Will Our Kids Know What We Know?
posted by Capegirl @ 8:28 PM
5 comments
Saturday, October 08, 2005
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5 Comments:
this would be a damn shame.
everyone needs to wake up.
i remember when i learned that animals that inhabit the poles are pretty much exclusive to those poles. you won't find penguins in the north and you won't find polar bears in the south. i think i was 20 watching the Discovery Channel. somehow it didn't get mentioned in all those science/biology courses i took in school.
the little racing dolphins are adorable.
have you seen or read..
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?
the movie is pretty funny, they did a good job with it. and i of course love the message it passes.
yes Sarah, you're right! There are no polar bears in Antarctica and there are no penguins in the Arctic. Antarctica is really a big chunk of land surrounded by water while the Arctic is water surrounded by land. Here is why you don't find polar bears in Anarctica:
"The distribution of all animals is a function of luck and history. Having everything you need is no guarantee of being able to reach any point on the globe once you are there because it may not be possible to get there in the first place.
Polar bears likely evolved very recently (about 200,000 years to possibly as long as 500,000 years ago) from grizzly bears somewhere off eastern Russia or the Alaskan Panhandle. They are totally dependent upon sea ice for their primary habitat for getting their food (mainly ringed seals and bearded seals). As the world's oceans never have been frozen from the north to the south, polar bears never have had the possibility to reach the Antarctic. Polar bears are strong swimmers but not strong enough to swim to the Antarctic.
Some species have wider distributions because their habitats were connected at some time in the distant past. For example, grizzly bears (also called brown bears) live in the USA, Canada, Russia, Spain, Italy and even Norway! They crossed over a land bridge between Russian and Alaska. The same is true for wolves, wolverines, lynx and many other species.
However, polar bears would really like the Antarctic. In the absence of polar bears, seals and penguins in the Antarctic are not afraid of predators (except leopard seals and killer whales). A polar bear would have a lot of fun and probably get very very fat! On the negative side, the seals and penguins would be devastated. Polar bears are really better off in the Arctic"
Interesting huh?
Yeah I have read HGG....and all Douglas Adam's other books. I haven't seen the film but I hear they did a pretty good job staying true to the books. If you're interested (and haven't yet)you might want to read "Last Chance to See" its conservation oriented and very funny too :)
that's a great way to help and make somebody happy sweetie!
This is tragically emblematic of our time. Polar bears will soon exist only in zoos. There is no sense pretending, the handwriting is clearly on the wall.
The idea of saving the species by introducing them to Antarctica seems intriguing, but the best laid plans of mice and men... And what would Ian Malcolm say?
We are in the midst of a rude awakening, and still we sleep. What an absolute heartache.
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