...sounds like a good idea, but it won't pass until the prez leaves.  He'll veto it if it passes, and I doubt we'll get a 2/3 majority to override.

It is lovely, that so much of National Bear Awareness Week has been spent discussing polar bears and their ESA listing.

But at the same time, needless to say, it is sad, that so little has been really accomplished, and that the environmentalist and animal-welfare communities have been insulted by this charade.

Tas Par is right about the PBSPA (as he is about most things).  Too bad, that he is becoming as cynical as I am.

Let us see what we can do, against drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, and shipping across them.  The iconic animals probably should be cetaceans: gray whales, bowhead whales, belugas and narwhals.

Kert Davies of Greenpeace threw a good shot, trying to present the polar bear as a kind of Christ-figure: "If we can save the polar bear, we can save the rest of us."

Actually, as much as I love polar bears, I think migratory birds, such as the guillemots, are more fundamental, as well as the cetaceans.  Given the way the climate is changing, grizzlies, black bears, wolves, coyotes and red foxes will move into the "niches" (a term that I am suspicious of) in the terrestrial Arctic ecosystems.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

Tas Par is right about the PBSPA (as he is about most things).  Too bad, that he is becoming as cynical as I am.

Don't worry, there's still hope.  Even though the listing itself can't force the DOI to use it to stop oil and drillin' operations, the listing itself will help the non-profits add fire to their arguments should they decide to file suit against individual projects (which they've said they will do so).

BioD, I know you love brevity, and good for you for doing so!; but you should realize that we are unable to appreciate the depth of your insight, on the basis of a handful of ambivalent words.

Another bit of bear-stuff during National Bear Awareness Week: "Arctic" is originally from Greek "Ta Arktika," the group of constellations revolving around the Pole Star, Polaris, in the northernmost region of the heavens.  "Arktos" is Greek for "bear."  Polaris is the star at the end of the unnaturally long tail of the Little Bear, in Latin, Ursa Minor.  Ursa Maior, the Bigger Bear, also equipped with a long tail, and popularly called the Big Dipper, accompanies her child.

See the best-known and authoritative version of the myth, about human beings turned to bears turned to constellations, in the great poem by the Latin poet Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book II, from around lines 400 to 525: the story of Callisto and her son Arcas, as Jupiter, Diana and Juno all behave badly.

Yes, the generally unsettled region in the central Peloponnese, Arcadia, is connected to this bear-mythology.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

"Actually, as much as I love polar bears, I think migratory birds, such as the guillemots, are more fundamental, as well as the cetaceans.  Given the way the climate is changing, grizzlies, black bears, wolves, coyotes and red foxes will move into the "niches" (a term that I am suspicious of) in the terrestrial Arctic ecosystems."

Have you ever cuddled a polar bear?  What is it you like about them? their soft white coat?

Did you know that fledgling guillemots are yummy to polar bears, as well as seals?

Aren't you saying that bio-diversity is set to increase?

That's good isn't it?

That's cruel and sick!  Those people (who look like hunters) are barbarians!  I hope that poor polar bear didn't have any cubs because now they would be orphans.

Yes RuthB,
It looks like trophysm to me which i abhor, however we do not know the reasons why it was shot, and the real point of interest was that it was not a polar bear but a grizzly male polar female hybrid.

It follows on from my belief discussed above and on the other thread Alas Alaska that bears are very capable of adaption and increased genetic diversity etc.

For instance polars are an adaption from brown bears
 

Are these grizzly-polar hybrids capable of reproducing?

Let the jaguars return!

Hi Storm Dragon,
Off the top of my head, I don't know for sure, (I'm not a botanist or genetecist), but since the species split has been given as but a blink at 100,000 years ago, some say a bit more, that alone suggests a likelehood of second generation fertility to me.
Also, notice that the resultant hybrid could easily be mistaken for a polar bear.
Also, I recollect that female polar bears are choosy and able to resist the amors of larger male polar bears, whom they may NOT fancy, and that frequent cooperative mating is required to ensure pregnancy.  It is thus interesting that a female polar would mate repetitively with a relatively small grizzly....it must be some kind of affection.attraction
I suggest you Google "grizzly polar hybrid", and go-on from there if you are interested