Bears

Healthy Bears Equals Healthy Ecosystems


Bears are keystone species and indicators species, essential for overall ecosystem health. Since bears are top predators, healthy bear populations indicate thriving ecosystems, abundant fish and ample habitat. 

Watch this amazing video: Why Bears?


A Symbol of Wilderness

To many, bears are powerful symbols of the wild places we wish to protect. Yet human activities and habitat loss threaten bear populations, even in remote arctic areas. Organizations such as Polar Bear Trust, Polar Bears International, Environment Canada and the Wildlife Conservation Society are working to protect and conserve habitat. The good news is there are many organizations working toward protecting bears. Find out more, follow this link: Wildlife Preservation

Did You Know?

Bears are found throughout much of the northern hemisphere, including rare species in India and Korea. To learn more about the 8 bear species found worldwide, click on the names below. Thanks to Bear Trust International for these great links!

 North American Black Bear 
Brown Bear
Polar Bear 
Panda
Andean Bear  
Sun Bear 
Sloth Bear 
Asiatic Black Bear 

More links:



 International Assc. for Bear Research and Management
COSEWIC Species Database - Bears

 BC Tourism - Bear Watching


Noss, Reed (1990). "Indicators for monitoring biodiversity. A hierarchical approach. Conservation Biology 4 (4): 355–364. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.1990.tb00309.x. Retrieved 2013-06-03

 Paine, R.T. (1995). "A Conversation on Refining the Concept of Keystone Species".Conservation Biology 9 (4): 962–964. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.1995.09040962.x Retrieved 2013-06-03



6 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 5, 2013 at 4:36 PM

    Bear Trust Intl Bear Trust Intl
    @BearTrust

    @Bismuth83Bi include links to organizations for all 8 species of bears:
    Polar Bears polarbearsinternational.org
    Panda panda.org.cn/english/
    Andean Bear andeanbear.org
    Sun Bear sunbears.wildlifedirect.org
    Sloth Bear conservationindia.org
    Asiatic Black Bear moonbears.org/index.html North American Black Bear bbcc.org
    and the Brown Bear vitalground.org

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    Replies
    1. KristaJune 5, 2013 at 5:04 PM

      Thanks for the informative links @BearTrust. I had no idea #bears were found in #Korea! I've posted your links at http://enviroport.blogspot.ca/

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  2. AnonymousJune 5, 2013 at 5:02 PM

    Polar Bears Int'l. @PolarBears

    @bismuth83bi TY for including us! Would be good to add info on how global warming affects the bears & what we can do: ow.ly/lJUJC

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  3. AnonymousJune 5, 2013 at 11:52 PM

    Top predator? I think we are the top predator. A world without bears suits me just fine.

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    Replies
    1. KristaJune 8, 2013 at 4:57 PM

      You're right, both humans and bears are top-level predators. Here's a Wikipedia link if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apex_predator

      As for your 'world without bears' comment; that's certainly one way of looking at things. Bears can become a nuisance and sometimes attack humans.

      The point I'm trying to make, and that the "Why Bears" movie makes, is that the ecosystem is full of unique, complex food webs. From a conservation perspective, one way of protecting an ecosystem is to protect the top predators.

      For example, for polar bears to survive, the fish, seal, birds, walruses, phytoplankton and algae must also be healthy. Here's a link to an Arctic Ecosystem: http://polardiscovery.whoi.edu/arctic/ecosystem.html

      Delete

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