The Bears are Back in Town

Alaskan Brown Bears and Polar Bears return to the Columbus Zoo in the new Polar Frontier exhibit

By Beverly Mullet Randall,
Animal Tracks

Bears have returned to the Columbus Zoo in the Polar Frontier exhibit and they are a lot of fun to watch. There are two Alaskan Brown bears, Brutus and Buckeye, and twin Polar Bears, Aurora and Anana, in the exhibit that opened in May. Brutus and Buckeye were orphaned in 2004 outside Anchorage, Alaska and stayed at the Alaska Zoo until they could be brought to Columbus.

Brutus and Buckeye

They're huge and they're strong as you can see from some of their handiwork when they decided to tear off the metal strips covering the joints between the glass window pieces.

The Bears' Habitat
An exhibit sign says busy bears are happy bears and their habitat includes several bear-friendly features:

• sand and mulch pits for digging
• log over waterfall with holes for browsing
• Two "sniff ports" for the bears to smell you
• Boulders and fallen trees for playing
• Live fish in pool
• 42,000 gallon pool heated in winter and cooled in summer
• 2.5" glass to keep bears and people from mingling.

The Columbus Zoo is also reducing its carbon footprint with this exhibit:

• The new geothermal unit provides energy to run the Zoo's heating, cooling, and water filtration system in the Polar Frontier which will reduce its use of fossil fuels.


• They planted over 700 trees and shrubs which will absorb carbon dioxide.

Bear Facts
As the sign says, even though they're in the same exhibit, there are a number of differences between the two types of bears. The Brown Bear's habitat is the far northern coasts, mountains, grasslands, and tundra, ranging from Asia, Europe, and North America, giving it the largest range of any bear. The Polar Bear's habitat is the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean, and the coastlines in summer. They may be moving inland. One of their habitat adaptations is a streamlined body for swimming. They range from Canada, the USA, Norway, Russia, and Greenland with more than 50% living in Canada. The Brown Bear's food consists of a bit of everything with 50% being vegetation and 50% 'meat' from grubs to salmon to moose. They can weigh up to 1000 pounds. The Polar Bear's food consists of ringed seals' blubber, almost exclusively. "Ice is the key. No ice, no food." They can weigh up to 1500 pounds but may be getting smaller. The Brown Bear population is suffering from regional declines in population while the Polar Bear population is threatened. Both bears are usually loners. Brown Bears gather at major food sources and Polar Bears usually gather in autumn, waiting for ice to form. Both mail and female Brown Bears hibernate for eight months in the winter, while only the pregnant, female Polar Bears hibernate. The number of Polar Bear cubs born may also be in decline.

These pictures and quotes are part of the Columbus Zoo's Polar Exhibit...

Glaciers Then and Now
A Visual Record of Receding Ice


Glaciers are sensitive to changes in temperature and precipitation associated with climate change. Since 2006, the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado has updated old images included in the Glacier Photograph Collection. These repeat photographes of the same glaciers taken from the same vantage point and at the same time of year indicate the extent of glacier/ice retreat. Note the years indicated on each pair of glacier photographs. NSIDC/WDC for Glaciology, Boulder, Compiler 2002. Updated 2009. Glacier Photograph Collection, Boulder, Colorado, USA.

What Can We Do

The sign says:

...Rediscover the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in...
Rachel Carson

"Never silent in the face of destructive trends, Rachel Carson fed a spring of awareness across America and beyond. A biologist with a gentle, clear voice she welcomed here audiences to her love of nature. With an equal determination she warned us of the dangers we pose to nature. Always concerned, always eloquent a tide of environmental consciousness that has not ebbed."


Some personal thoughts on environmental efforts:

The picture of Rachel Carson is at the Columbus Zoo's aviary and the Margaret Mead quote is in the Polar Exhibit. Rachel Carson is credited by many as the leader of the environmental movement. She started out as a Staff Biologist and later Chief Editor in 1949 with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries which later became the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In 1951 she wrote The Sea Around Us, a well-researched book about the ecology of our seas and oceans. It was on the New York Times Bestseller List for 86 weeks. In 1955, she wrote The Edge of the Sea which was on the New York Times Bestseller List for 20 weeks.

She is most know for her book, Silent Spring, published in 1962. Silent Spring documented the toxic long-term effects of pesticides and herbicides, especially DDT, on birds, other wildlife, and man--information she gathered during four years of extensive research. The Silent Spring was the term she used to describe what would eventually result from continued use of pesticides as song birds and other living creatures disappeared from our backyards and landscapes and the coming of Spring was silent as a result.

This book was extremely controversial, raising the ire of the agricultural chemical producers in particular who dubbed the book as "bland," "hysterical," and "sinister." In spite of attacks and efforts to discredit her on a personal and professional level, she stood her ground with the result being that the detrimental effects on the enviornment from pesticide and herbicide use became an issue of intense public, citizan, and consumer concern.

Once the issue was on the "public agenda," polical entities were required to take some kind of action in response to public outcry. After reading Silent Spring, President John F. Kennedy initiated a presidential advisory committee and the U.S. Senate soon opened an investigation of pesticide research.

"The President's Science Advisory Committee issued a report in 1963 largely backing Carson's scientific claims. By 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established as a cabinet-level position and, in 1972, DDT use was banned."1 The EPA was created during President Richard Nixon's administration through an executive order.2

Rachel Carson died of cancer in 1964, before she could fully witness the benefits of her book that raised the public's awareness and launched the environmental movement in the U.S. in the face of controversy, intense lobbying, and personal attacks designed to silence her and the public's concerns. Since the banning of DDT, many endangered species, including the Bald Eagle, have returned, clearly demonstrating the impact a group of concerned citizens or even an individual can have on environmental public policy.

Sources:

1. About.com: Womens' History, Rachel Carson, By Jone Johnson Lewis, About.com Guide, http://womenshistory.about.com/od/carsonrachel/p/rachel_carson.htm

2. Wikipedia: United States Environmental Protection Agency, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Environmental_Protection_Agency

August 28, 2010 Columbus, Ohio



Ferret Buckeye Bash


By Beverly Mullet Randall, Animal Tracks

On August 28, at the Ferret Buckeye Bash at Vets Memorial, the ferret faithful met for a day of ferret fun, games and appreciation.

Lori Sies displays 26 years of ferret pins. She is from Lynx, Ohio, located about two hours south of Columbus, Ohio in Adams County.

The ferret festivities included ferret tube races...




ferret judging...


ferret awards...


and the winning name for the Name the Rescue Ferret Contest was Gussie.


Barbara Carlson, one of the ferret famous, was there. You might recognize her from the movie that ran on PBS, Ferrets: The Pursuit of Excellence, produced by Mark Lewis Radio Pictures. She is maybe best remembered in that movie singing a song she wrote entitled, "I have a little ferret," or more frequently identified by the refrain, "Ferret, oh, Ferret."

Barbara lives in Pittsburg, PA and currently is the Director of Hide-E-Hole Ferret Rescue and President of the Three Rivers Ferret Council, both in Pennsylvania. "I'm nuts," she says, adding that she is trying to find someone to take on some of these ferret duties so she isn't so busy.

In addition to ferreting, Barbara works as a secretary at Carnegie Mellon University for two "eminent" and "brilliant" mathematicians, Dr. Egon Balas, who is from Transylvania, Hungary and Dr. Gerard Cornuejols. She has worked for Dr. Balas since 1987. She was hired, in part, because she could type 138 wpm with one error and read Dr. Balas' handwriting. She said she has always liked math and as a Carnegie Mellon employee, has taken some classes including calculus, Pascal and C programming, and Strategies of Writing which teaches you to write for your audience. She enjoys writing and has written some short stories, in addition to some songs about ferrets--some original scores and some with her words set to "other people's music." "I do a lot of different things," she says.

Barbara currently has five personal ferrets, 25 shelter ferrets she cares for, and two dogs. She became a ferret person in 1986. Before then she had "all the stereotypical opinions about ferrets." Then a friend of hers introduced her to a ferret that could hold its own with one of her cats that was...formidable. When the ferret and cat met, "they touched noses and the cat sat back and said, 'huh'. I was so impressed."

As a new ferret person, she said she made all the mistakes, such as feeding the wrong food, so she "cornered her vet" in Pennsylvania and started gathering information about the care and feeding of ferrets. Bob of Casey's Hidden Pantry joined in the conversation at this point saying he had also started out feeding his ferrets the "wrong stuff." He and his wife have six ferrets. His first was a rescue from the Greater Chicago Ferret Association. It had insolinoma, a pancreatic cancer with malignant tumors that works the opposite way diabetes works with people, i.e., a diet with too much sugar and carbohydrates can overstimulate the pancreas, causing tumors to form. These tumors cause the pancreas to produce too much insulin, resulting in very low blood sugar levels in the ferret.

He and Barbara both said they found out that the best ferret diet was one high in meat, bones, and organs, including fur for roughage. Barbara added that a mouse is considered to be the "perfect nutritional package" for a ferret. So another benefit of ferret gatherings, in addition to fun, is sharing ferret information.

This show was presented by the Heart of Ohio Ferret Association & Rescue and ferret depot.com. Contributing sponsors were: Ferrets Magazine, Casey's Hidden Pantry, The HideyHole.com, and the Gahanna Animal Hospital. It was sanctioned by the American Ferret Association, Inc.

Ohio State Fair
August, 2010

Visit to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Exhibit

By Beverly Mullet Randall, Animal Tracks

Every year the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' (ODNR) has an exhibit at the Ohio State Fair and it wouldn't seem like the fair without visiting the wild animals, the Tall Grass Prairie, Ruthven's Aviary, and the Butterfly House. You can also try kayaking. This year, there was a new addition to the exhibit: The Green Restroom.

Here are some highlights:

Bald Eagles' Nest Reconstruction

The Tall Grass Prairie
"Small prairie openings were remanants of a time about 4,000-6,000 years ago when an extended period of warm, dry weather in North America favored the expansion of western prairie eastward as far as central Ohio. As the climate grew cooler and wetter, forests invaded Ohio's prairies. By the 1700s, prairies were found only where soil conditions, periodic fire or extreme typography discouraged the growth of trees. By the time the first pioneers reached the Ohio valley wilderness, they encountered a mosaic of prairie openings. It is estimated that there were more than 300 prairie openings in Ohio, mostly in the western half of the state."

"Pioneers described the the prairie opening as a sea of wild grass and flowering herbs, broken only by numerous and scattered groves of oaks and hickories. The pioneers quickly discovered the hidden wealth of this strange, treeless landscape. Under the dense sod lay fertile black prairie soils. What the prairie farmer did not plow, was used to pasture livestock."

Source: Ohio Department of Natural Resources

Ruthven's Aviary

The Ruthven Aviary is a cooperative educational aviary coordinated by the Ohio Division of Wildlife, Malabar Farm State Park, and the Columbus Zoo. Many of the birds cannot be returned to the wild because of injuries or other health concerns.

"The aviary is named after John B. Ruthven, born 1924. "As a young boy growing up in Cincinnati, Ruthven would often visit the banks of the Ohio River carrying a sketchpad and a dream of preserving wildlife through art. In 2004, Ruthven was awarded the National Medal of Arts by the president of the United States in recognition of his contributions as an artist and naturalist to conserving our natural treasures. In 1997, Ruthven donated the artwork for Ohio's cardinal license plate, which adorns the bumper of nearly 35,000 vehicles and has generated millions of dollars for wildlife conservation throughout the state."
Source: Ohio Department of Natural Resources

The Butterfly House


Gulf Fritillary

Black Swallowtail

The Green Restroom

1. Varia Panels from 3 Form manufactured from 40% pre-consumer recycled materials. The windows reduce the requirement for other lighting during the day.

2. The water closets in both men's and women's restrooms are "dual flush" fixtures which offer the choice between a partial flush of 0.8 gallons or a full flush of 1.6 gallons.

3. The urinal installed in the men's room is a "pint flush" urinal which only uses 1 pint of water when flushed.

4. Counter Tops: Terreon RE by Bradley Corp. manufactured from 25% pre-consumer recycled materials and 8% rapidly renewable materials.

5. The hand dryer dries hands completely in 10-15 seconds and uses 80% less energy. There is a 95% cost savings versus paper towels.

6. Rogers Block Green CMU manufactured from 30% pre-consumer recycled materials.