are quite a few people living up in these areas where 208 00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:05,080 there are polar bears and attacks are still generally pretty rare. So I don't 209 00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:07,799 think that that's the case at all, And I think that was kind of 210 00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:11,840 the point with some of these more recent studies where they're looking at the trend 211 00:15:11,919 --> 00:15:16,159 of polar bear attacks is to show that, you know, they're not just 212 00:15:16,279 --> 00:15:20,399 this man eating animal that's out to get people. That being said, if 213 00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:26,200 a polar bear is nutritionally stressed and there's a person that's in their environment that 214 00:15:26,279 --> 00:15:31,519 they feel might be an easy target, you know, maybe they're having problems 215 00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:35,559 getting seals or it's not seal season right, and they're thin because they're on 216 00:15:35,639 --> 00:15:41,720 land. There is nothing to suggest that a polar bear wouldn't maybe try. 217 00:15:41,679 --> 00:15:45,799 You know, they're going to expend a certain amount of energy, but after 218 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:48,559 a point it's not worth it. Right. There have actually been a few 219 00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:54,519 circumstances where people noted that when a bear, a polar bear, was approaching 220 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:58,720 them as if to attack them, they kind of realized at the last minute 221 00:15:58,759 --> 00:16:03,639 that they weren't typical prey and they actually aborted the attack. Kind of like 222 00:16:03,919 --> 00:16:07,039 a shark, right, a shark swimming underneath you, if you're on a 223 00:16:07,039 --> 00:16:10,279 surfboard, might think you're a seal or sea lion or whatever that it would 224 00:16:10,279 --> 00:16:11,200 eat. It goes up, it takes a bite, and they're like, 225 00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:14,679 oh crap, this isn't what I thought it was, and then they swim 226 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:18,799 away. So there have been instances where that's happened with polar bears. I 227 00:16:18,799 --> 00:16:23,639 don't think it's super common, but I mean, polar bears are large and 228 00:16:23,679 --> 00:16:29,159 they're powerful, and if it thought it was going to attack you because you 229 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:33,679 looked like an easy prey source, it's probably not wrong. Like, I 230 00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:37,559 don't think there's much that people can usually do against polar bears unless you have 231 00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:42,440 a form of deterrent. So that kind of gets around to your The other 232 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:45,480 part of your question, right, what do you do if that actually happens 233 00:16:45,480 --> 00:16:49,159 to you? And you know there are ways that you can deal with that. 234 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:52,480 Most people who travel in polar bear country, as I mentioned, somebody 235 00:16:52,639 --> 00:16:59,279 has a firearm typically, so you should be well versed in knowing exactly how 236 00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:03,399 your particular firearmworks how to use it. But there are other ways to deter 237 00:17:03,519 --> 00:17:07,400 polar bears. So a lot of people that are like in Greenland or Norway, 238 00:17:07,480 --> 00:17:11,400 like when they go out into these areas and they're they're camping, or 239 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:14,599 they're doing research or whatever the case may be, they might be out hunting 240 00:17:14,720 --> 00:17:18,440 other animals. You can set up trip wires around your camp, and when 241 00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:22,440 that tripwire is hit by a bear, it actually discharges like a banger, 242 00:17:22,759 --> 00:17:26,319 so it makes a loud sound that might scare the bears away. That's awesome, 243 00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:29,359 yeah, And so not only might it scare the bear away, but 244 00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:33,440 it also then alerts you to the fact that there's an animal that's hitting your 245 00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:37,039 trip wire, right, because a lot of these times bears will come into 246 00:17:37,079 --> 00:17:40,880 these areas when everybody is asleep, because they don't want to walk into a 247 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:44,160 camp with a bunch of people up and walking around, right, Like that's 248 00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:48,200 not something that they're going to do probably, so they'll come into these camps 249 00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:52,160 when people are asleep. So having that tripwire is really useful in terms of 250 00:17:52,319 --> 00:17:56,640 maybe frightening the bear way and alerting people in camp that there could be a 251 00:17:56,680 --> 00:18:02,319 possible issue. There are like these little pin gun type things, so like 252 00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:04,680 it's just like a thin strip, or you can have one that actually goes 253 00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:08,000 into a pistol that does the same thing. It just fires off like a 254 00:18:08,039 --> 00:18:11,160 false charge like a banger, makes a loud noise. You can use that 255 00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:17,359 as a deterrent bear spray. Obviously, is it good idea. It hasn't 256 00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:22,079 been extensively tested with polar bears, but it is very effective with black and 257 00:18:22,079 --> 00:18:26,240 brown bears, and in some more recent studies that they've done trying to use 258 00:18:26,279 --> 00:18:30,519 it on polar bears to see how effective it is, it does pretty well. 259 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:34,640 So you have to be aware obviously that you know, the temperatures are 260 00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:37,960 usually colder in places where there are polar bears, so that could kind of 261 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:41,119 affect how well the spray works, how it comes out of the can. 262 00:18:41,279 --> 00:18:45,240 Things like that. You should always be aware of where the wind is so 263 00:18:45,319 --> 00:18:48,200 which way it's going to blow when it comes out of the can. That 264 00:18:48,319 --> 00:18:52,839 is also helpful information. Try not to bear spray yourself. I have done 265 00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:56,839 that. It's not pleasant, but you know, things like that are usually 266 00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:00,839 good deterrence, So bear spray if you have bear bangers, like the trip 267 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:06,400 wire bangers or the pin pistol bangers, things like that. But a lot 268 00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:11,400 of those kind of commercially available deterrence, like the bangers and the bear spray, 269 00:19:11,599 --> 00:19:15,839 they're not super widely available in a lot of places, so a ton 270 00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:18,440 of times you actually have to get them somewhere else and take them with you. 271 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:23,519 Bear spray, I believe is actually still illegal in Norway and Greenland. 272 00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:27,200 Really yeah, I mean it used to be. I'm not sure if it 273 00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:32,960 still is. I believe it still is because previously there just wasn't enough information 274 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:36,640 that said that it was actually effective against polar bears, so people would just 275 00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:41,160 carry a firearm with them instead and use other deterrence. There have been cases 276 00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:45,160 where people who are attacked have been able to kind of fight off the bear 277 00:19:45,279 --> 00:19:48,960 by you know, hitting it in sensitive areas and it's like on its nose, 278 00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:52,519 going for its eyeballs, things like that, which would be horrifying. 279 00:19:52,559 --> 00:19:56,400 You know, you never want it to get to that point. Yeah, 280 00:19:56,480 --> 00:20:02,359 but you know people have beaten bears back from its attacking somebody with large sticks. 281 00:20:02,559 --> 00:20:07,640 There was the case where the young woman was attacked in Churchill Aaron Green 282 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:11,319 and a local ran out of his residence because he heard her screaming in the 283 00:20:11,359 --> 00:20:17,200 street and he started attacking the bear with a shovel to get the bear off 284 00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:21,359 of her. So, you know, things like that will work hopefully if 285 00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:25,079 you're ever in that situation, but the goal would be to avoid, you 286 00:20:25,119 --> 00:20:27,799 know, making that kind of physical contact. Hopefully your deterrence are good enough 287 00:20:27,839 --> 00:20:30,720 to keep bears away so that you don't ever get into that kind of a 288 00:20:30,759 --> 00:20:34,160 situation. So how do the people that live around here actually feel about the 289 00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:37,960 bears? Is it something that they need to be aware of every single day 290 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:41,440 of their lives. Are they actually worried about being attacked on a daily basis? 291 00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:48,279 And we've heard that there were revenge killings after a bear attacks of person. 292 00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:51,599 Is that true? And is it actually legal in the airs that the 293 00:20:51,599 --> 00:20:55,480 bears live. Let me kind of chime and break that down. I think 294 00:20:55,519 --> 00:21:00,400 it really depends on where people live and how frequently they're interacting with bears, 295 00:21:00,119 --> 00:21:04,200 and that's what determines how they feel about them. A lot of these people 296 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:11,079 that are Inuit or Indigenous or that live in these northern communities, like the 297 00:21:11,119 --> 00:21:15,680 people in Churchill, they have very very great respect for the bears. They 298 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:21,440 love the bears good. A lot of the indigenous people actually use the polar 299 00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:26,319 bears for subsistence hunting so they feed their families. They have you know, 300 00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:32,400 like limited limited tags and stuff that they can you know, fill so that 301 00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:34,839 they can help feed their communities and their families. But they have very very 302 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:41,039 great respect for the bears. It's kind of like some of these First Nations 303 00:21:41,079 --> 00:21:45,279 communities that you hear about in British Columbia that you know, don't want grizzly 304 00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:48,839 hunts or things like that. They're very important to their culture. They need 305 00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:52,480 the bears around, like that's just part of their culture. A lot of 306 00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:59,039 people in Churchill feel the same way about polar bears because either they were raised 307 00:21:59,079 --> 00:22:02,240 that way and it's part of their culture, or like polar bears are a 308 00:22:02,319 --> 00:22:06,119 huge part of Churchill's economy. Right. It's just a very small town. 309 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:08,640 There's no roads that go there. You either take the train, or you 310 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:14,440 fly and people come to Churchill to see the polar Bears. That's what they 311 00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:18,400 do. So you want to be able to maintain those populations because that's where 312 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:22,359 your money comes from, or it's part of your culture. So a lot 313 00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:25,799 of people really like the bears. They don't typically have, you know, 314 00:22:25,839 --> 00:22:30,720 like a hateful or spiteful relationship with them. That being said, when you 315 00:22:30,799 --> 00:22:33,720 live in an area like that, you absolutely need to be aware all the 316 00:22:33,799 --> 00:22:38,400 time of wind bears could possibly be around you, right, because if you're 317 00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:44,039 not, it could be a dangerous situation. So I think a lot of 318 00:22:44,039 --> 00:22:48,119 those people are just kind of used to it. It's part of their daily 319 00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:51,640 life, so they incorporate that into the things that they need to do. 320 00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:56,680 But I also think some people probably get a little complacent, right, Like 321 00:22:56,799 --> 00:23:00,799 who wouldn't When it's something that you deal with every day, you might start 322 00:23:00,839 --> 00:23:06,279 to kind of think that it isn't a big deal or not something that you 323 00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:08,000 need to do. Or it's like, you know, when you cross the 324 00:23:08,039 --> 00:23:12,079 street, how often does everybody look both ways twice before they cross the street 325 00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:15,559 anymore? So it's that kind of a thing, like I think some people 326 00:23:15,559 --> 00:23:21,079 will absolutely get complacent and forget, or you know, they might leave something 327 00:23:21,119 --> 00:23:25,039 out that could be an attractant, or you know, they don't look out 328 00:23:25,079 --> 00:23:27,599 their door before they walk outside, and maybe there might be a bear there, 329 00:23:27,759 --> 00:23:33,400 Like who knows. You never know in terms of like retaliatory killing after 330 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:40,720 an attack. Obviously, attacks are very controversial. They're emotional things. People 331 00:23:40,759 --> 00:23:44,319 get kind of charged up about it when it happens, especially if there's a 332 00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:49,240 fatality that might be involved. I think a lot of people kind of accept 333 00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:52,839 that that's something that might happen when you live in a certain area, but 334 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:59,319 that doesn't mean that they don't necessarily think that changes should happen. Like one 335 00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:03,519 of the things that came from people being attacked in the Churchill areas the Polar 336 00:24:03,519 --> 00:24:07,599 Bear Alert system, which is great. Like there's a bear in town, 337 00:24:07,079 --> 00:24:11,799 Polar Bear Alert goes out with their trucks, they haze it away from town. 338 00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:15,519 They make sure that the people in their community are safe. If they 339 00:24:15,519 --> 00:24:18,440 have to, they'll put the bear in the what they call the Polar bear 340 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:21,240 jail. I don't know if you guys have heard about that. I have 341 00:24:21,319 --> 00:24:26,240 not. They have a facility right there in Churchill where if they have bears 342 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:30,599 that are kind of being problem bears and keep coming back into town. They'll 343 00:24:30,599 --> 00:24:34,920 actually put them into this facility for the duration of the onshore season, and 344 00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:38,440 then once the ice comes back in, they'll let them go. They just 345 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:41,559 they drop them off right on the ice and they can go out and do 346 00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:45,920 their thing. That's incredible. They you know, they have people patrolling and 347 00:24:47,039 --> 00:24:52,880 you know, when these events happen, it's unfortunate obviously, but like people 348 00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:56,599 in the community tend to kind of come together and say, Okay, what 349 00:24:56,599 --> 00:24:59,960 can we do to fix this? What can we do better to avoid this 350 00:25:00,079 --> 00:25:03,880 situation in the future, So you know, you might change the way that 351 00:25:03,519 --> 00:25:08,640 your garbage is collected, because leaving garbage out for collection could be an attractant, 352 00:25:08,799 --> 00:25:14,920 right. They increased patrols for polar bear alert after an attack, just 353 00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:18,680 to make sure that everybody, you know, is safe. They encourage people 354 00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:22,880 to you know, walk in groups. They put better lighting on the streets 355 00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:25,920 so that you could see things at night. You know, there's there's all 356 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:32,720 these things that can come from that kind of conflict that are good. Occasionally 357 00:25:32,759 --> 00:25:40,200 people are upset and sometimes animals that are not involved will be killed. But 358 00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:44,119 that happens. I think even like in our like in the US national parks, 359 00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:48,000 right, if you have a brown bear that has attacked somebody, sometimes 360 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:52,039 they get the wrong bear, and you can't know that for sure, unfortunately, 361 00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:56,319 and until the bear is dead and you can see if it's the correct 362 00:25:56,319 --> 00:26:03,319 animal or not. So I think times, yes, there probably are retaliatory 363 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:07,319 killings, but I don't think that's super super common in a lot of places 364 00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:11,440 where that might happen. I think it's you know, it's it's expected that 365 00:26:11,559 --> 00:26:17,279 maybe that bear is removed from the population, right Like we would never let 366 00:26:17,319 --> 00:26:22,839 a bear in Yellowstone that had eaten somebody stay in that population exactly. That's 367 00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:26,799 just something that you know when you live in those areas. I think that's 368 00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:30,720 kind of expected that there are repercussions. But they're not going to take every 369 00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:36,119 bear that's a problem bear or a bear that's gotten into conflict with people and 370 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:38,279 remove it from the population. They're going to give it a few chances and 371 00:26:38,319 --> 00:26:42,880 see how it does and how it reacts to being hazed away or you know, 372 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:48,799 being relocated to a different area. So there are there are many many 373 00:26:48,839 --> 00:26:52,799 steps that can be taken to kind of hopefully make the situation better for the 374 00:26:52,799 --> 00:26:56,200 future so that it's less of an issue. Yeah, and then kind of 375 00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:57,640 going off with that, I mean you touched on it a little bit at 376 00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:00,880 the beginning, but what are the big challenges facing polar bears today? I 377 00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:04,279 mean, I think climate change is kind of the big one everyone knows about. 378 00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:07,039 But to go a little more detail, what do you think? Yeah, 379 00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:11,119 I would say climate change for sure is probably the biggest one, just 380 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:15,400 because they rely so much on the ice for not just hunting, but like 381 00:27:15,519 --> 00:27:19,039 a lot of their other you know, like life history events, Like polar 382 00:27:19,039 --> 00:27:23,160 bears breed on the ice in the spring, so like they rely on that 383 00:27:23,319 --> 00:27:26,640 ice surface to be able to find meat. They rely on the ice surface 384 00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:30,480 obviously in order to get their seals that they eat, So when the ice 385 00:27:30,599 --> 00:27:36,240 is disappearing, that creates an issue. But I saw in one of the 386 00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:41,319 other questions that you had listed about like oil exploration and kind of like toxic 387 00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:45,960 pollution stuff that might be going on up there. Yeah, we had a 388 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:48,680 patron, Jeremy Montoya, who asked about like how it was affecting them and 389 00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:53,079 if they're dying from oil spills. Yeah, So I don't know that they've 390 00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:59,039 had like too too much going on with like a lot of oil spills up 391 00:27:59,079 --> 00:28:03,240 in the Arctic. Quite yet, but it is definitely something that we're kind 392 00:28:03,279 --> 00:28:07,400 of like looking at, kind of given a side eye and thinking about for 393 00:28:07,519 --> 00:28:11,039 the future. But a lot of people, i think, like to look 394 00:28:11,079 --> 00:28:15,920 at the Arctic as just like this beautiful, pure frozen wilderness, right, 395 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:21,440 and that's not quite what it is. There is a very distinct food chain 396 00:28:21,519 --> 00:28:23,680 up there, and polar bears are at the top of the food chain. 397 00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:29,559 They're apex predators. But then you think about things like remember when DDT was 398 00:28:29,599 --> 00:28:33,400 a big deal and it was kind of in everything in the environment and it 399 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:37,480 was affecting you know, bird eggs and things like that. There's kind of 400 00:28:37,519 --> 00:28:41,920 like the same thing going on in the Arctic. And because polar bears are 401 00:28:41,079 --> 00:28:45,920 at the top of the food chain, they're getting a lot of these what 402 00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:49,400 we would they're called pops or persistent organic pollutants, and they just kind of 403 00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:53,160 build up from the bottom of the food chain, and every step it goes 404 00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:57,359 up, there's more and more of the stuff concentrated in what animals are eating. 405 00:28:57,559 --> 00:29:03,480 Right. So it's been shown that polar bears that have high levels of 406 00:29:03,559 --> 00:29:08,640 these persistent organic pollutants are actually also having lower levels of vitamin A, lower 407 00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:15,640 levels of the correct thyroid hormones, lower levels of certain antibodies that they're supposed 408 00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:18,599 to have, And these things are important, like they need them because it 409 00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:22,960 helps with stuff like growth and reproduction and the ability to have a good immune 410 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:29,240 system and fight off diseases things like that. So it could have potentially an 411 00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:33,759 effect on survival if you're not getting the right kinds of vitamins and you don't 412 00:29:33,759 --> 00:29:37,000 have the right levels of hormones. Obviously that's not a good thing. And 413 00:29:37,039 --> 00:29:42,640 in some places it's actually been shown that these persistent organic pollutants are being found 414 00:29:42,799 --> 00:29:48,599 in the milk that mom provides to her cubs. So if you get really 415 00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:52,480 high concentrations of that kind of stuff, of these chemicals in mom's milk, 416 00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:57,240 it can actually poison the cubs, which then leads to a lower survival rate, 417 00:29:57,440 --> 00:30:03,440 right goss. Yeah, So it's kind of like a compounding issue. 418 00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:08,480 And then when you start thinking about adding in a lot more oil exploration emissions 419 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:12,359 leeks all of that kind of stuff. It goes directly into the water or 420 00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:17,440 onto the sea ice. And you know, if a polar bear were to 421 00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:21,079 swim through an area that had had an oil spill, you know it's going 422 00:30:21,119 --> 00:30:23,119 to get into the fur, and then the fur might not be quite as 423 00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:29,279 insulatory as it would be normally. And the polar bearers rely on their fat 424 00:30:29,319 --> 00:30:33,880 lay and all of that really warm, fluffy fur to keep them warm, 425 00:30:33,319 --> 00:30:37,440 and if it's not working correctly, they have to bump up their energy expenditure 426 00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:44,359 to keep warm. Basically, so that could present an issue. Like anything, 427 00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:47,599 if there's oil in the water or oil in the food that the bears 428 00:30:47,599 --> 00:30:51,720 are eating, they can then ingest it through grooming, like licking their fur. 429 00:30:52,119 --> 00:30:56,200 They can eat contaminated prey, and then they can have liver and kidney 430 00:30:56,279 --> 00:31:02,039 damage because they've got oil in their insides essentially, So that's not good either. 431 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:06,880 And then the biggest thing I would think for oil and gas exploration is 432 00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:11,160 that usually when these kinds of things move into these areas, it destroys habitat 433 00:31:11,359 --> 00:31:14,240 a lot of times if you get an oil spill, like look at the 434 00:31:14,279 --> 00:31:18,359 effects from the exon Vald's oil spill. We're still seeing stuff from that and 435 00:31:18,359 --> 00:31:22,200 that's been how many years now. That kind of stuff sticks around, it 436 00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:26,039 clings to the environment, and it makes it so that there are a lot 437 00:31:26,079 --> 00:31:30,279 of long term consequences as well. So when you're talking about climate change, 438 00:31:30,319 --> 00:31:33,000 that's kind of like what we're seeing right now up in center as the big 439 00:31:33,039 --> 00:31:37,799 issue, but polar bears are dealing with a lot of other issues as well, 440 00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:41,240 So it's kind of a sticky situation for them where they're trying to figure 441 00:31:41,279 --> 00:31:45,240 out how do we continue to survive in this environment when we're kind of being 442 00:31:45,519 --> 00:31:49,839 assaulted in all fronts. Absolutely, so, as we're talking about that global 443 00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:55,519 change, how do you feel that global MEA has impacted polar bear attacks? 444 00:31:55,519 --> 00:31:59,160 Specifically? Are you noticing that more bears are moving south or are they moving 445 00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:05,799 north to Santhia that staysy around. Yeah, So I think the big answer 446 00:32:05,839 --> 00:32:12,880 to that question is we really don't know. There are what we've considered nineteen 447 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:20,000 subpopulations or of management areas of polar bears in the Arctic, and we don't 448 00:32:20,039 --> 00:32:22,920 have very good data on some of those populations, so we don't know, 449 00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:27,960 Like some of our populations, we know they're stable, some populations we know 450 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:31,960 they're increasing, some populations we know they're decreasing, and some populations it's just 451 00:32:32,559 --> 00:32:37,640 a big question mark we have no idea what's going on. And I think 452 00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:43,640 a very important thing to remember is polar bears are big animals. They are 453 00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:49,119 capable of traversing incredible distances, and when there's ice up there in the Arctic, 454 00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:53,920 it doesn't really matter where the lines are for those subpopulations or management areas, 455 00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:58,640 right those bears can go anywhere they want as long as there's a way 456 00:32:58,680 --> 00:33:02,039 for them to get from point to point B. So you see bears in 457 00:33:02,079 --> 00:33:08,960 certain populations crossing over into other population areas. Whether they're moving north or south 458 00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:15,480 because of climate change, I don't know. We've seen some bears end up 459 00:33:15,519 --> 00:33:20,119 in really ridiculous areas because they were out swimming and they were looking for ice 460 00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:22,559 and they just never found it and they popped up on land somewhere far away 461 00:33:22,559 --> 00:33:28,920 from where they started. So I think things like that could potentially become more 462 00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:35,079 common. I don't know necessarily about bears moving south. I think they'd probably 463 00:33:35,119 --> 00:33:38,000 try and stay wherever they could find food. But you know, if the 464 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:42,200 food source is south, maybe they will move south. I have no idea. 465 00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:46,200 A lot of people in some of these northern communities and in Inuit communities 466 00:33:47,039 --> 00:33:51,920 say that they haven't seen a decrease in bears at all. In fact, 467 00:33:52,039 --> 00:33:54,759 quite the opposite. A lot of people say they see more bears now than 468 00:33:54,759 --> 00:33:59,920 they ever did before. Wow. So it just really depends, I think, 469 00:34:00,119 --> 00:34:02,720 on the location. But in certain areas, like some of the areas 470 00:34:02,759 --> 00:34:07,639 that I'm familiar with and that I've like where my research takes place, I 471 00:34:07,679 --> 00:34:14,119 think that's the main point is that when the ice disappears, it forces bears 472 00:34:14,199 --> 00:34:17,880 on shore, and they're on shore for longer periods of time because the ice 473 00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:23,119 is melting sooner in the spring and summer and it's not coming back until later 474 00:34:23,599 --> 00:34:28,199 in the fall, And that means bears are on shore for a much longer 475 00:34:28,199 --> 00:34:31,159 period of time than they have been previously. And when they're on shore, 476 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:36,840 they're not hunting for seals because they don't have that ice platform anymore. So 477 00:34:37,559 --> 00:34:42,920 bears that are on shore are trying to save what energy they have because they're 478 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:45,559 not sure exactly when they're going to get back out onto the ice. But 479 00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:50,480 also they might be nutritionally stressed. They might be skinny. It's been a 480 00:34:50,519 --> 00:34:53,239 while since they had their last meal. If they didn't get fat enough during 481 00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:59,760 their seal hunt, then they could still be looking for food, and bears 482 00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:01,920 that are looking for food or going to come into communities, they're going to 483 00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:07,679 come into towns, and just spending more time on shore means there's more chances 484 00:35:07,679 --> 00:35:10,840 for them to come into contact with people because people live there. So you 485 00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:14,760 know, what kind of options do they have? Right? A lot of 486 00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:19,639 these communities, if theace assistance hunt whales, they have to take very very 487 00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:25,639 specific precautions to make sure that they are storing that meat properly, because having 488 00:35:25,639 --> 00:35:30,239 a whale carcass in your community could be like rolling out a welcome matt for 489 00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:35,440 a hungry polar bear. Right, So it just depends, really, I 490 00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:38,519 think a lot of it we don't know, but we are seeing certain trends 491 00:35:38,559 --> 00:35:43,360 in certain places for sure. Gotcha. Well, okay, one thing that 492 00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:46,800 you said that truly blew my mind before we end this, you said, 493 00:35:47,159 --> 00:35:52,599 specifically, mother polar bears don't hibernate. Do you mean that, like all 494 00:35:52,679 --> 00:35:55,199 polar bears don't actually hybridate, they just kind of going like a tour per 495 00:35:55,239 --> 00:36:00,719 situation, or polar bears do not hibernate at all. Oh my gosh. 496 00:36:01,079 --> 00:36:06,000 So like pregnant females will go into a din, so they kind of do 497 00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:12,159 like what brown bears or black bears would do when they hibernate, but only 498 00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:15,159 pregnant females will do that. They're the only ones that will, you know, 499 00:36:15,559 --> 00:36:20,239 go into a den and they'll stay in a din and have her babies 500 00:36:20,559 --> 00:36:23,719 and then she'll come out when they're old enough. But it's not like it's 501 00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:29,480 not like every polar bear hibernates, like a brown bear or black bear would 502 00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:31,960 do that. So like a brown bear or black bear that goes into a 503 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:37,559 din and hibernates is actually hibernating for you know, five six, seven months, 504 00:36:37,559 --> 00:36:42,440 depending on where they live. But only pregnant polar bears will go into 505 00:36:42,519 --> 00:36:45,239 a din so that she can have her cubs. So it's it's like a 506 00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:50,559 hibernation process for them. But in a lot of cases, like when she 507 00:36:50,639 --> 00:36:52,960 does this, when she finally comes out of the din, it's been eight 508 00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:57,760 months, seven or eight months since the last time she ate anything, right, 509 00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:01,119 So it is like a hibernation process. But that's what other bear species 510 00:37:01,199 --> 00:37:06,480 do, but polar bears don't really hibernate like I think a lot of people 511 00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:09,239 have kind of referred to me in the past as like a walking hibernation because 512 00:37:09,239 --> 00:37:13,840 they don't actually go into a din and go to sleep for months like brown 513 00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:17,440 and black bears will. They just kind of meander about on land, but 514 00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:21,639 they're they're looking for food or they're just waiting for the ice to come in. 515 00:37:21,639 --> 00:37:24,199 They're trying to minimize their energy expenditure because they don't know when their next 516 00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:28,400 meal is going to be. So a lot of people will refer to it 517 00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:31,320 as a walking hibernation, but it's not. It's not a hibernation at all. 518 00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:35,840 That's so cool. Well, Danielle, that is all we had for 519 00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:38,079 you, but we would love to know where people can find you if you 520 00:37:38,159 --> 00:37:44,280 have a website that you want to promote. Sure. I am on Twitter 521 00:37:44,559 --> 00:37:50,000 as a Grizzly Girl. Eighty seven is my handle, and I actually do 522 00:37:50,119 --> 00:37:52,840 a thing most Tuesdays called Knock Knock, Who's Bear. I'm not sure if 523 00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:59,360 anybody has seen it. Oh yes, it's so good. So on Tuesdays 524 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:04,199 at noon my time, So I'm in Saskatchewan, we don't do daylight Savings 525 00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:07,000 time, so half the year I'm on Central Time and half the year I'm 526 00:38:07,039 --> 00:38:13,440 on Mountain time. But on Tuesdays at noon I will post a picture of 527 00:38:13,519 --> 00:38:19,079 a bear or a bear track, and I ask people if they can tell 528 00:38:19,079 --> 00:38:23,039 me what species of bear it is and why, and then I when I 529 00:38:23,119 --> 00:38:29,599 reveal the answer, I'll explain how to identify that particular photo, because it 530 00:38:29,639 --> 00:38:34,559 can be really complicated sometimes to see the differences between a black bear or a 531 00:38:34,559 --> 00:38:38,639 brown bear, or like just looking at a track can be complicated. But 532 00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:43,199 I think it's really important for people to know what kinds of animals are in 533 00:38:43,239 --> 00:38:47,480 the environment that they're out recreating in because you would handle a black bear encounter 534 00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:52,440 very differently than you would handle a brown bear encounter or a polar bear encounter. 535 00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:58,239 So it's important to know how to tell the differences between them and to 536 00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:04,199 notice like the behavioral differences and the physical morphological differences and how those work and 537 00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:08,239 how that makes them what they are. So yes, Grizzly Girl eighty seven 538 00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:13,119 on Twitter, and I do knock Knock Who's Bear every Tuesday. Nick is 539 00:39:13,159 --> 00:39:15,440 truly mind blown that I've never mentioned this to him before, because it's funny 540 00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:17,800 because I see it every week and I've never thought to tell you, Nick, 541 00:39:20,559 --> 00:39:22,039 what a name? Knock Knock, Who's Bear? Did you ever pay 542 00:39:22,039 --> 00:39:27,119 someone for that? Or no? Actually somebody. I was just kind of 543 00:39:27,199 --> 00:39:30,320 joking around and I was like, wouldn't this be funny if I if I 544 00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:34,800 did this and somebody's like, yes, you should call it this, And 545 00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:39,079 I was like, oh my goodness, you have to. I was like, 546 00:39:39,599 --> 00:39:43,320 is it okay if I use that? And they're like absolutely, So 547 00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:45,960 I've been doing it for three years now, I think, oh geez. 548 00:39:46,159 --> 00:39:49,880 And I didn't even come up with a name for it. I was just 549 00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:52,159 like, Oh, I'm just gonna do like a bear id game. It's 550 00:39:52,159 --> 00:39:53,440 going to be so fun. And they're like, yes, you should call 551 00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:57,400 it Knock Knock, Who's there? And here it is. So is there 552 00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:00,599 a way for people to stay connected with your research? I mean, obviously 553 00:40:00,599 --> 00:40:01,960 you're getting a PhD, so it's going to take a while. But do 554 00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:06,639 you have like a lab website or anything? Yes, I think so, 555 00:40:07,039 --> 00:40:13,039 But there is a lab website through University of Saskatchewan under Douglas Clark. He's 556 00:40:13,119 --> 00:40:17,960 my supervisor and he has all of our information and like our little research blurbs 557 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:22,400 on his website. Yeah. I think like an easy way to find it 558 00:40:22,440 --> 00:40:25,360 would just be to do a general Google search. But I also have a 559 00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:30,800 research gate website. That has usually links to the papers that I've been on. 560 00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:35,760 I used to have on my own personal website, but I haven't updated 561 00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:37,920 it in forever, so I should probably get on that. But yeah, 562 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:43,079 if people are interested in that kind of stuff, like, I'll frequently post 563 00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:46,360 trailcam photos from the project, you know, just kind of cute or interesting 564 00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:52,400 pictures. I retweet bear stuff all the time on Twitter, and if anybody 565 00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:55,800 really has any questions, like my dms are open on Twitter so people can 566 00:40:57,079 --> 00:40:59,800 can ask me bare questions. I get people all the time who send me 567 00:41:00,079 --> 00:41:02,199 pictures of like poop and tracks and stuff and they're like, what is this 568 00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:05,880 And I'm like, you know, I do my best to try and figure 569 00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:08,880 that out. Or people can submit pictures for Knock Knock Who's Bear if they've 570 00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:13,960 got pictures that they want to share. So all of that kind of stuff, 571 00:41:14,119 --> 00:41:17,239 you know, is there, and I am always willing. I know 572 00:41:17,760 --> 00:41:23,039 most of us who are in academia who publish papers, we're willing to send 573 00:41:23,079 --> 00:41:28,599 you papers if you just email us or send us a message on Twitter if 574 00:41:28,599 --> 00:41:31,000 you're interested in something, because I know a lot of these papers are behind 575 00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:37,800 pay walls and they're very difficult to access. We will always always send people 576 00:41:37,079 --> 00:41:42,280 copies of our papers, so that kind of stuff not an issue at all. 577 00:41:42,559 --> 00:41:45,719 Than Also, like, it's so apparent to me that we write these 578 00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:51,559 academic papers for the general public, but sometimes they make zero sense to someone 579 00:41:51,599 --> 00:41:57,920 who's not in the science field. Yeah, but there's still good graphics and 580 00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:00,400 everything, So yeah, I would love to see your polar bear studies. 581 00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:04,280 So I will definitely be hitting you up, oh for sure. And the 582 00:42:04,639 --> 00:42:07,800 funny thing is is that a lot of these papers, like the research is 583 00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:10,760 all funded by taxpayers, right, so why shouldn't they have access to it. 584 00:42:12,199 --> 00:42:14,559 If somebody asks me for a copy of the paper, I'm going to 585 00:42:14,639 --> 00:42:16,840 send it to them, Like it's only fair that you get to know what 586 00:42:16,880 --> 00:42:22,280 your money is going to in terms of scientific research. So awesome, Well, 587 00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:23,639 thank you so much, Danielle. This has been so great. You've 588 00:42:23,639 --> 00:42:27,719 taught me so many things I had no idea about, like the fact that 589 00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:30,320 polar bears don't hibridate. That's still blowing my mind. I just don't the 590 00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:34,599 name of the Dame the polar Oh knock knock, Who's bear? Yeah we 591 00:42:34,639 --> 00:42:39,440 have different takeaways, but sure, you know, different things are important to 592 00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:43,559 different people. It's fine. One more thing that I do want to mention 593 00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:45,960 really quick. I don't know if you guys saw it earlier, but there 594 00:42:46,079 --> 00:42:52,679 is the Arctic Bears project that was released on Zuniverse this past February, and 595 00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:58,159 it coincided with the International Polar Bear Day. And that's basically I don't know 596 00:42:58,199 --> 00:43:01,119 if you guys have ever used universe before, but like Panthera does a lot 597 00:43:01,199 --> 00:43:07,159 with Zooiverse, and like there's a Penguin project and all sorts of things. 598 00:43:07,199 --> 00:43:10,280 But basically, they take these trail cam photos and they post them on Zooniverse 599 00:43:10,599 --> 00:43:15,280 for you know, the general public to go through, and you can classify 600 00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:20,760 photos based on what species you see in the picture. So we have released 601 00:43:21,159 --> 00:43:25,280 a lot of our trailcam photos to Zoomiverse through the Arctic Bears project, So 602 00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:30,960 you can go through and see the pictures of wolves and caribou and black brown 603 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:36,880 and polar bears and all these other animals that we get on our trail cameras, 604 00:43:37,480 --> 00:43:39,800 and you can, you know, select the species from a list. 605 00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:43,880 There's a field guide there that helps you identify. If you're not familiar with 606 00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:46,400 artic species, you can tell, you know, how many animals are in 607 00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:52,679 the picture, you can, i believe, select specific behaviors that the animals 608 00:43:52,679 --> 00:43:57,559 are doing, and all of that information basically gets put into a huge database, 609 00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:01,480 and then we can extract that data from the database and use it so 610 00:44:01,519 --> 00:44:07,840 that we don't have to sift through millions of photos all by ourselves. Yeah, 611 00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:10,760 that's awesome and it's super helpful for us. It just puts it like 612 00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:15,400 into a really nice spreadsheet so that we can access all of that information. 613 00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:20,159 It's like a queriable database that we can pull information from without having to look 614 00:44:20,199 --> 00:44:23,119 at, you know, hundreds of photos of blowing snow. Yeah, you 615 00:44:23,119 --> 00:44:27,639 know, we can kind of like sift that stuff out. So it's very 616 00:44:27,639 --> 00:44:31,039 helpful and it's super fun. So people should go do that. It's going 617 00:44:31,119 --> 00:44:37,079 to be live again later this fall into the winter once we get our latest 618 00:44:37,079 --> 00:44:40,400 photos uploaded, but you can always go at any time and kind of click 619 00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:44,800 through a bunch of the pictures that have already been classified. Yeah, I 620 00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:47,519 will certainly link to that. Thank you so much, Danielle. This has 621 00:44:47,559 --> 00:44:53,159 been great, sure, no problem. It's been really fun. I learned 622 00:44:53,199 --> 00:44:57,719 so much from Danielle, Like I had no idea that polar bears were even 623 00:44:57,719 --> 00:45:00,440 in Norway, and so we did the interview before for I researched the attack 624 00:45:00,719 --> 00:45:06,440 portion for this episode, and I'm I was blown away that they had such 625 00:45:06,440 --> 00:45:09,760 a range. Yeah, it's crazy how little we actually know about them or 626 00:45:09,920 --> 00:45:14,000 knew about them. Like, thankfully now we've definitely gotten better with that, 627 00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:17,760 especially since we've had some time to do the research and get some stories about 628 00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:22,760 them. But going into that, we knew very dick nothing, Dick nothing, 629 00:45:22,800 --> 00:45:27,880 Dick nothing. Wow, Yeah, who's that Richard? So I think 630 00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:31,679 my favorite part of this interview slash just Danielle as a person. A lot 631 00:45:31,679 --> 00:45:35,639 of the biologists that we speak to, and this is to no fault of 632 00:45:35,679 --> 00:45:39,039 their own, when you are studying to conserve an animal, it can be 633 00:45:39,119 --> 00:45:44,800 very uncomfortable to talk about that animal hurting people. Yeah, because your whole 634 00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:47,039 point is that you want people to like that animal to help conserve it. 635 00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:52,280 So I've found that a few biologists who've spoken to, like, I mean, 636 00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:55,320 obviously, attacks for every animal that we talk about are rare, but 637 00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:59,920 it seems like some people get uncomfortable talking about it. Danielle was stood up 638 00:45:59,960 --> 00:46:01,199 like, oh, they'll kill you, they will come after you. You 639 00:46:01,239 --> 00:46:06,599 gotta shoot them, which like obviously polar bear is do new conserving, but 640 00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:09,280 also you need to be very careful with them. And I loved how realistic 641 00:46:09,320 --> 00:46:14,519 she was about that, Like she did not play around, don't talk around, 642 00:46:14,639 --> 00:46:15,960 yeah, because if you fuck around with polar bears, you die. 643 00:46:16,039 --> 00:46:20,559 And this is something that is her life, Like she needs to be probably 644 00:46:20,599 --> 00:46:23,119 ready to you know, kill a bear when she's out there during a research 645 00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:27,760 yeah, which is she's actively worried about that, Yeah, which is crazy. 646 00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:29,800 And she was saying like you need to have a person in the front 647 00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:32,599 and probably the back to specifically just look for polar bears. Like I don't 648 00:46:32,599 --> 00:46:35,679 know, once again, I mentioned it before, but I feel like we 649 00:46:35,719 --> 00:46:38,440 always take for granted just feeling safe in the woods here in New England because 650 00:46:38,440 --> 00:46:42,119 we don't have anything to worry about really great. Yeah, or if you 651 00:46:42,159 --> 00:46:44,840 live in like England or something, you really have nothing to worry about it 652 00:46:44,840 --> 00:46:50,119 because everything's dead. So yeah, I don't know. I loved it. 653 00:46:50,199 --> 00:46:52,239 I loved how realistic she was about them. I learned a whole lot. 654 00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:55,000 She was great with us too, which we definitely needed it a little bit. 655 00:46:55,199 --> 00:47:00,719 Oh yeah, no, And I will say we recover very well from 656 00:47:00,719 --> 00:47:04,480 the controversy at the beginning the Fat Bear week. My god, I know 657 00:47:04,519 --> 00:47:07,400 you have a lot of strong feelings about the outcome. It's been like what 658 00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:10,000 a month now, Yeah, and I'm still heated. So yeah, it'd 659 00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:14,159 be all right. Would you like to discuss more? No, okay, 660 00:47:14,559 --> 00:47:17,800 it's better for everyone if you shut up about it. Yeah, I agree 661 00:47:19,079 --> 00:47:21,159 as someone who had to hear about it a lot. You don't have to 662 00:47:21,159 --> 00:47:23,519 be my friend. Oh all right, Well I hit the end recording and 663 00:47:23,800 --> 00:47:27,000 it was nice knowing you. That's been great. Thanks, thanks for having 664 00:47:27,039 --> 00:47:30,199 me over, thanks to McDonald's. I'll see you later anytime. No, 665 00:47:30,440 --> 00:47:32,599 so, yeah, do you have anything else? Dad got? All right? 666 00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:37,320 Uh? Pull it? Bears a sick like cool fourth favorite Bear competitive 667 00:47:37,320 --> 00:47:38,079 list. We went over this last time. I don't think I have a 668 00:47:38,119 --> 00:47:42,000 list of favorite Bears. Oh you need to get on that. Yeah. 669 00:47:42,079 --> 00:47:44,440 I think that's about it. I don't want to take up too long in 670 00:47:44,440 --> 00:47:46,519 this outro either, because once again, this episode would be forever. We 671 00:47:46,559 --> 00:47:50,599 just talked about all the things that we loved about Bears and Danielle. We 672 00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:54,159 can almost ramble on Mike for hours. We won't we do? Yeah, 673 00:47:54,239 --> 00:47:58,800 So anyways, thanks for joining us of episode thirteen point five of Get out 674 00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:01,679 Alive. You can it's on Patreon dot com slash get it alive for all 675 00:48:01,920 --> 00:48:06,559 the fun stuff that we do there, like you can vote on episodes, 676 00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:09,159 you can ask people questions, which, like you heard in this episode, 677 00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:14,800 we'll throw fun stuff at you sometimes like this. We're working on bonus episode 678 00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:17,760 ideas and whatnot, which will look a little bit different from these episodes, 679 00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:22,000 probably, but will still be fun, even more chaotic, probably, yeah, 680 00:48:22,639 --> 00:48:28,159 definitely, probably the less censored version, which we're already not that censored. 681 00:48:28,599 --> 00:48:31,599 We actually do a lot more than people know. It's just terrible. 682 00:48:31,760 --> 00:48:35,559 People constantly complain about you swearing, and I'm like, hey, that explicit 683 00:48:35,559 --> 00:48:38,440 things right there for a reason. Also, we cut so much stuff. 684 00:48:38,679 --> 00:48:42,880 Yeah, yeah, this is pretty bad. Yeah, I'm a problem. 685 00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:49,719 So anyways. You can also join us on get out a Live podcast dot 686 00:48:49,719 --> 00:48:53,519 com for more information about this episode and links to everything, like where you 687 00:48:53,519 --> 00:48:57,880 can find Danielle and some other things mentioned in the episode, like the polar 688 00:48:57,920 --> 00:49:00,519 Bear tracker yep, super cool. You can rate us on Apple Podcasts and 689 00:49:00,519 --> 00:49:05,119 subscribe wherever you're listening. You can follow us on Instagram at get out a 690 00:49:05,119 --> 00:49:08,119 Live pod and Facebook at get Out a Live podcast, and you can follow 691 00:49:08,239 --> 00:49:14,400 me on Twitter at the Angryologist Nick. I'm starting a rival podcast called Ashley 692 00:49:14,480 --> 00:49:15,800 Smells, so feel free to go. Give that a listen, give that 693 00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:19,800 a rate. It's great. Second me out by the time this is out. 694 00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:22,800 Oh shit, now okay, nevermind describes for that. Yeah, keep 695 00:49:22,800 --> 00:49:24,719 an eye out for Ashley Smells. And thank you to my good friend second 696 00:49:24,760 --> 00:49:28,559 grade husband Josh Walsh for making our intro music. And we will see you 697 00:49:28,719 --> 00:49:32,719 next week for a new animal tech story because you spoiled facts. Goodbye, Peace,