Posted on 01/27/2014 5:22:48 AM PST by Zakeet
A group of researchers say they have established a new biomarker for how stressed polar bears are about climate change.
Last year, a team reported that fluctuations in climate and ice cover are closely related to stress among polar bears in East Greenland as indicated by levels of the stress hormone cortisol in hair samples. The team is hopeful this type of analysis will be beneficial once others learn that it can now be done with much greater reliability.
"Nobody else has done this so far," says Jerrold Meyer of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who calls himself a behavioral endocrinologist. "We've not only been one of the key developers of the technique but we have also have worked very hard to demonstrate its reliability and validity. In collaboration with Melinda Novak, chair of the psychology department, we were among the first to show in a major controlled study that a prolonged or major life stress does lead to a demonstrable increase in cortisol in hair. Now we're making the technique available to others and we hope it spurs new collaborations with our lab."
(Excerpt) Read more at science20.com ...
Oh, I can just see the worry lines on polar bear faces.
Wurra, wurra, wurra.
There's your stress factor you dummies. Five times the bear population competing for the same resources. What a pack of grade A ass hats.
When we prosecute these bastards under the RICO ACT in years to come... I will celebrate their demise.
Of course the bears killed today would be higher stressed than those of the 1800s. The bear killers of today have a much higher probability of killing the bear than those of the 1800s, given the quality of today's weapons. In the 1800s, the bears saw the hunters and thought "Hmmmm...Lunch!" Today they see them, and think "Oh, Oh.....I'm going to get killed!"
I always found stress to be a motivating factor.
“Nobody else has done this so far,” because it is so STUPID, but claiming a huge discovery will get us more funding, maybe an endowment.
Only mamas having babies den up - the males remain active in all but the worst weather. :-)
What’s the difference between one that’s stressed and one that isn’t?
As far as humans stress is nothing more than lack of mental capacity to deal with the situation at hand.
That bear only nailed her because she’s a lard ass!
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