Selects: How Polar Bears Work

Stuff you Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Chuck Bryant scratching out a significant amount of this article, like literally as we started recording. That's important stuff. There's like numbers and dates and way eats and temperatures and that that's it's important stuff you just scratched out. I feel like it's all covered in the body of the text of the article, though, well, I mean that's one

way to do an intro. Is anybody in journalism can tell you you can write the article and then go back and summarize. If you're an intro. I've never been partial that the intro to me is just like this stream of consciousness. It tells you where the rest of the article is going to go because you don't know, man, because it's all jazz baby. Uh yeah. Polar bears. Polar bears another polar bear club. Although they may have clubs, they're one of the least studied mammal populations on the planet.

Because it's cold, no one wants to go hang out and watch them, yeah, pretty much, and because it's also extremely dangerous to to study polar bears up close and personal. Yeah they look cuddly, um, but they will, especially New well yeah remember New. Yeah, I got a little bit about New very sad. But you're gonna say they look cute and cuddly, but don't leave his hanging. Well, you go up to hug one like you want to, and you get your face eating. Oh yeah, if you're lucky,

that's all that happens, you know. I saw pictures of a guy who um survived a polar bear attack. Oh my goodness. Yeah, he was messed up like I guess it was still attach, but three quarters of his scalp was now flipped back double like there's a whole clear through his achilles tendon and his ankle, so like as achilles tendon was intact, and then the front of the top of his the front of his ankle was intact, but in between the two was gone. That could have

been a claw, poke or a fang. Yeah, it could have been like flicking it with its thumb and middle finger. Very strong. It's one of nature's cruelest things to an animal. So huggable, uh and deadly. So yeah, you know if you're if you hug up polar bear, it's bad news. Yeah, it's like one of those black widows that marry and kill. Right. Well, that's just my interpretation of polar bears. You know, you

mean the ursus maritimus. Yeah, and maritimes is Uh, it's a legitimate thing to call it because technically a polar bear is a sea animal, a sea mammal. Yeah, because they spend most of their time actually on the sea, that's right, and in the sea sometimes, as we'll find out. Um, well, I guess we're knee deep in this thing. Huh. Yeah, because you skip the intro. Uh. So the polar bear what they think? Um, and I enjoy our animal casts

a lot, and there's some of my favorite ones. I just wanted to say that although the polar bear doesn't despite its huggability, doesn't compete with the jellyfish with octopus. Um, but it's up there. Sure it is because you can hug a jellyfish, you know, I than an octopus. That's a great hug. Yeah, eight times as good. They won't let go. I guess four times is good. Yeah, alright, so the polar bear two times is good because polar bear has four. No, I mean as a human hug.

Uh so, Jerry even like that one. Um. So the polar bear evolved, as best as we know, a couple of hundred thousand years ago from the brown bear. Actually, I saw the scientific consensus between five million and six hundred thousand years really because I saw the two thousand all over the place, did you really? Yeah? But it might be one of those you know how the internet is, Like I think Science Magazine used the term scientific consensus. Oh wow, so I was like through done the gauntlet.

Uh well, let's just say let's go with a scientific consensus, okay, um, and not our own article on our own website. But they did evolved from the brown bear. Uh, they think and um. One of the ways that they back this up is by saying, polar bear can go have sex with a brown bear and they can make a baby bear and that bear can actually have babies. Yeah, which means everything jibs. Do you remember? I think it was our evolution in Isolation episode that was a good one.

We talked about speciation events, and we talked about this how the how the brown bear just kept ranging further and further north, and as as they're kind of habitat changed, they actually evolved to too, into a different species, the polar bear. I remember that now, but I remember a species or a speciation event taking place when the two groups could no longer reproduce. That was my memory of it, but I guess not because I went back in double check.

It's like, polar bears are different species, but it can. It can reproduce with brown bears. And it does make sense because humans and Neanderthals or neanderthals if you're a pet ant um could could reproduce and have fertile offspring, and there are definitely two different species of humans. Yeah, that's true, right, Yeah, they were, well, you know, occasionally people get together and have a few drinks and science is created, you know. Yeah. Yeah, uh so there are

way more um brown bears, everyone knows. And we're gonna talk a lot about this. That the polar bear. I'm not sure the official designation. I don't think it's officially listed. Well, it depends on where you are, yeah, as the official listings is threatened or you know, the like, it depends on the country it's in. Yeah, but they are they're not doing great. There's only about twenty five thousand polar bears,

and their habitat is shrinking literally physically shrinking. Yeah, that's the big problem is that the the melting of Arctic sea ice as we'll see as the Arctic sea ice is where they live. They live on ice floating out in the Arctic ocean, um, and they don't like to be on land. When they are on land, it's a problem for them. So the decrease in Arctic sea ice that's going on because the climate change UM is affecting

them tremendously and affecting the rest of the ecosystem. But yeah, definitely because UM say, like if they get stranded on land, they start hunting on like for land mammals, which affects the ecosystem, and that now their competition that's not normally there for for prey. You know, there's all sorts of ripple effects that are coming out of it. But one thing I did see is that the the polar bears that are really really far north are actually benefiting from

the melting um ice. Oh really, because it's easier for them to hunt now because there is just less area to cover. Um it's the ice is thinner. Oh, so they can hunt more easily on it. Interesting. Yeah, uh, well it's a good thing you said north, because you're not gonna find polar bears, but the South Pole where Santa lives and penguins and Santa lives at the north north Pole with the polar bears. That's right. We've all seen the Coca Cola commercials. Yeah, but that has penguins

in it. Yeah, the penguins and polar bears would never meet. Yeah, that's true, because that maybe at a zoo. Yeah, that is true. They had polar bears at the San Diego Zoo. There's a polar bear in China in a mall in China that has a zoo, and it is one of the saddest things I've ever heard of. I signed a petition last night to free it. His name is Pizza and it is It's the Pizza the polar Bear. It's the it's the saddest. I think it's build as the

saddest pole. They're bear on the planet. Man, it's so sad. Look into it, chuck outside the Yeah, I guarantee you will. And you know what, I bet we could get a lot of people to sign that petition. We'll see if it matters. The petitions matter. Do they make a difference? Uh? I think if they're accompanied with the right like press, like media pressure, right or like a mafia thug right to deliver the papers. I got a petition for you. I highly recommend you read it. Uh So. Polar bears

do live only in the Northern Hemisphere. Those twenty five thousand are in nineteen distinct populations in five just five countries, including the United States. Yeah, it's funny because their habitat is at the top of the world where five countries basically come together. Well Alaska, yeah, that's the U. S part. Canada obviously. I think two thirds of all polar bears actually live in Canada. Even though they if you asked

him that, they wouldn't be able to tell you. Russia is another big one, Norway in Greenland, that is correct, uh, And it is tough living up there for humans, but not for polar bears. They love it. They're well adapted over the years. Just supposedly if they run for any bit of time, they have to like stop and lay down because they'll overheat and they will exhaust themselves. Yeah, identified a lot when I was reading this with polar bear like, I kind of like these guys. They are

incredibly well adapted. Um, which is another reason why I think they don't think it's any less than six hundred thousand years that they evolved from brown bears, because it would take so long for these just they're really different from brown bears. Like brown bears are basically herbivores, polar bears are carnivores. They seal blubber like brown bears eat berries in the occasional human on accident maybe, but polar bears are like, give me some seals, I want them.

I bet they would eat some berries if someone offered them up for dessert. Maybe, but there are no berries, right, you know, But it would take a lot because they get kind of big and they need a lot of fat to ward off the cold. Well, yeah, and they have a lot of it. They have two layers of fur and then blubber, full blubber layer. That's about four

and a half inches thick of just blubber. Yes, supposedly, like of their weight at any given time or when they're fully um developed or nourished, is a blubber was their own fat. Since you mentioned the weight, we'll go ahead and throw some stats out. Adult males eight or nine ft. Yeah, apparently that's the biggest bear. The polar bear is the biggest of the bears from what I understand, not the bear and Stein bears. Barren Stain. Adult females six to eight feet and the male's way up to

thirt hundred pounds nine pounds. Yeah, that's that's intimidating. It is you've seen lost. I haven't this article mentioned it though, of course, because it was probably written. When these stats are accurate. The females can get up to about seven hundred pounds those claus I mentioned about two inches, and um, they live about twenty years. Um. Yeah, I was surprised by that. That's really short twenty years. Sure, I didn't think that was too bad for a bear. Oh, I

thought it was very short. What do you think it's a good bear span for your lifespan, like fourty or fifty years. Yeah, that's what I want to see for a bear. Well, we all do. Let's be honest. Twenty years. It's just like live fast, die young type age, you know. So there pause which we mentioned the clause. They have these big, beautiful, fat round paws that act like snow shoes, and they walk and they spread out when they walk on the on the ice and sort of distribute their weight.

And in fact, when they're on thin ice they even spread their arms out wider. It's very cute. Uh. And they have these little uh papilla on their bottom paws is old nubs because ice is slippery, and they the front paws are actually slightly webbed for swimming. It's amazing. So, like you said, it's it's a sea bear. It is the Maritimus ursa maritimus. So let's let's talk about some of its like actual habits and the things it does after a break. You want to, yes, Chuck, you mentioned

their fur, right, so you know their furs translucent. That's right, they're not. It's not another episode at some point, probably the evolving isolation one, or maybe it's translucent or by or maybe the butterflies wings one. What is I can't remember what it's called iridescence. Iridescence. That was a really interesting episode two. Um, but yeah, they're there there. Um. Fur is actually it's translucent because it's hollow, and it's hollow because it traps air and then their body heat

can warm the air. It's kind of like, um, have you ever camped when it was cold and all you need is one of those little thin blow up mats because your body heat warms the air underneath it. Thermarrest, it's a brand name, but sure, right, okay, so it's the same thing. But this is their fur that's doing that. Um. And since it's hollow and translucent, it actually scatters all colors of light and creates this white appearance like a quartzid or something like that. It's amazing. So they're not

actually white coated in white fur. It's all an illusion. Yeah. So if you saw a polar bear in New York City, it would be the color of street garbage, right, like a chamelelee it's not true. Street garbage color color is that well, you mustard, it's like a pizza box, and they'll be some recycling and then just some just New York apartment to trit us, it's like the colors of the rainbow. Alright, So the fur is um not all

over their body. The parts of their body that don't have this thick insulation and this blubber, the tail and the muzzle and the ears are adapted to be small because it's not as insulated with that blubber. So um, it requires less energy to heat and it has less surface to to lose heat from. Right, That's right. So yeah, these guys are like incredibly well adapted for their environment, which is really saying something because their environment is about

is inhospitable the mammal is you can imagine. Um. They are routinely comfortable and apparently have no heat loss whatsoever at temperatures of like negative what was it, like like fifty fahrenheit negative fifty that's the like, that's the temperature they're they're comfortable in um and they actually, yeah, they experienced no change in body temperature a temperature of negative thirty four degrees fahrenheit which is negative thirty seven celsius. Amazing. Yeah,

they're just like it's unaffected by it. They're that well suited to the environment. So we mentioned them walking. They can walk a great distances up to thirty I'm sorry, twenty miles KOs a day for days and days in a row. And uh, they have been tracked swimming up

to sixty miles, which is amazing. Okay. One other thing I saw um a Canadian geographic article, which is a thing okay, uh, and they get this was a two thou twelve article and they mentioned a recent study so probably two thousand, two thousand and eleven maybe two twelve. Study found polar bears swimming as a result of climate change um up to six d eighty seven kilometers. That's four six miles. That's to get from ice to ice. Y man, that's sad, four hundred and twenty six miles.

These things are just swimming like well, I don't think they're supposed to swim that far. No, definitely not, you know, no, but they can. They'll do it. It's amazing. And they're doing that to eat that sweet sweet seal blubber. Yeah. And plus I mean the sea ice is their habitat. This is where they live, it's where they sleep, it's and it's where they hunt most most importantly. Yeah, so, um, they don't. Another big differ prints with the brown bears.

They don't hibernate like uh, the your average bear. Uh you like that. Uh, female sort of semi hibernate when they're kind of pre and post pregnancy, but it's not true hibernation. And like the biological sense you want to talk about mating, Oh sure, specifically polar bear mating. So again, they they are a fairly not closely studied um mammal population. Right, So scientists actually aren't entirely sure how females signal to

males that they're um ready to reproduce. And the reason why is, um, the females don't appear to actually go into any kind of heat. They have something called induced ovulation, right, which is once they're mating, they start to ovulate. It. Actually the intercourse is what causes the ovulation, right, and not always sometimes it takes several times. Yeah, you've gotta be good, you gotta know what you're doing, right, um, and once the once they actually do um, I guess sure,

once the once the egg is fertilized. The embryo doesn't actually start developing right away either. Yeah, that's super interesting. It's an eight month gestation. But the first four months it's just sitting there. Yeah, just the fetus is just like waiting while the mom eats and eats and eats and prepares for that long uh, that long period as we'll see where where you know, she has a little cub and uh yeah, a couple of couple of times, usually twins, thank you. You know all you've seen polar

bear cubs, right, it's pretty adorable twins. They're born blind, without teeth. They probably make cute little noises. They're not insulated, so they need mom. Like if polar bear mom dies right away, polar bear cubs will not survive. Oh yeah, there's their toasts. Zero chance. Yeah, like you said, they're born blind and without teeth. They've really thin for no insulation. They weigh about a pound in her a foot long, which is really tiny for a bear that's going to

grow into pounds. Um And yeah, that mom makes a den when she's um carrying her her embryos and starts to fatten up. She goes and makes a little winter den sometimes it's snow den, which, by the way, you should see that movie snowdon It's good. Yeah, the documentary of the movie. Well both yeah, yeah, okay. Um, and so she'll make a little snow cave, snow den that kind of thing, um, or use an actual cave. But for the most part, she's usually just digging out a

little space for herself. And then um, she'll give birth and then nurse the cubs for at least their first twenty months. Yeah, they have to hang out with mama for a while and drink that milk. Yeah, I think maybe, um, a couple of years, maybe up to four years they spend with mom, like learning to hunt and all that kind of stuff. Um. But yes, she doesn't leave the snow den for like the first um several months. Yeah, dad splits after a week, He's like, my work here

is done. I might even go get someone else pregnant. They're not monogamous. The women, the women, the females, um, their lady lady bears. They they made successfully usually between the age of six and eight years old, and they only for mammal don't reproduce a lot, which is one of the reasons there's only two of them. They only have about five litters over their lifespan, whereas some mammals, you know, I mean they just have litter upon litter

every year of multiple, multiple little cubs. Yeah, which is another reason and why you know, a loss of the to the polar bear population is it's a big deal. They don't replace. Their replacement rate is kind of low, that's right. Uh. And there could be you know, a battle over mating with a female because um, it's you know, it's sparks out there. It's not the most happening scene for picking up. It's not a firm bar, it's not a ferm bar. Uh. So if that happens, they will fight.

They won't kill each other. Yeah, I thought that was kind of me. Yeah, of course the human to me is like, they know that they're dwindling, so they won't kill each other. Of course it's not true at all. That's funny because the human and me was like they they're like, it's really tough out here, so we all got to stick together. Yeah, you'd like to think that. Um, but what they do is they will they will lower their head but pin their ears back and roar. It's

kind of a lot of posturing um. But there could be like an injury that occurs fighting over who to mate with, right, but not to the death. Yeah, I'm sure it happens occasionally. There's probably a jerk bear every now and then. You know, this feels threatened Todd, Yeah he's all on steroids. But when a death will happen is if anyone messes with those cubs, because Mama bear will take you down, like without thinking twice. Right, It's very sweet. So the little bears have been brought up

by their mom. The twins Chuck and Buck, they are they have been brought up by their mom and raised to hunt, hunt, hunt, and uh now they know what they're doing. So if you could drop in on either one of those guys and actually there, I was really surprised to hear this. The males will like hang out with one another. Yeah, they're not necessarily territorial. Yeah, they'll even share a meal occasionally. Yeah, they have enough. Again, that's because they're like, it's tough out here, man. Come on,

They're like, brother, can you spare a dime. I've had my hundred pounds of blubber today, which is literally how much they can eat. So um. When they hunt. They prefer ice, like a bit of ice, sea ice that they can sit on. And actually what they'll do is they look for holes in the ice. The main prey of the polar bear is the ringed seal. Yes, their favorite. They'll they'll eat other stuff. They'll eat just about anything, a whale, carcass, alive, beluga whale that they can catch, um,

walrus is whatever, but they really go nuts for ringed seals. Okay, so um. Ringed seals have a thing where whenever it's um, the ice is thin enough for them to dig through. And by thin enough, we're talking like six feet right. The seal has these um basically appendages on its flippers that are sharp and they use it to carve holes through the sea ice. And these are the seals breathing holes.

And they make about ten to fifteen of them every season, and then they'll keep them like open throughout the season. They maintain them. So they're hunting down there, they're eating their own stuff. They need to come up for air sometimes, well, polar bears stake these things out because they know that a steal has to come up forever very like five

to ten minutes. Yeah, it's like whack a mole almost exactly, and they it's well, it's sad in a way, but it's also, uh it's sad for the seal, but it's necessary and it's pretty sharp too, but it's it's an amazing waiting game that requires tons of Like you can watch videos on YouTube of a bear, and this is like a a thousand pound bear, like very gingerly because you know, the seal can see what's going on or feel it, and they very quietly walk up to these

holes and just wait like a cat almost hours, yeah, days, just waiting and smelling. They can smell like twenty miles so you can bet they can smell down into that hole. And then there's one that slow mobie ado of this bear like leaping up in the air and the whole basically everything but his butt and his hind legs goes down into that water grabs that seal with those claws and yeah, it's like these curse these breathing holes that

I need. Uh, I couldn't have had guilt. Yeah, and the bear eats well, like I said, about a hundred pounds and a meal. And it's also horrific because they're white and the blood from the seal really stands out against Yeah, and on the ice and snow, it's like it does. It looks like a horror movie. But bears have actually evolved to clean up very like immediately after eating. So they'll eating eating, eat like you said, they'll eat like a hundred pounds of blubber at a time, and

when the hunting is good, they'll just eat the seals blubber. Sure, right, um. And actually what's interesting is the omega threes in that seal blubber actually cut down on the type of cholesterol that would allow plaque to build up in their arteries, so they can subsist basically on a diet of fat seal blubber. You know, it's amazing. Um. And right after they finished this meal, they're covered in blood and it's

really again horrific. They'll take a bath. Depending on the time of year, they'll take a bath in the in the sea itself, or they'll take a snow bath, and then they'll take a little nap well, because they need that, like you said, they need that furtive remain translucent and clean in order to stay warm and dry. So uh, yeah, they clean up to keep themselves warm, not just because they look like something out of a West Craven movie, right,

but also because they have to remain camouflaged too. Yeah, exactly. Uh. Well, before we take a break, I do want to mention the very funny thing if a polar bear does not get that seal in the hole, they can throw a little hissy fit. Oh yeah, and they've been known to like pound the ice and frustration. Uh. And I don't think like people are you know, putting or stuff on the bear like they literally like when they miss the seal start throwing things around and beating on the ice

because they're angry. Like imagine waiting at an air hole for two days the seal finally comes up and you miss. H. Yeah, I can. I don't think it's anthropomorphizing either. Yeah, it's pretty funny. Um. All right, let's take a break and we'll talk a little bit about their dwindling ice and numbers after this. Sorry JH, all right, we're back. One thing we did not mention that I think it's obvious, but we might as well say it is. The polar

bear is nothing hunts the polar bear. Right there, the king, Daddy's and Mama's of their land. The apex predator. Yeah, which is a pretty good place to be. Um. The bad place to be if you're a polar bear is where you live and hunt, because, like we said, it's it's shrinking, and um, it creates a lot of problems. You mentioned a little bit about the ecosystem. You know, they'll go in there and they'll eat birds and eggs and things like that when they have to caribou maybe

on the shore. Yeah, but they're they're not supposed to be eating that stuff. Uh. And they're not supposed to be encountering humans as often as they are either, which is a problem in some parts of the world. But yeah, Well there's actually um a town in Manitoba called Churchill that's developed a like basically it's made itself a tourist destination for polar bear tourism. Um. But it's like one of the few places in the world that's like an

established settlement where Westerners can come and um view them. Yeah. Uh. But even in Churchill, they they occasionally have to like shoot the polar bears if they just won't leave. And apparently a little p s a here. If you ever encounter a polar bear, do not lay down and play dead. That's not what you want to do. Yeah, is it like regular bears? You try to make yourself look big, look big, make a lot of noise, chase them off. Um. Apparently they'll break out. There's another town um in uh

I think Norway. Uh. That what they'll like, rev their snowmobiles. They'll get the town helicopter out and try to scare them off like that. Yeah, that's the one small bard which has people and three thousand polar bears. Yeah, so they've probably gotten pretty used to fending for themselves. Yeah, they have. Um for the most part, the bears will leave because from everything I saw, the polar bear in particular isn't interested in in encountering humans. It's not their thing. No,

it's like almost any wildlife, they're forced into that situation. Yeah. If you look at bear attacks though, um, like a grizzly bear will attack you while you're just sleeping quietly in a sleeping bag near anywhere near and it comes into your camp. It'll mall you your dad the polar bear. List of polar bear attacks do not include stuff like that. It's it's a polar bear that you've startled or you're very hungry or it's very hungry and you have been

have meat in your pockets. Yeah that was Yeah in Churchill, Manitoba. There um their stats they have had two people killed in three hundred years by polar bears. Yeah, it's that's pretty good track record for one of two towns where not bad. One of them was because these kids, uh saw a bear and started throwing rocks at it. Not a good idea. So the bear was like, all right, jerk's here I come. Uh. And then the second one, a dude had meat in his pockets, you know. Yeah,

he was eating at a diner. He wanted to go box, just put that meat loaf in your pocket. And he's like, I guess I will this one time and the one time. But actually, if you do look at the polar bear stats right for attacks fatal attacks by polar bears in the United States and Canada, And remember sixty of all polar bears uh live in Canada, so this is a

substantial amount of the polar bears. Um. There there have been eight fatal attacks in the United States and Canada by polar bears since nineteen Four of those took place in zoos where humans climbed into the enclosure with the polar bear. So this one lady that wanted to swim with them. Yeah, they was jumped in and got bitten on like the arm and back and was like screaming and they fixed her out. Oh she survived. She survived.

A bad idea. Um, apparently that's the thing. There's a dude in Toledo before I was born who was down in the polar bear enclosure at the Toledo Zoo and they think he was probably on drugs. And I'm sure he was like, this is gonna be great. I'm gonna go hang out with that polar bear. Yeah, but think of it. Eight people died in the US and Canada since nineteen seventy two, half of them at the zoo. Yeah, only four in the wild. Yeah, so that's the real stat It does say a lot, it does. Um. And

you know we said make yourself look big. If you don't know what that means, that means. The big trick is to, uh, you probably got on a winter coat if you're living in one of these places. So just grab the bottom of your winter coat and pull it up over your head with your arms and basically, yeah, you just appear like large, and that's one of the big survival tips for any bear. Really just makes you look bigger and scarier, because bears are you know, actually,

polar bears are pretty smart supposedly, Is that right? Yeah? I was about to say they were dumb, but they they're one of the smarter mammals. I mean, how so where where did you see? That? Was just on a polar bear site. You know, they were just literally ticking off all the like cognitive abilities. But I think there's they're supposed to be much smarter than like your average brown bear. Yeah, Yogi Bear, Yeah he's pretty smart. You can talk where's the tie? I think he's driven a

car before you can get inside a picnic basket. I love that. When I was a kid, did you watch that? Oh yeah, Yogi Bear? I liked Yogi Bear from like the original series all the way through the weird stuff in like the seventies. I don't remember the weird stuff like um, the laugh Olympics. Oh yeah, yeah, sure, all that spin offs and whatnot. Yeah, so Chuck. We've talked about it indirectly a couple of times, but the polar

bears habitat is shrinking. Tremendously right. The ice is literally melting, and like I was saying in that one Canadian geographic article, they were saying, the bears, the bears in the south are really having trouble, and there are far more human bear encounters than they normally are. Because if a bear makes his way to shore and um, summer strikes and

the ice recedes, they're stuck. He's stuck. They have to wait around until winter comes again or late fall and the ice starts to come back towards shore so they can swim toward it or swim right exactly. Um. So that's that's creating a problem, especially for the ones that are in the southern range. But the ones that are in the northern range are enjoying like easier hunting than ever because the ice is thinning out for them, so they the seals can get through it more easily. So

there's more seals, so there's more hunting up north. The thing is that's not necessarily sustainable, Like they may be enjoying like a heyday right now, but eventually that ice will melt too, and well they'll be gonners because a bear can overheat from from running right. So as the temperatures increase, the bear is actual physical health is in danger. Let alone there you know, habitat shrinking. Um. So they're

not entirely certain what to do. I looked up hunting polar bears, and I think the only the Inuit people are allowed to well, you can get there are certain places in Canada where he can get an exemption, but it's apparently very rare and controlled and very expensive. Well and expensive and and supposedly they say, is is well within the um the bounds of not harming the overall population number. Well again, I'm sorry to keep going back to this. Well, but that Canadian geographic article, um, I

should probably say the name. I think it's called The Truth about Polar Bears. Yeah, totally worth reading, but um it talks a lot about managed hunting programs being a good thing or bad. They were saying it's as long as it's done right, basically everybody involved. I think they even cited the World Wilde I fund as saying like, yeah, we should probably like manage these populations through hunting with

with very strict quotas. But yeah, the Inuits traditionally, or the Inuit and I think the Cree are two groups that have like virtually unrestricted honting like native rights, but they're they're apparently trusted to, you know, stay within these these limits. Yeah, and the people that can pay to do it, I think have to be taken in by Inuit guides. And they actually the Innuit families who keeps

the the bear meat? Right after the rich American? Yeah, I saw that too, kills the bear, which is that's great? Who cares about the meat? I just want to kill the bear. Yeah, I just want the head on my wall. I founded Jimmy John's. Isn't that the guy? Yeah, he's a big game hunter. Who else was? Who's the other guy? The dentist? It killed Leo the lion. I wonder whatever happened to him. I bet his dentist practice suffered. Yeah,

that'd be my guess. Oh, it definitely did. But I wonder if it rebounded since since the initial since the Internet got bored and moved on to something else. Yeah, probably so. I mean, I'm not into any hunting for myself, um, but I've certainly hate big game hunting for anyone. You know, I would like to put a call out like, um, any time I've I've had discussions about hunting or whatever, and I've said, I don't, I don't see the point

in our modern world of hunting. UM. It's always been countered with, well, you know, hunting is a lot more humane than the factory sure farming that you're you're eating the meat from. Um. And I've never that's always struck me as a straw straw argument, draw me an argument. But I've never been able to exactly identify why. Or maybe it's not. And that's why I've never been able to idea to five why. But it's it's always confounded me. Yeah,

I don't. I mean, I know that people talk about the populations and controlled hunting and all that being good for the population, which I'm sure that's very valid. I'm just talking about me personally. Like when push came to shove, I like hanging out in the the woods, I like camping. I like shooting guns every now and then it targets. Sure, shoot up some tin cans. It's fun. But when push came to shove, I can never like pull the trigger

and kill an animal. I shot a squirrel when I was a kid and it was just like the worst day of my life. I think I've told that story was awful. I've got one or two of those under my belt. Yeah, and you either get into it or you don't, I guess. And all of my friends hunted growing up, you know, in Georgia at my church, like every single one of them. But my dad didn't hunt, So I didn't hunt. Yeah, he didn't take a stand.

He was just he was into camping and hiking and not shooting animals, leaving nothing but footprints, nothing but photographs. Let's not take only pictures and polar bear heads, leave only footprints, leave only blood in the snow, and leave the polar bear meat behind for the Inuit. So Newt, Oh, yeah, you got anything else? No, let's finish up with Newt. Everyone remembers Newt cutest polar bear ever. Uh in Germany and new to die very sadly had a seizure and

fell into a pool. And they think that he probably drowned once he fell in, right, I think he had meningitis. Well, no, they finally found out what it is. They couldn't find any kind of pathogen, and so this doctor Harold Pruss for the German Center of Neurodegenerative Disease, got together with um Professor Alex Greenwood at the Leibnitz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, and they said that he had an

autoimmune disease. They found out because nothing made sense about the seizure, so they really wanted to investigate, not only for Newt's sake, but to you know, see if they could help other animals. And uh, it turns out that Newt is the very first animal domesticated while ever diagnosed with an anti n M d A receptor encephalitis. Oh that's what it was. Encephalitis, not mangitis. Yeah, which is a non infectious form of it. Encephalitis, which basically is

when your bodies on immune system attacks your brain. Is the very first animal ever recorded to have this. So well, poor Newda. But a big breakthrough to learn this that it can happen, because now they can you know, study it, and new It was the the reason that they can make this progress. So maybe something good can come from that. Yeah. Very sad though, Sure have a seizure and falling water and drown. Yeah, got anything else? Got nothing else? I

do have one other thing that Inuit. Speaking of the Inuit, they have um obviously a number of legends about polar bears. One of them is that they're actually uh shape shifters, human shape shifters once again their iglues, they shed their polar bis skin and turned back into human like that.

The other is that um when when an Inuit kills the polar bear, they will put out like an offering of tools, again with the idea that the polar bears um have some sort of uh they share an afterlife with humans, possibly as humans um, and that they need these tools in the afterlife. And the better the spread of tools you give the polar bear, the more likely this polar bear is to tell other living polar bears, Hey, you should let this guy kill you because he's gonna

hook you up with some amazing tools afterward. So go ahead and let him take your life. Very spiritual, it's pretty cool. They call him Nanook. Yes in a n U K Yeah not okay uh. If you want to know more about nannook uh, you can type the word polar bears into the search part how stuff works dot com. And since I said Nanook, it's time for a listener mail. I don't even call this letter from a young fan. Okay, good, we like those right, Yeah, of course, Hey, guys. I'm

a fourteen year old fan. Actually, my fifteenth birthday is tomorrow, which is now in the past, so he's already fifteen. I wanted to get it out before then. I've been listening since last July, and I've recently been listening to the older podcast from the beginning about three years in. At this point, I've never written in before because I had no real reason to. I have recently started my freshman year at a new school, and it's been hard for me because I was homeschooled before this and I

could listen to you guys whenever I wanted to. But now I'm at a charter school and I miss having you in my ear all the time. Uh. And then he sends his name is Elias, and he sends a couple of ps s. If Jerry were to speak at the normal volume, would your microphones pick her up? Uh? No, I don't think so, Jerry, would they now? She sees are right? Now? These are directional mix Uh. These are omnipresental mikes. Well, that means they should pick up Jerry right,

but they're not that good. Okay, Uh no, Alias. These microphones are generally for when we put our mouths right upon them, and they're not meant to hear other things in the room, right, That's that's what they're made for. Yeah, because Jerry's she yells at us through most of the show, no one ever hears it. There's a lot of like shaking and twitching that we do. And then the PPS,

which is correct. Recently came across how squatters work. You gave an example of renters who moved out, but it invited a house guess who refused to move out, which classified as a squatter. I was wondering if you could rent for a month, stop paying, and refuse to move out and invoked squatters rights, would that work. I'm not planning on trying it, but it invoked my curiosity. ALIAS.

I don't think that would work because it takes many, many years too to finally gain you know, I mean, you might be able to stay there for a little while, but I don't think you would be able to stay there for the years it would take to gain I guess ownership of the property. Oh is that that's what he's asking? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you you'd be able to stay there throughout the legal process. But like I think it's like thirteen years that you have to stay

somewhere well before you can. Okay, but it's years, right, Yeah, it takes a long time. Sure, And I would imagine at some point a landlord would eventually bring in uh Vinny and Vinny and Jimmy Vinne and Toots Vineyan Toots to make sure you leave. Yeah, that would be my guest. The key here, Elias, is to go find yourself an abandoned house that clearly no one wants move in there spruced to place up and start paying taxes on it. Don't do that, But I'm just saying sure. Advice to

fifteen year old listeners. Thank you, Alis, Yeah, thanks a lot of lies. That was a good one. If you have a question, then you want to get in touch with us, you can tweet to us at s y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash Stuff you Should Know. You can send us an email to Stuff podcast at how Stuff Works dot com and has always joined us at a home on the web. Stuff you Should Know dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio.

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