Hearing tests for polar bears (Can't hear melting ice! Barf Alert!)

BBC News ^ | Sep. 30, 2008 | Peter Bowes

[PROCON]

Scientists in California are testing the hearing of polar bears to try to find out whether the noises associated with melting Arctic ice could affect their ability to survive.

In the wild, polar bears live in one of the quietest places on Earth. For much of the time, the Arctic is a bitterly cold, silent world.

But global warming is changing that. Ice, which is crucial to the bears' survival, is disappearing and people are moving in.

"We're expecting industrial activity, shipping, recreation, all of those human activities to increase in the Arctic," says Dr Ann Bowles, a senior research scientist at Hubbs-Seaworld Research Institute in San Diego.

[PROCON]

You can't make this $h!t up!!

[PROCON]

Ping!

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[screaminsunshine]

Is insanity a contagious disease?

[HoosierHawk]

Let me guess. A $12 million dollar grant from the Department of the Interior?

[DBrow]

“Ice, which is crucial to the bears’ survival,”

It actually is the liquid water between the sheets of ice that are crucial. If the Arctic were all ice, no polar bears. If the Arctic were all water, they’d move to shore, like they apparently did in the Medieval Warm Period.

[w1andsodidwe]

Somebody must have got a big grant by using the words "Global Warning" in the grant request.

But the good news is industrialization is coming to the North Pole.

What a load of .....

[DBrow]

“We’re expecting industrial activity, shipping, recreation, all of those human activities to increase in the Arctic,”

Ummm, and this is bad?

[SouthDixie]

But the scientists are trying to establish the animals' precise range of hearing.

The Stock Market is free-falling, people are losing their homes and you clowns are researching the hearing capabilities of Polar Bears. I bet the bears are chuckling at you too.

[weegee]

Polar Bears CAN and DO swim. UNDERWATER. They aren’t cats.

[weegee]

The polar bears can’t hear the lifeguard blowing the whistle when they go for a swim less than 1 HOUR after eating.

[bikerman]

Maybe I can get a million $ grant on the effects of melting ice on the paws of the bears hmmm

[ProtectOurFreedom]

LOL. Our pool lifeguard blows the whistle for Adult Swim every hour. One thing is for certain, when that Adult Swim whistle blows, the arctic is empty of swimmers because there are sure no adults working on such a stupid study. Sounds like a high school science fair project.

[proud_yank]

I have spoken to people who do research on polar bears, and have heard them talk of hearing tests on them. Never before have I heard them say it is because of global warming.

[battlegearboat]

"Calling all bears...

Calling all bears...

How copy?...

Over"

[RetSignman]

LET AL GORE TEST THEIR HEARING

[Old Professer]

If the tests are being run the way that video shows, I can't see how they can tell what sounds the bear hears, looks to me like he has figured out that if he puts his nose to the plate and then barks, he'll get fed. These tests need to be done by using brain scanners and ear implants while running the bears through a range of tones from <500Hz to >20,000 Hz; not long ago a scientist did just that with young deer that he had raised and conducted the tests up to maturity. Remakably, he found that deer have terrible hearing and those stupid whistles that you see on people's bumpers are a big waste of money and time.