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I had a chance to talk to an expert in non-invasive polar bear research. He believed that this, and most other polar bear studies, are deeply flawed because of
by tlb 10y ago
I had a chance to talk to an expert in non-invasive polar bear research. He believed that this, and most other polar bear studies, are deeply flawed because of how traumatic the data collection is.
Before this particular polar bear's swim, it was: (1) pursued by a helicopter until it couldn't run any more. (2) Shot with a tranquilizer dart. Did you know that large animal tranquilizers don't put the animal to sleep? They merely paralyze its muscles so researchers can work on it. So it's entirely awake but unable to move for step (3) Extract a molar with pliers, to estimate the bear's age. Also add a collar with a GPS tracker. (4) Let the paralysis wear off in captivity. (5) Release it.
So, pretty fucking traumatic. Polar bears are intelligent scavengers which means they're curious, but very danger-phobic. The fact that it swam for hundreds of kilometers afterwards doesn't prove anything about any normal behavior.
- mikeyouse 10y agoI'm going to need a source on that tranquilizer bit.. When giving a paralytic to a human, you need to have them attached to a vent in order to keep them alive and breathing, I'd be surprised to learn that bears react differently to paralytics. I'm under the impression they use opiods / benzos for large animal sedation.
- tlb 10y agoI can't find a reference for polar bears, but it's probably the same as for grizzly bears where they use a mixture of Xylazine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylazine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylazine) and Telazol (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiletamine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiletamine), a dissociative in the same family as Ketamine. So not a paralytic, but the animal retains memory of the experience. http://www.mammalogy.org/uploads/Cattet%20et%20al%202008.pdf http://www.mammalogy.org/uploads/Cattet%20et%20al%202008.pdf documents the process of helicopter darting and reports substantial health and behavioral changes for weeks after capture.