CAN LOVE SAVE BEARS?
It is hard to look at a polar bear and not feel something. Regardless of your politics or urban/rural leanings, you cannot be impassive. Their majestic beauty and ferocity thrills us. Their soft and tender side inspires us. And their vulnerability to human impacts on their environment makes them even more precious. If we love them enough, can we save them?
A LIFE OF TRAVEL
Thomas Kokta is an award-winning nature photographer who has a love affair with polar bears. You can tell by looking at any one of his brilliant photographs. The point is driven home when you realize that he had to brave -40 to -50° F temperatures (not counting wicked wind chill) to get his shots.
Kokta founded A Life of Travel, an adventure travel agency, that specializes in wild beauty. You might visit the Polar Bear Babies, in Churchill Manitoba, the self-proclaimed “polar bear capital of the world,” on the shores of Canada’s Hudson Bay.
Every fall, hundreds of bears hang out on the tundra on the outskirts of town, waiting for the bay to freeze so they can walk across, in search of seals.
This season was so cold, even the bears were smart enough to stay inside their dens. But when they began to emerge, as Spring did, with the Solar Max Aurora Borealis lighting their way, Kokta was ready. What a joy is it to witness.
POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL & GOOGLE
Polar Bears International (PBI) is the world’s leading polar bear conservation group, dedicated to saving polar bears by saving their sea ice habitat.
PBI’s chief scientist, Dr. Steven Amstrup, is world-renowned for his work with polar bears and conservation efforts.
In 2012, Amstrup was selected as the recipient of the Indianapolis Prize, considered the Nobel Prize for animal conservation, and a Bambi Award, one of the highest honors in Europe.
Few people have the opportunity to see polar bears in the wild.
A new collaboration between Google and Polar Bears International (PBI) aims to bring a dramatic and up-close polar bear experience into homes and classrooms around the world.
The project was launched on 02.27.14, International Polar Bear Day.
The started in Churchill. They attached a Google Street View "Trekker" on board a Tundra Buggy, a truck outfitted with monster wheels that can handle the tundra.
PBI team spent the season capturing imagery of polar bear life. It is now viewable through Google Maps and you can check it out on the PBI website.
But beyond the pleasure of getting up close and personal with the bears, the PBI-Google Street View project has helped to establish baselines so that scientist can monitor changes in the polar bear’s environment over time.
Researchers have also used the Trekker similarly in places like the Amazon and the Galapagos Islands.
To learn more or make a donation to support this important work, visit Polar Bear International.
SOME GOOD NEWS FOR POLAR BEARS
Last year marked the 40th anniversary of a turning point in polar bear conservation. In 1973, the Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears, to protect this endangered species, was signed by the five countries where the bears mainly live.
Canada, Denmark, Norway, the former Soviet Union, and US agreed to ban sport hunting and commercial harvesting . There is some good news. Polar bear numbers have since increased to an estimated 20-25,000 individuals. Although other threats, like climate change, persist.
Read more about Beautiful Love all this week on BeautifulNow, including Beautiful Places to Love Together and Beautiful New Passions To Love & Wear Now. And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Wellness, Impact, Nature/Science, Food, Arts/Design, and Travel, Daily Fix posts.
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- Photo: Courtesy of Martinez Gazette. Polar bear.
- Photo: by Thomas Kokta. Mother Polar Bear and cub.
- Photo: by Thomas Kokta. Mother Polar Bear and cub.
- Photo: by Thomas Kokta. Mother Polar Bear and cub.
- Photo: Courtesy of Bengal Reporter. Polar bear jumping.
- Photo: by Tambako the Jaguar. Polar bear paw.
- Photo: Courtesy of Google Street View & PBI. Street View Trekker on a Tundra Buggy.
- Photo: Courtesy of Wikipedia. Polar bear cubs.
- Photo by Image Editor. Northern lights.
