I just got back, the weather was good, the food even better, and those 12'
tall women...!
MM
Wow! Take me along next time.
# ; ^ )
DD
ยทยทยท
I just got back, the weather was good, the food even better, and those 12'
tall women...!MM
Members,
Chief posted this on the VNN Forum.
Frode, where is Svalbard?
Dharma/Dean
Friday, 1 September, 2000, 18:12 GMT 19:12 UK
Scientists test sex-change bears
By environment correspondent Alex Kirby in Svalbard in the Arctic
Scientists on Svalbard have found that more than one in a hundred of the
islands' polar bears are
hermaphroditic.
The condition, in which an animal possesses the reproductive organs of both
sexes, affects wildlife in
various parts of the world.
It is thought to be caused by exposure to chemicals which affect the
endocrine system.
The chemicals blamed for the Svalbard bears' condition are PCBs
(polychlorinated biphenyls),
which are damaging their immune systems.
The phenomenon was unknown on the Arctic islands, which lie between Norway
and the North
Pole, a decade ago.
But 1.2% of Svalbard's bears, which total about 3,000, have now been found
to be affected.
PCBs were manufactured for use in electrical equipment, and although many
countries have now
banned them there is a reservoir of the chemicals that has escaped into the
environment.
Short food chain
Per Kyrre Reymert, of the Svalbard Science Forum, told BBC News Online:
"Tests have been
conducted on 40 bears, and these are now being analysed.
"There is a very short and simple food chain here - plankton, fish, seals,
and finally the bears
themselves. So it is fairly easy to track PCBs and other pollutants."
Seals are the bears' preferred prey. In spring, after emerging from
hibernation, they usually eat the
whole seal, though later in the year they will often slit the animal open
and simply eat the fat.
Although little pollution originates on Svalbard, the prevailing southerly
winds dump contamination
from industrial Europe onto the islands.
Elizabeth Salter, of WWF, the global environment campaign, told BBC News
Online: "It seems to
be the female bears on Svalbard that are acquiring male genitalia, a
penis-like stump.
"With other species affected by endocrine disrupters, it's more often the
males that have genital
abnormalities.
"And what's happening to the bears is happening to gulls in the Arctic, too,
because of PCBs, DDT
and dioxins."
Always armed
From 1950 until 1972 there were organised bear hunts for tourists who
visited Svalbard. Since then
killing them has been illegal, except in self-defence, and there are now
about as many bears as
people on the islands.
Since 1973 five people have been killed by bears, and virtually nobody sets
foot outside the few
settlements on Svalbard without a heavy weapon.
Ny-Alesund, the most northerly settlement in the world, has a population of
about 60, most of them
scientists.
In winter it is a rule that nobody locks their doors, in case somebody is
surprised by a bear and
needs to seek instant refuge.
Alarmingly, even a building is not always enough to deter a hungry bear. In
July this year a female
with two cubs poked her head through the window of a hut occupied by two
Polish scientists in the
south of Spitsbergen, the main island.
Melting ice
She would not be scared off, so they shot her. and as the cubs would not
move either, they were
shot too, as neither could have survived without her.
Per Kyrre Reymert fears there will be more encounters. He says: "Climate
change is likely to reduce
the amount of ice round Svalbard.
"With less ice, there will be more bears coming ashore. And they will be
hungry."
I just got back, the weather was good, the food even better, and those 12'
tall women...!MM
Mike,
When you get to the HE, they are not even going to let you in the door.
And your wife won't let you out the door if you keep talking about the
ladies in other worlds!
DD
Members,
Chief posted this on the VNN Forum.
Frode, where is Svalbard?
Dharma/Dean
Hi Dean!
Have been away for some days.
Svalbard is a group of islands that is apart of Norwegian territory. Spitsbergen is the main island, and some maps have only that name. You might have heard of the UFO crash on Spitsbergen.
Frode
Forde,
Oh, ok, Spitsbergen- I am familiar with their location.
No, I never heard of the UFO crash. I can just imagine. Those are the
islands that Olaf and Jens Jansen started off from. A month or so of poking
through the ice and they were noticing the inner sun, so Spitsbergen can't
be too far from the opening.
Dean