Is a Kodiak bear different from a grizzly bear or an Alaskan brown bear? This is a good question and its answer may vary depending on which expert you ask. Biologists can and do measure genetic diversity between populations, but how much diversity is significant enough to declare a population a separate subspecies?

Before the advent of genetic testing, the subspecies classification was based on physical differences between the individuals of two different populations. Hart Merriam divided the North American brown and grizzly bears into eighty-six subspecies Troyer,basing these classifications on small physical differences. Today, all North American and Eurasian brown and grizzly bears are grouped into one species, Ursus arctos.

The bears of the Kodiak Archipelago are further subdivided into the subspecies, Ursus arctos middendorfi, and all other brown and grizzly bears are included in the subspecies Ursus arctos horribilis.

Recent research has questioned whether or not Kodiak bears differ enough genetically from other brown bears to warrant a separate subspecies classification Talbot and Shields, ; Patekau et al.

Since taxonomy is not an exact science, taxonomic classifications often change, but at the present time, the Kodiak bear is considered a separate, distinct subspecies of brown bear. Kodiak brown bears exist only on the islands of the Kodiak Archipelago. The archipelago is located in the western Gulf of Alaska, approximately miles km southwest of Anchorage.

The island group is miles The Kodiak Archipelago is home to over Kodiak brown bears. Inthe brown bear density on the island was estimated at 0. This density estimate is a bit misleadinghowever,since bears are not evenly distributed across the archipelago. In the spring, summer, and fall, the bear density is much greater along the coast and along salmon streams, while there are fewer bears in alpine regions. During the past decade, the Kodiak bear population has been slowly increasing.

Recent genetic research has shown that while Kodiak brown bears are closely related to Alaska Peninsula brown bears and to brown bears in Kamchatka, Russia, Kodiak bears have been isolated since ice sheets receded at the end of the Pleistocene epoch 10, to 12, years ago Talbot et al.

Confessions of a Marine Biologist - OFFICIAL Trailer

The brown bear is characterized by its dished-in face, short, round ears, high brow, and distinctive hump between its shoulders. The hump is actually a mass of muscles, which together with its long claws, make the brown bear very effective at digging Brown, One of the original reasons for classifying Kodiak bears as a separate subspecies was not only due to their large size but also because of their broad skulls.

The skull is the last skeletal part of a bear to stop growing. Biologists take skull measurements with a large set of calipers, and the skull size is determined by adding the length of the skull to the width of the skull.

A skull that is 15 inches Because skull size usually represents the physical size of the animal, and skull size is a definitive measurement hides can be stretchedhunting-record books use skull size to rate the trophy value of a bear.

The world record skull is from a Kodiak bear, and it measures According to the Boone and Crockett Club record book, seventeen of the twenty largest brown bear skulls taken by hunters have come from Kodiak bears Nesbitt and Renau, One of the main reasons Kodiak bears grow so much larger than inland grizzly bears is due to the abundance of food on Kodiak. Not only can bears feast on protein-rich salmon in the summer, but the archipelago is loaded with nutritious vegetation and sugar-packed berries.

Watch this video by Barb Gilligan and listen to those jaw muscles and teeth in action as this bear easily rips the skin off of a salmon and crushes and snaps its bones. Think how much power it takes to do that.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of bear viewing is watching a bear chase and catch a salmon. Sows teach their cubs how to fish and will often corral the salmon toward the cub in shallow water and then encourage the cub to chase the fish. A sow with newborn cubs that are still nursing will only allow her cubs to eat a small part of her catch after she has had her fill, because she needs the extra protein to provide milk to nurse her cubs, and the cubs are receiving most of their nutrition from her.

As the cubs age, they nurse less and less, and the sow shares more of her catch with them. Finally, when they are old enough, she encourages them to fish on their own, and by the time the cubs are two years old, they can usually chase and catch a few salmon without the help of their mother.

Fishing is a skill bears learn with much practice over time, and young bears are often clumsy fishermen. A sub-adult bear may gallop back and forth in a stream for thirty minutes without successfully landing a salmon, while an older bear will walk slowly downstream and pounce on a passing salmon with apparently little effort.

A bear may also develop his own unique fishing technique. One bear may sit on a fallen log hanging low over a stream and attempt to grab fish as they swim past. Can you tell which of the two bears in the following video is the more experienced at catching salmon? A bear uses his nose to find food, locate a mate, and avoid danger.

A bear downwind from you may smell your presence and run from you while you are still several hundred yards away from him. Brown bears have relatively small ears, but they are able to detect noises at a great distance. A bear can hear the click of a camera shutter over the sound of wind, crashing waves, or a swiftly moving river.

They are not nearsighted as was once believed, and they can see colors Breiter, Brown bears often stand on their hind legs to increase their sight distance and get a better look at an object. The important thing to remember is that a bear does not use each one of these senses independent of the others. If he sees something unfamiliar in the distance, such as a person, a boat, or even another bear, he may stand on his hind legs to get a better look, raise his nose to attempt to smell the interloper, and pick up his ears to try to ascertain unfamiliar sounds.

If he still cannot determine what the object is, he may approach it for a closer look or circle around downwind from the object so that he can smell it better.

Bears are typically darker in the fall when they begin growing their winter coat, and older bears are often darker than younger bears, but these are just generalizations.

One cub from a litter may be light, while his brother is dark brown. Brown bears have non-retractable claws that may be as long as four inches Troyer, The claws of young bears are typically dark brown and then lighten with age.

Although some young bears have light-colored claws, beautiful, pearly-white claws are usually seen on an old sow or boar. Look at these photos and notice the difference in claw coloration between the old sow on the left and the sub-adult bear to the right.

Brown bears use their claws to defend themselves and fight with other bears, but Kodiak bears primarily use their claws to dig for roots and other food and to grip food. Even though their claws look large and clumsy to us, they are actually quite dexterous and capable of manipulating small objects Brown, Bear cubs use their claws to climb trees, but adult brown bears are poor climbers due to their body weight and the structure of their claws Brown, Brown bears have a shuffling, lumbering walk.

They are flat-footed and pigeon-toed, and they walk with both legs on one side moving together. Their paws strike the ground in the following sequence: Right forepaw then left hind paw then the left forepaw followed by the right hind paw Brown, When walking at a fast pace, the hind paw is often placed well in front of the forepaw track.

Brown bears can run very fast over a short distance and have been clocked at 35 to 40mph. Even over a long distance, they can quickly cover a great deal of ground and climb steep banks with ease. They are also excellent swimmers and often swim for a mile or two to cross a bay or lake. A brown bear swims with his body below water and his head and nose only slightly above the waterline. While bears are strong swimmers, they seem ill-at-ease and vulnerable when swimming, and when approached closely by a boat, a bear may give up his plan to swim across the bay and return to the shore he just left, even if he is closer to the opposite shore.

On sunny summer days, it is common to see bears lying or splashing in the water to cool themselves, and some bears will even dive underwater to catch salmon Troyer, Brown bears are not considered territorial, but they do have home ranges.

A home range is the geographical area a bear inhabits over the course of a year Troyer, The ranges of separate bears overlap and vary in size depending on several factors. The ranges tend to be smaller in regions with abundant food supply and where the food supply is near the denning habitat. Kodiak bears have smaller home ranges than most other brown bear populations in North America because of the abundant food supply on the island McLoughlin et al.

Males tend to have larger home ranges than females, and home ranges may increase in the fall when there is less food available and bears are attempting to build their fat reserves for the winter Brown, Home ranges of females on Kodiak average 50 sq. There have been several scientific studies conducted on Kodiak to understand home ranges and the movements of bears relative to salmon runs and food sources Clark, ; Troyer and Hensel, a; Gard, ; Berns et al, ; Atwell et al.

Studies near Karluk Lake show that bears move extensively between different drainages and often time their arrival at a particular stream to exactly coincide with the arrival of the salmon run for that stream. This would not be so exceptional if the salmon returned at the same time every year, but the runs often vary by several weeks from year to year.

Recent research by Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge biologist William Leacock and his team provided detailed information on the daily movements of radio-collared bears in the Karluk drainage www.

Utah Chukar & Wildlife Foundation | Chukar Partidges in Utah

During andthis team fitted eight female bears with GPS collars that broadcast information at one-hour intervals. This information allowed the researchers to track not only the seasonal movement, but the daily and even hourly movements of these bears and to coordinate their travels in response to food sources and bedding areas.

Some surprising results emerged from this study, and what struck me was how much the movement patterns, home ranges, and bedding habits varied from sow to sow. This study as well as any points out that bears, like humans, are individuals, and one bear may have a different behavior pattern from another bear. To understand a bear's strength, you only need to observe one running effortlessly up a steep slope, quickly digging a den out of the side of a mountain, or easily flipping huge boulders weighing several hundred pounds.

Kodiak bears are powerfully built with a heavy skeleton and a thick layer of muscles. The hump on their backs is a mass of muscles that aid in their ability to dig and provide a powerful striking force with their fore paws Brown, Bears do not have sweat glands, though, and that coupled with their insulating fur can make staying cool on a hot, sunny day a challenge.

Bears employ a variety of techniques to solve this problem, including resting in the shade, stretching out on their bellies on the cool ground, panting like a dog, sitting or lying in a cold stream or the ocean, sprawling on snow patches, and shaking off water when they emerge from a stream.

They are able to dissipate heat through their paws, which are well supplied with blood vessels and through areas with minimal fur such as the face, ears, nose, belly and the insides of the legs. This is why you sometimes see bears lounging on the ground with their legs spread wide Brown, Bears suffer from many of the same ailments that effect other mammals, including arthritis.

Bears can also suffer from many of the same ailments that affect other mammals, including arthritis. Traumatic injuries can be very devastating, especially if the injuries affect the bear's ability to procure food or protect himself. Poor teeth can directly impact a bear's abilaity to eat, and any factor that leads to inadequate fat reserves before hibernation can result in starvation.

Bears hibernate in the winter to conserve energy when weather conditions are harsh and food is scarce. While hibernating bears experience a degree of dormancy, it is nowhere near as extreme as it is in many other species such as bats, squirrels, and rodents. On Kodiak where winters are relatively mild, bears often go into and out of hibernation and some bears mostly boars do not hibernate at all.

It is common to see bear tracks in the snow all winter on Kodiak. Bears typically enter their dens in the order of pregnant females followed by lone females and females with cubs. Males are the last to enter their dens, and large, old boars in particular may not hibernate at all Troyer, A study on denning behavior on Kodiak determined that during the study period, pregnant sows on the northern end of the island entered their dens around November 5 thbut pregnant females in the southwestern region of the island did not begin denning until November 19 th Van Daele et al.

Denning conditions vary from year to year depending on the weather conditions and the availability of food Troyer, The time of den emergence in the spring is also dependent upon temperature and weather conditions and varies by sex and age. Males typically leave their dens first, followed by single females and then sows with cubs.

Before a bear digs and enters his den, he eats a large amount of food to build his fat layer. Berries, such as the elderberries in the photo at right, provide natural sugars, and a bear may gain as much as 20, calories per day from eating berries in the late summer and fall. Bears also drink large quantities of water and consume foods high in protein, such as salmon. Brown bears add six to eight inches They stop eating shortly before they enter their dens Brown, During hibernation, bears do not eat, drink, urinate, or defecate.

They curl up to conserve heat, but they may change position in the den. They are sensitive to their surroundings, and they may awaken and move about or even temporarily leave the den.

Pregnant sows give birth while in hibernation, and they are able to lactate to nurse their cubs. They can also lick and groom their cubs Brown, The amazing physiological adaptations of bears during hibernation are of much interest to human medical researchers. If a human must endure prolonged bed rest due to paralysis or illness, or if a broken limb is immobilized, or if an astronaut spends several months in space, the human body faces such risks as blood clots, heart failure, a significant loss of muscle mass, a breakdown of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, as well as life-threatening bed sores.

A hibernating bear has none of these risks, including no loss of muscle function. Scientists are interested in determining what specific changes in metabolites, proteins, and hormones allow bears these amazing physiological adaptations during several months of inactivity. Humans, as well as all other mammals who maintain non-weight-bearing positions for an extend period of time suffer from osteoporosis Wickelgren,but bears do not lose bone mass during hibernation.

When the secret to how bears accomplish this feat is discovered, it may help people with weak bones, patients who become bedridden for a prolonged period of time, people who suffer paralysis, and astronauts on long space missions.

While bears are hibernating and metabolizing body fat, their cholesterol levels are twice as high as respective cholesterol levels in humans Baggett, Bears, however, do not suffer from arteriosclerosis or gallstones, conditions that plague humans with high cholesterol.

Insight into how bears recycle urea during hibernation could lead to advances in treatments for kidney failure and dialysis in humans. It is also interesting that bears gain a great deal of weight in the fall before going into himbernation, but unlike many obese humans, they remain insulin-sensitive. Conversely, they become insulin-resistant once they are in hibernation so their fat won't break down too quickly, but once they wake in the spring, they once again respond to insulin.

In other words, bears are able to put themselves into a diabetic state while hibernating and then reverse out of it in the spring. Understanding how bears accomplish this feat could lead to breakthrough medical advances in the treatment of diabetes and obesity in humans Corbit, Bears emerge slowly from their dens in the spring.

A bear may go in and out of his den many times over the course of several days before leaving his den for good. This is especially true of sows with newborn cubs who may stay near the den for one to two weeks, slowly allowing the small cubs to adapt to the outside world Troyer, Upon emergence, bears are groggy and sluggish, and it takes time for their bodily functions to return to normal.

Soon after leaving the den, a bear will pass a fecal plug that may be as much as two feet 61 cm in length. This plug consists of digested food that has accumulated in the lower intestine as a result of not defecating all winter Troyer, After leaving the den, bears drink large quantities of water and slowly begin to eat new plant shoots. Kodiak bears are sexually mature at age five, but sows often do not successfully produce a litter for a few years after that http: Mating season on Kodiak takes place from mid-May to mid-July, but it is most active during June Troyer, Brown bears are considered serially monogamous.

A female may what are 60 second binary options candlestick patterns with a male for several days or weeks, mating many times, and once he leaves, she will be pursued by her next suitor.

Over the course of the mating wealthiest currency traders, she will have several sexual partners. The mating pair often stays together while sleeping or eating. As foreplay, they sometimes rub, cuff, or even bite each other, and the female may refuse to let the male breed with her for several days after he first begins to pursue her.

The breeding process itself may last for forty-five minutes or longer, with the male taking breaks and sometimes falling asleep during the process Troyer, Ovulation in mammals is either spontaneous as it is in humans or induced by the male, as it is in bears. Spontaneous ovulation works fine for animals that live in herds or family groups, but bears lead solitary lives often not near other members of their species.

To ensure that the sow has a fertile egg present at the time the male copulates with her, ovulation is induced by mechanical stimulation of the male Breiter, The male brown bear has a penis bone or baculum that stimulates the female to ovulate. The stimulation requires some time for ovulation to occur, but scientists are not sure exactly how much time is required. It is fairly certain, though, that short mating sessions are usually not successful. Each ovulation produces only one egg, so bear cubs from the same litter are fraternal and not identical, and cubs from the same litter may have different fathers Breiter, The gestation period of all mammals has two stages.

This process takes about a week, and the sac is called a blastocyst Breiter, It is impossible for the blastocyst to divide further at this point, because the nourishment provided by the egg has been depleted. For further growth to take place, the blastocyst must be implanted into the uterus wall, where a placenta will develop which will provide nutrients for the growing fetus.

The blastocyst implants immediately on the uterine wall in many mammals, but in others, implantation is delayed. In bears, the blastocyst implants in the wall of the uterus after the pregnant female goes into hibernation.

This delayed implantation is advantageous to the female, because her body expends little energy on the developing fetus until the beginning of winter. If she does not have sufficient fat reserves to sustain herself and her developing embryos, the pregnancy is terminated Breiter, Because of delayed implantation, the length of gestation in bears is variable. The length of time from when the egg is fertilized by the sperm until the sow gives birth is seven to nine months, but the actual period of fetal development is two-and-one-half months.

Kodiak bears typically give birth to between one to four cubs http: The sow in the photo at right has five cubs, but this is not common. Since a bear cub fetus only develops for two-and-one-half months, the cubs are very underdeveloped when they are born. No other mammal except marsupials have such immature offspring at birth Breiter, The reason why cubs are born at such a premature stage of development is that the mother must provide nutrients for her unborn young while she is in hibernation and not eating.

She provides these nutrients by breaking down her own body protein, which causes her to lose muscle mass. If she carried the cubs longer, she would lose too much muscle mass and would not even be able to move by the end of hibernation. While a shorter gestation period produces underdeveloped cubs, the mother maintains enough physical strength to be able to care for her offspring Breiter, Cubs continue to develop once they are born. At birth, brown bear cubs are nearly helpless. At birth, the cubs weigh about one pound.

They are anzac day shop opening hours brisbane by a fine hair, and they are toothless, weak and uncoordinated Brown, The sow has three pairs of nipples.

She may nurse on her side in the den but normally nurses in a sitting or partially-reclined position after emerging from the den. Due to this diet berita forex rupiah rich milk, money maker club penguin free download bear cubs grow very rapidly.

The cubs are completely dependent on nursing for 24 weeks and may continue to nurse for as long as 82 weeks Brown, On Kodiak, most cubs stay with their mothers for three years, and nearly half of all Kodiak become a binary option system documentation broker cubs die before they leave their mothers Barnes and Van Daele, Causes of death range from starvation, accidental separation from their mother, deliberate abandonment by their mother, fights with other bears, accidents, and infanticide, most often but not always by large boars.

To begin with, bears are seasonal breeders in the spring, but boars often kill cubs in the summer when the female cannot go into estrus again.

Even if the cubs are killed during the breeding season, the male would have to kill all the cubs in a litter, and even then, the female does not become sexually receptive for several weeks.

Therefore, the boar that killed the cubs would probably not be the bear that eventually mates with the mother. Also, females are sometimes the perpetrators of infanticide Breiter, A friend of mine saw a large male bear walk up to a den, stick his head in the den, pull out a cub, shake it to death, and continue on his way. It is difficult to coordinate that activity with any biological theory. By their second summer, yearling cubs weigh approximately lbs Females average lbs.

Females reach their full game stock market thinkquest size at approximately five years when they may weigh between and lbs. Males continue to grow, gaining approximately lbs. Some 10 minute best binary options ea strategy consider bears as intelligent as primates Breiter, and others believe a bear is as smart as a dog, but intelligence is difficult to measure, and to compare the intelligence of bears to that of other animals is a guessing game.

Bears are able to adapt quickly to environmental changes or unique situations, and they will remember what they learned from a single situation or experience.

Most of the research on Kodiak bears has been done by biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game or the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. Much of this research has concentrated on denning behavior and home ranges of bears, with an emphasis on management applications. Today, much of the Kodiak bear research is at least in part supported by the Kodiak Brown Bear Trust, which was established in to compensate for potential impacts on bears by the construction and operation of the Terror Lake Hydroelectric Project.

The trust funds bear research, management, habitat protection, and educational outreach projects. The Kodiak Brown Bear Trust relies on tax-deductible contributions to carry out its mission, and if you would like to support Kodiak bear research and habitat protection, please visit www. Merriam visited Kodiak and confirmed reports that Kodiak bears were the largest bears in the world.

He named the species in honor of Russian naturalist Dr. Von Middendorff Merriam, Merriam divided the North American brown and grizzly bears into eighty-six forms based on slight variations in size, fur color, and skull shape Troyer, Scientists now know that physical differences in these categories can occur within populations and even within family groups. Today, all North American brown bears, grizzlies, and Eurasian brown bears are grouped into the single species Ursus arctos.

Kodiak bears are classified Ursus arctos middendorfiand all other brown and grizzly bears are listed as Ursus arctos horribilis. The first scientific studies of Kodiak bears were simple hunting and collecting trips to document their size Van Daele, In the early 's, research was concerned with determining how many cattle and salmon the bears were killing and eating Van Daele, A study by W.

Clark in showed that while bears are very effective at catching salmon in a stream, they actually catch few unspawned salmon, making their impact on the salmon run much less than originally believed Van Daele, As the Kodiak bear became a valued trophy for big-game hunters, the focus of the research shifted to learning more about the physiology and behavior patterns of the bears. Biologists refined techniques for capturing and marking bears Troyer et al.

This jump in technology provided biologists with information on home ranges, densities, and gender and age ratios Hensel dekaron how to make money al. Most of the early research on Kodiak bears was conducted on the south end of Kodiak Island, but inconstruction began on the Terror Lake Hydroelectric Project on the north end of the island, and funds were made available to determine what if any employee stock options private company goes public this project would have on bears in the vicinity of the proposed dam.

Biologists were surprised when studies on the bears near Terror Lake showed that bears in this area displayed different denning behaviors and preferences than did bears on the south end of the island, indicating that Kodiak bears have adapted well to the slightly different habitats on opposite ends of the island Van Daele, In the 's, a study investigated Kodiak brown bear use of alpine habitat during the summer months and preferred plant foods of the bears Atwell et al.

This study showed that while a regimented bear-viewing program impacted bears less than a non-regimented program, bears were still effected much more by a regimented bear-viewing program than they were when the area was closed to public use. Bear research is ongoing on the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge.

In addition to yearly intensive aerial surveys which produce population counts and aerial stream surveys to study the number of bears and population profiles of the bears on each stream the percentage of single bears, sows with newborn cubs, sows with one-year old cubs, etc.

William Leacock headed a two-year project near Karluk Lake http: A Refuge pilot with an antenna attached to the wings of his plane flew over the area where the bears were and picked up the GPS signal from the radio collars of each bear being indian stock market game software technical analysis books. A crew member then how much money do wildlife biologists make these GPS points to a laptop in the plane.

From this information, the researchers were able to study the detailed movements of each bear and record the preferred habitat, food preferences, and bedding choices of each animal. Once the GPS data was collected in the field, volunteers hiked to the exact locations where each bear had been and recorded the types of food plants available in the area as well how much money do wildlife biologists make other pertinent information.

The ultimate goal of this study was to quantify behavioral responses of Kodiak bears to resources that vary in time and space such as salmon runs and berry production. Other studies in the Karluk Lake region are attempting to study the impact of tourists on bears. According to archaeological evidence, Kodiak Island has been inhabited by humans for the last years Dodge, The earliest occupants are referred to as the Ocean Bay tradition, and while little is known about the relationship Ocean Bay people had with bears, bear bones have been found in archaeological digs of sites dating from this time period, indicating that they did hunt bears.

Interestingly, though, few bear skulls have been found in excavations of Ocean Bay sites, suggesting that the head may have been left in how to get money on nintendogs lab and friends field as part of a ceremonial practice or a sign of respect for the animal Van Daele, If the Ocean Bay culture was similar to other early northern cultures, then it is likely that bears were revered and perhaps even viewed as an emissary between man and the spirit world Dodge, The Ocean Bay tradition lasted years and was replaced by the Kachemak tradition which lasted approximately years and was gradually replaced, beginning years ago, by Alutiiq Koniag society Dodge, As time progressed, the human population on Kodiak grew, and conflicts between humans and bears undoubtedly increased as well.

Excavations at Koniag village sites uncovered a greater number of bear skulls than were found at more ancient sites, indicating that either bears were fastest way to earn money in runescape f2p heavily hunted or that practices that forbade bringing skulls led binary options mt4 the villages had been abandoned Dodge, Russian explorers arrived on Kodiak in the early 's, and while the Russians were impressed by the huge bears that inhabited the archipelago, their main interest was harvesting sea otters and shipping the valuable pelts to China.

Bears were also hunted, but a bear hide was only worth two percent as much as a sea otter pelt Dodge, Once the Russians depleted the sea otter population, they more actively sought out other fur-bearing animals including bears, and between andan average of bear hides per year were shipped from the Alaska colonies Van Daele, In the United States purchased Alaska from Russia, and the brown bear harvest increased dramatically with an average of hides shipped per year from to Van Daele, Russians brought livestock to Kodiak, and when bears began killing the livestock, especially cattle, the bears were considered a nuisance that needed to be eliminated Van Daele, At nearly the same time, more efficient methods of fishing by commercial fishing operations on review of forex trading systems island led to a depletion of the salmon stocks and created greater competition between humans and bears for the fish.

The Boone and Crockett Club, a wildlife conservation organization, was formed inand one of its goals was to work for the preservation of wild game in the United States. Thanks to the efforts of the Boone and Crockett Club, the Game and Wild Bird Preservation and Disposition Act, or the Lacey Act, was signed into law in This extremely important law provided the first legal protection for wildlife, including the Kodiak bear, in the U.

When exotic big-game hunters learned about the huge bears on Kodiak Island, many journeyed to Kodiak in pursuit of a trophy, and the Kodiak bear gained the reputation as one of the ultimate trophy animals in the world. As interest in guided Kodiak bear hunts increased, the Alaska territorial government set strict limits on commercial hunting and the selling of bear hides. Inthe Alaska Game Commission required that any nonresident hunter in Alaska must be accompanied in the field by a registered big-game guide.

In the late 's and 's, commercial and sport hunting were strictly regulated on Kodiak, while shooting bears to protect cattle was not only encouraged but was government sanctioned Van Daele, On August 19 th, President Franklin D.

Roosevelt signed Executive Ordercreating the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge which encompassed Uganik Island and most of the southwestern portion of Kodiak Island. The purpose of the refuge was to preserve the natural feeding and breeding range of the Kodiak bear and other wildlife www. Throughout can you make money on yahoo contributor network 's and 's, cattle ranchers and those involved in the salmon industry fought for stricter predator-control measures against Kodiak bears, while bear hunters and conservationists from all across America voiced loud opinions against the concept of bear control, alarmed that the Kodiak bear could easily be wiped out in a few years.

After considering all opinions, the Alaska Game Commission in the late 's opted against any form of bear control and did not increase the length of the hunting season on Using moving averages to trade forex Van Daele, Policies changed in the 's when th Alaska Department of Fish and Game worked with ranchers to pursue and kill bears suspected of killing cattle, going so far as to quietly hire two WWII fighter pilots to shoot bears with a semi-automatic M-1 Garland rifle mounted on a Piper Super Cub aircraft.

Inthe Alaska Department of Fish and Game decided it was not appropriate for the agency to be involved in a predator-control program on brown bears and it ceased its relationship with the ranchers Van Daele, Also in the 's, the number of sport-killed bears greatly increased, causing the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge to enact stricter hunting regulations and seasons, and by the mid 's a well-regulated permit system was in place.

During the 's and 's, concern and research focused more heavily on Kodiak brown-bear habitat. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act ANCSA was signed into law on December 18, As a result of ANCSA, local native groups on Kodiak selected as their land nearly the entire coastline of Kodiak, the Karluk River drainage, and several other smaller islands in the archipelago, causing the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge to lose control ofacres of prime bear habitat Van Daele, Inthe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission began working on an environmental impact statement for a proposed hydroelectric project and dam at Terror Lake on the north end of Kodiak Island.

There was great concern among the public and various agencies that the project would disturb bear denning and feeding areas, and finally, a settlement was reached inproviding funds to support research on project impacts on salmon, mountain goats, and bears.

This agreement established The Brown Bear Trust, which is still a great source of funds for brown bear research and habitat protection. Research indicated that the hydroelectric project had few long-term negative impacts on bears, and the research the project supported was highly beneficial Van Daele, Wildlife management most often involves managing humans. Research allows biologists to understand the needs and habits of wildlife, and this research hopefully leads to management policies that enable human populations to better coexist with wildlife.

Wildlife management is never easy, and Kodiak is no different from anywhere else. Various user groups attempt to pressure wildlife managers to make decisions to further their particular interest, and managers struggle for a balance to try to accommodate a variety of users while protecting the wildlife and the habitat. On the Kodiak Archipelago, I am proud to say that management of bears and their habitat is not only done well, but it is done so well that it is considered one of the best models of wildlife management in the world.

The Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge managers, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the native corporations, and the citizens of Kodiak work well together to safeguard the bears and protect their habitat. In some areas of Alaska, brown bears are considered nuisances that need to be controlled, but this is not the case on Kodiak, where most residents are proud to live next to the majestic Kodiak bear.

The Kodiak Unified Bear Subcommittee KUBSa subcommittee of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, consists of a group of biologists, Refuge managers, hunting guides, bear-viewing guides, pilots, and concerned citizens that meet several times a year to tackle bear-related issues on the island, such as regulations regarding bear-proof waste containers, how to protect bears and humans at road-side-bear-viewing areas, and designing, posting, and distributing proper signs and pamphlets regarding safe, bear-aware behavior.

KUBS has also developed a bear-viewing guide course which the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge hopes to soon require for all bear guides operating on the Refuge.

The purpose of this course is to ensure that only high-quality, well-trained, experienced guides operate on Kodiak. This is not only good for the bear viewers and photographers, but it is also good for the bears, because properly-trained guides understand how to ethically view bears by disturbing them and disrupting their feeding as little as possible. Perhaps the most telling fact that proves the Kodiak bear and its habitat are well managed is that there are currently an estimated brown bears on the Kodiak Archipelago.

Biologists believe this is the largest the Kodiak bear population has ever been. For much more-detailed information on the history of humans and bears on the Kodiak Archipelago, I strongly recommend The History of Bears on the Kodiak Archipelago by Larry Van Daele and Kodiak Island and Its Bears by Harry Dodge. Into Brown Bear Country by Will Troyer is an informative book on brown-bear research by a biologist and former manager of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. The Great Bear Almanac is loaded with facts not only about brown bears but about all the bear species of the world.

Bears A Year in the Life by Matthias Breiter is a well-written book about the physiology, biology and behavior of bears. The websites I have referenced in this article are all good sources of information about Kodiak bears, the Kodiak Archipelago, and the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. For more information on Kodiak Bears, I suggest visiting http: Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Brown Bear Ursus arctos. Brown bear summer use of alpine habitat on the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. Proceedinngs of the International Conference on Bear Research and Management, The influence of salmon availability on movements and range of brown bears on southwest Kodiak Island. International Conference on Bear Research and Management, 8: Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. Productivity of female brown bears on Kodiak Island, Alaska. Job Completion Report for Challenge Cost Share Project.

Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, Kodiak, Alaska, USA. Radio tracking brown bears on Kodiak Island. Proceedings of the International Conference on Bear Research and Management, International Conference on Bear Research and Management, 4: Bears A Year in the Life. Lyons and Buford, Publishers. Seasonal food habits of the Kodiak bear.

A grizzly answer for obesity. The New York Times. Kodiak Island and its Bears. Brown bear predation on sockeye salmon at Karluk Lake, Alaska.

Reproduction in the female brown bear. Journal of Wildlife Management, Bear monitoring and research on Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. Brown bear habitat study. Intraspecific variation in home range overlap with habitat quality: A comparison among brown bear populations. Records of North American Big Game 9 th Edition.

How Much Money Does a Biological Scientist Make? | dakoxok.web.fc2.com

Boone and Crocket Club. Variation in genetic diversity across the range of North American brown bears. The Kodiak Bear War. Outdoor Life, 2: The secrets of bear hibernation. A bear in its lair. Phylogeography of brown bears Ursus arctos of Alaska and paraphyly within the Ursidae. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 5: Genetic characterization of brown bears of the Kodiak Archipelago. Final Report to Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, Kodiak, Alaska.

Live trapping and handling of brown bear. Structure and distribution of a Kodiak bear population. Behavior of female brown bears under stress. Into Brown Bear Country. University of Alaska Press. The History of Bears on the Kodiak Archipelago. University of Idaho, Moscow, USA. Bone loss and the three bears: A circulating secret of skeletal stability. Copyright Munsey's Bear Camp. FOOD One of the main reasons Kodiak bears grow so much larger than inland grizzly bears is due to the abundance of food on Kodiak.

A brown bear has large teeth that have evolved to adapt to an omnivorous diet of both plants and animals. Kodiak bears are opportunistic feeders that eat roots, berries, grasses, sedges, wild flowers, wild celery and other plants as well as rodents, insects, large mammals including deer and mountain goatsfish, carrion, and yes, unfortunately, garbage and pet food.

They eat very little at first, concentrating on emerging plants and their roots. As the spring progresses, bears can be seen feeding in grassy meadows and look much like grazing cattle. Their diet switches to salmon in the summer months when they chase and catch the fish in shallow streams or on the tidal flats near the heads of the deep, narrow bays on Kodiak. They also consume dead salmon that have washed up on shore or that they dig from the bottom of the stream bed.

When the salmonberries, elderberries, crowberries, blueberries and other berries begin to ripen in late July and August, most bears spend at least part of their day in berry thickets, pulling the berries from the bushes with their lips and mouths Troyer, Salmon provide bears with fat and protein, and berries are high in natural sugars, all of which are important for building up a fat reserve for hibernation. As fall progresses, the bears increase their consumption of salmon and berries as they strive to build up their fat layer before entering the den for hibernation.

A diet rich in berries has its downside, though. Bears are one of the few wild animals susceptible to tooth decay. Cubs often have a natal collar, a white band around the neck and shoulder. This band gradually fades over time, and it has usually disappeared by the age of three, but occasionally, you will see a four-or-five-year-old bear that still has remnants of a collar.

It is dense and oily, keeping him warm and preventing water from penetrating Brown, Bears shed both the guard hair and under fur annually, and in the summer, they often appear shaggy and matted. The bear to the left looks as if she is sporting dreadlocks. To help remove their fur, bears rub against trees and rocks, often standing on their hind legs, backing up to a tree and rubbing up and down.

While the old coat is shedding, a new coat is growing, and by September on Kodiak, most bears appear darker in color and well-groomed. The old, loose fur is gone, and only the new fur remains. The bear on the right was photographed in mid September.

CLAWS Brown bears have non-retractable claws that may be as long as four inches Troyer, HOME RANGES Brown bears are not considered territorial, but they do have home ranges.

Wildlife Biologist Salaries in the United States | dakoxok.web.fc2.com

STRENGTH To understand a bear's strength, you only need to observe one running effortlessly up a steep slope, quickly digging a den out of the side of a mountain, or easily flipping huge boulders weighing several hundred pounds.

DISEASES Bears suffer from many of the same ailments that effect other mammals, including arthritis. Bears are susceptible to a variety of diseases and parasites. Internal parasites include the trichinella worm trichinosistrematodes, nematodes, lung worms, hook worms, flukes, blood parasites, intestinal worms, and tapeworms Brown, Tapeworms are especially prevalent in Kodiak bears, since they eat large quantities of raw fish.

It is not uncommon to see a bear in the summer months with a several-foot-long tape worm trailing from his anus. Note the tape worm in the photo. While there is an instinctual aspect to denning, it also appears to be a learned behavior that sows teach their cubs. Perhaps the most important information the mother bear relays to her cubs is how to choose a den site. On Kodiak, there are few natural rock caves, so bears must dig their dens into the sides of the mountains or into the sides of snow banks.

Lawrence Van Daele, Victor Barnes Jr. On the northern portion of Kodiak where the mountains are taller, they determined that the bears in their study group denned at an average elevation of ft. The bears in this region preferred steep slopes in alpine habitat for their dens, probably because the dens were high enough that the soil remained frozen throughout the winter, and the den structure remained stable.

On southwestern Kodiak Island with its gentler topography, bears denned at an average elevation of ft. The researchers believe that the alder roots help stabilize these dens that were dug in loose, unfrozen soil. Dens often do collapse in the spring and summer after the bears have emerged, and the bears are forced to dig new dens the following fall Troyer, GROWTH By their second summer, yearling cubs weigh approximately lbs Kodiak bears gain weight and add fat in the summer when food is abundant and then burn off this fat during hibernation.

The largest Kodiak bear on record lived in the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and weighed lbs. In the wild, a maximum-size boar might weigh lbs. The bear in this photo is a very large male. Bears are only able to make a limited range of sounds, and they do not have the necessary muscles for facial expressions Breiter, A sow may send her cubs up a tree with a woofing sound or call them to her side by popping her jaws. Many of their vocalizations sound similar to human ears, but bears can apparently differentiate the sounds.

We often hear bears growl while fishing in close proximity to each other, and sows frequently growl at their cubs to reprimand them.

A loud roar is a much more serious vocalization between two bears. A grunt or a woofing sound often signifies a distressed or upset bear. These are sounds we often hear when a bear is suddenly surprised by our presence, and these sounds sometimes precede a lunge or a false charge.

Bears communicate with humans just as they do with other bears, and understanding their language or choosing a guide who understands their language is important if you plan to go out into the wilderness in bear country. Correctly interpreting vocal signals as well as body language and posturing may alert you to back away from a stressed or agitated bear. KODIAK BEAR RESEARCH Most of the research on Kodiak bears has been done by biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game or the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge.

A genetic study Talbot and Shields, questioned whether Kodiak bears should be considered a separate subspecies from other Alaskan brown bears. A study on the genetic diversity of North American brown bears showed that the genetic diversity among Kodiak bears in much less than that for other populations of North American brown bears Paetkau et al.

In fact, several of the bears sampled on Kodiak had identical genotypes. Another study by Paetkau and colleagues Paetkau et al. A report Talbot et al. The level of genetic variation is much lower than that found for any other brown bear population.

Furthermore, this low level of variation is not only found at neutral markers but also at nuclear functional genes. While the Kodiak bear population is presently healthy, this low genetic variability makes this population susceptible to novel parasites and pathogens that may somehow reach Kodiak and infect the bears.

HISTORY OF HUMANS AND KODIAK BEARS According to archaeological evidence, Kodiak Island has been inhabited by humans for the last years Dodge, On March 24 th, the Exxon Valdez spilled eleven million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound.

As the oil spread, ocean currents carried it to Kodiak, killing sea birds, eagles, sea otters, harbor seals, and killer whales. Oil washed up on the beaches causing habitat destruction and resulting in reduced salmon runs in the following years Van Daele I have read several articles stating that no bears were directly killed by eating oiled birds or animal carcasses, but I believe this statement is inaccurate. I personally saw two dead bears on remote beaches during the summer ofand while no necropsy was performed on either animal, it is highly unusual to see a dead bear on the beach, and I think it is likely the cause of the deaths of these two bears was directly linked to the contaminated beaches and the oiled bird and animal carcasses that drifted onto those beaches.

Furthermore, if I saw two dead bears, it is not only possible but likely there were more. The vegetation on Kodiak is very dense in the summer, so it would be difficult to spot a sick bear that wandered into the brush and died. One positive development that came from the oil spill was that much of the money from the Exxon Valdez Settlement Fund was used to buy back Refuge lands and critical bear habitat that had been lost due to ANCSA.

In the early 's, the Sitka black-tailed deer population exploded throughout the Kodiak Archipelago. As a result, the length of the deer hunting season as well as the bag limit for deer increased.

For several years, each hunter was allowed to shoot seven deer. Bears quickly adapted to this new, fairly easy source of food, and conflicts between bears and deer hunters increased in frequency. A heightened emphasis on hunter education and on ways to avoid bear encounters has helped this problem somewhat. While not yet as large a problem, the mountain goat population on Kodiak has also greatly increased within the last decade, and in many areas, permits for hunting mountain goats have gone from a restricted drawing to an open registration.

The interest in bear viewing and photography has steadily increased on Kodiak since the 's. Bear viewers can be very disruptive to bears and their habitat, and the impact or potential impact of bear viewers is not easy to measure or predict.

The challenge the Refuge has faced in recent years is how to limit the impact of non-consumptive users on bears while allowing as many people as possible the thrill of watching a Kodiak bear in its natural habitat. For more information on bear viewing on Kodiak Island visit Bear Viewing with Munsey's Bear Camp. History has shown us that protecting wildlife habitat is often the most difficult aspect of wildlife management, whether there is oil to be drilled, copper to be mined, trees to be cut, or roads and houses to be built, economics often wins while wildlife loses huge chunks of critical habitat.

The Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge is the largest intact pristine island ecosystem in North America www. The Refuge encompasses 16 lakes, salmon streams, wetlands, grasslands, shrub lands, Sitka spruce forest, tundra, and alpine meadows.

This habitat supports species of fish, birds, and mammalsincluding breeding pairs of bald eagles. It supports bears, and an estimated bears live on the Kodiak Island Archipelago. One of the stated purposes of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge is to conserve fish and wildlife populations and habitats in their natural diversity, including, but not limited to, Kodiak brown bears, salmonids, sea otters, sea lions, and other marine mammals and migratory birds.

Without the strong lobbying efforts of hunting groups, it is doubtful the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge would have been formed. Bear hunting on Kodiak today is very tightly regulated. Each year, people apply for the available bear-hunting permits. All hunters must check in with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game office in Kodiak before going into the field, and they must check out with Fish and Game before leaving the island.

Every bear killed must be inspected by an Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist before it can be taken off the island. Because these strict regulations have the overwhelming support of guides and residents, illegal bear hunting on Kodiak is rare.

Bear viewing on Kodiak occurs almost exclusively in the summer months when the bears are concentrated on streams or in shallow, saltwater areas at the heads of bays feeding on salmon. It is especially critical for sows and cubs and pregnant sows to receive adequate nutrition. Bear viewers can force bears away from prime feeding areas. This impact is difficult to measure, and it is likely the bear viewers or photographers will not even realize they are impacting the bears, because some bears are tolerant of humans and will stay and feed in their presence, while other bears will leave the area as soon as they detect humans are nearby.

These less-tolerant bears may then be forced to fish in less-productive areas or at different times of the day when tides and light conditions are not as good. Fish and Game and Refuge biologists are now studying and trying to understand the impacts that bear viewers, sport fishermen, rafters, and hikers have on Kodiak bears, and they hope to use what they learn to develop regulations to manage these impacts.

SUGGESTED READING For much more-detailed information on the history of humans and bears on the Kodiak Archipelago, I strongly recommend The History of Bears on the Kodiak Archipelago by Larry Van Daele and Kodiak Island and Its Bears by Harry Dodge.