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Humor in Global Warming? Yes.

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by Starre Vartan · 08/25/09

From the August 24, 2009 issue of The New Yorker

climate change, Global Warming, humor, polar bears

Infanticide and Vera's Cub: Why Some Mothers Eat Their Young

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by Olivia Zaleski · 01/14/08

Post copied from Living Now section of the Huffington Post.

I want this baby polar bear! Well, on second thought, I want this baby polar bear for just a few weeks–before it gets teeth. In a year, that cub will look at me and say, “Hmmm, I bet you’d make a good meal!”

Carnivorous predator or not, I think I speak for the masses when I say “awwwwwwww . . . ” Not convinced? Just watch this video and make sure you turn the volume up, to hear the little tyke snoring. Aside from the ear-wrenching temper tantrum, this is a truly delightful little creature. Smitten, I fear I may break into Marc Anthony’s song, “I Want To Spend My Lifetime Loving You.”

In case you don’t know the story of this little cub, zookeepers at the Nuremberg City Zoo have been busy suckling it–wait, that sounds funny. Rather, zookeepers are feeding the cub by bottle after deciding to remove it from its mother, Vera. Like many postnatal females, Vera was showing intense signs of great distress and confusion.

Earlier in the week, the Nuremberg City Zoo’s other female polar bear, Vilma, had eaten her two offspring. The zoo feared Vera would do the same. According to a profile report from National Geographic, it is not uncommon for polar bears, among the most violent of predators, to eat or maul their young.

LiveScience.com writer Andrew Thompson, says “zoologists have observed filial cannibalism, the act of eating one’s offspring, in many different types of animals.” Lions hippos, bears, wolves, hyenas, herring gulls and more than 15 types of primates, other than man, have been known to engage in infanticide.

Yet, the question remains, “Why would any mother want to eat its child?” Parents of teenagers might have an idea, but scientists haven’t settled on a single explanation for infanticide. It is a curious topic, as it seems difficult for such an opposing behavior to evolve–let alone coexist. Could there be some evolutionary benefit to the practice?

A report published by Oxford University Zoologist Dr. Michael Bonsall and Hope Klug from the University of Florida says females may commit infanticide to gain increased access to physical resources (food or space), bias the sex ratio of the litter, or eradicate further problems if the baby is sick or refuses to feed. By killing ill pups, the mother may then allocate her precious resources to those pups more likely to survive.

Animal behaviorist Dr. Anne Hanson says “mothers may also kill entire litters when they are stressed.” According to Hanson’s study, History of the Norway Rat (Rattus norvegicus): Rat Behavior and Biology, “the mother may perceive the environment as too hostile for the pup’s survival, or she perceives herself as unable to rear the litter successfully, so she recuperates some of her energetic investment by consuming the young. Malnourished mothers, and mothers who have an abnormal birth experience, may also become infanticidal.”

I would assume that these two mother polar bears had abnormal birth experiences–they did give birth in a zoo, not their native glacier. Or perhaps, the little polar bears were so cute that their mothers just wanted to “eat them up.” Whatever the reason, one of the pups is safe and sound in zoological intensive care. As you can see from the video above, the cub is healthy, happy and very, very cute. Despite the occasional ear-wrenching tantrum, the cub is reported to spend most of it’s time sleeping–thank God for our ears!

For more from Olivia Zaleski visit her weekly column on the Huffington Post.

Animal Behavior, Animals, baby polar bear, bears, German Polar Bear, German Zoo Polar Bear, infanticide, Mrs. Knut, Nuremberg City Zoo, Nuremberg Polar Bear, Nuremberg Zoo, Olivia Zalesk, Olivia Zaleski, Polar Bear Cub, polar bears, Vera Polar Bear, Vera's Cub, Zoo, Zoo Deaths

Mortgaging Planet Earth

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by Courtney Tenz · 09/27/07

Whenever I start to feel a little cynical (depressed?) about being an environmentalist (i.e. whenever I get the urge to put on some snakeskin sneakers, wear diamonds bigger than my eyeballs, smoke CO2 cigarettes, and hop on my mahogany-furnished private jet to hurtle me and my friends around the world while drinking whiskey made from rare orchids just so I can finally stop crying about penguins and polar bears losing their habitats), an editorial like the one in today’s New York Times “Our Moral Footprint” by Vaclav Havel comes along, reminding me that I’m not the only one wishing people would stop arguing about global warming and start doing more than changing light bulbs. It’s analogies like these that give me hope that others will turn off their tvs, get out of their cars, and start paying back the earth for all we’ve borrowed …

Maybe we should start considering our sojourn on earth as a loan. There can be no doubt that for the past hundred years at least, Europe and the United States have been running up a debt, and now other parts of the world are following their example. Nature is issuing warnings that we must not only stop the debt from growing but start to pay it back. There is little point in asking whether we have borrowed too much or what would happen if we postponed the repayments. Anyone with a mortgage or a bank loan can easily imagine the answer.

bears, car, cars, epa, Europe, fur, Global Warming, habitat, New York Times, NYTimes, opinion, polar bears, skin, sneakers, tv

Retirement No More: The Anchor has been Lifted

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by Danelle Brown · 07/09/06

The campaign to stop global warming is attracting more and more recognizable media and political faces. The respected Tom Brokaw, the former NBC anchorman, has teamed up with the Discovery Channel, in partnership with the BBC to host on Sunday July 16th, ”Global Warming: What You Need to Know” at 9 pm.

This is yet another great documentary that will help separate fact from fiction and give momentum to this important global issue. The starvation of the polar bears, the swallowing of islands, and droughts of lands are investigated in this piece. Mr. Brokaw is no stranger to speaking out about the state of the environment. His wife, Meredith Brokaw, is the vice president of the environmental organization Conservation International (NYT).

With the passion and motivation of figures such as Laurie David, Al Gore, and now Tom Brokaw, it is my hope that more and more, the political figures and decision makers who have control of some major locks, will begin to unlock the major barriers to sustainable living, like energy dependency. In the meantime thankfully we have readers like you who take the initiative to help make a difference.

bears, conservation, Energy, epa, Global Warming, media, mom, polar bears, stop global warming, sustainable, Tea, tv