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Last updated on March 6th, 2018 at 12:31 am
More bad environmental news:
Another reason to worry about global warming: more and itchier poison ivy. The noxious vine grows faster and bigger as carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rise, researchers report Monday.
Which is actually good news for bears and other delightful woodland creatures:
Unlike humans, many animals don’t have adverse reactions to poison ivy, according to an expert in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. “In fact, for woodpeckers, warblers, vireos and many other birds, poison ivy’s berries are a preferred food,” says Jim Finley, professor of forest resources. “Deer, black bears, muskrats and rabbits eat the fruit, stems and leaves. For these animals, poison ivy’s eye-catching early-fall color will act as a food marker rather than a poison warning.”
Black bears are listed as threatened or endangered in five US states, are rare in Missouri, and protected in Kentucky. Long may they thrive on global warming’s ivy bounty.
- At least someone is thinking of the bears, muscrats and rabbits.Posted by Nic on 2006 05 29 at 07:45 PM • permalink
- Clearly, you have never run afoul of that stuff. I used to have to cut it back from the roadside when I was in college (summer job), and we used brush whips and scythes in those benighted days. Luckily, I was never as badly affected as some, never had an allergic reaction like one of my brothers and my son. That gets scary, when their faces puff up so badly they can hardly see.
You have enough hostile things in Australia (saltwater crocodiles, box jellyfish, cone shells, sea snakes…) that I suppose poison ivy doesn’t look like much. Nevertheless, if I wanted to stop trespassers, I would plant Scotch roses and poison ivy.
BEARS SAVED
Damn. We screwed the pooch on that one, didn’t we?
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 05 29 at 08:13 PM • permalink
- Of course, increased levels of carbon dioxide causes ALL plant life to grow faster. This could have just as easily been a report on increased crop yields as wheat, rice, corn, and every other autotrophic food source soaks up the delicious atmosphere and helps decrease the incidence of malnutirition in the world. But no, a single, mildly annoying weed is enough to cause the Gaia worshipers to get their panties in a knot and turn a good thing into a bad thing.
- Will thriving black bears make up for the (stupid) drowning polar bears?Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2006 05 29 at 08:35 PM • permalink
- My gog1 Stop press, nature adapts, as it has dome for millions of years?
Impossible!
Unbelivable!
Inconciveable!Does Charles Darwin know about this, it could ruin all his theories.
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 05 29 at 08:51 PM • permalink
- How in the name of all creation did I turn my GOD into my gog1 ?
PIMFPosted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 05 29 at 08:53 PM • permalink
- I’m going to reserve my judgement on this until I hear what Bill Shorten has to say on the matter.Posted by Hank Reardon on 2006 05 29 at 09:23 PM • permalink
- Bear tastes so good!Posted by Aaron – Freewill on 2006 05 29 at 09:46 PM • permalink
- Well, black bears are making some of my folk endangered. My mother lives on a little farm near the coast in North Carolina, and they come right up to the porch looking for food (one of ‘em stuck his head in an open bathroom window one night).
BTW, John Howard ought to keep a bear or a woodpecker or something around to test that peace tree.
- Warning way off topic post.
I have just read that the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten is about to republish the Mohammed cartoons!
I can’t find any reference to it in any English language press. But here is the link to the article in the Swedish press (in Swedish):
The article says that the cartoons will be re-published to help illustrate an article about the artist Art Spiegelman, and it is not being done for any anti-Islamic reasons.
So if you’re anywhere near a Danish embassy in the Middle East that hasn’t been burnt to the ground, I suggest you take a few steps back in anticipation.
Again, sorry for the way off topic post.
- Stop humanitarian disaster migrations now!
Keep the beggars in their natural habitat!
SAVE THE MILF GAIA GODDESS!
- Recent Bear Attacks Are “Freak Occurrences,” Experts Say….BUT
A hunter was attacked and seriously injured by a black bear Saturday on a road just outside Olympic National Park in Washington State.
The incident follows a black bear attack nine days earlier that killed a six-year-old girl in the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee.
- #9 – A umtatn Amadoe geen, er.. mutant Addamo genePosted by Whale Spinor on 2006 05 29 at 10:27 PM • permalink
- STAYING SAFE IN BEAR COUNTRY
Includes headings such as…
BEAR SOCIETY….
THREE MAJOR ASPECTS OF BEAR SOCIETY….
BEARS’ MOTIVATIONS….Now that the understanding and psychology BULLSHIT, is out of the way….
If a bear approaches you:
Stand your ground!It may be the last ground you stand on.
If the bear is approaching in a defensive manner:
Stand your ground. Try to appear non-threatening.Example, whistle and pick your nose.
The rest is HERE.
- I just read the Swedish article a bit closer. It isn’t the same newspaper (Jyllands Posten) that will re-publish the cartoons, it will be another Danish newspaper called Politiken.
I can’t read Danish quite as well as Swedish, but I think the article in Politiken says that Harpers Magazine will also publish the cartoons in their June edition also accompanying an article on Art Spiegelman.
- #11 As for the bears being threatened by rising sea levels, thankfully it sounds like finally people, including the environment minister here in Oz (who makes policy and will direct where the big bucks get spent), isn’t taking all this rising sea level tripe, that gets pumped out by grant hungry researchers and “international experts”, quite as seriously anymore….
so maybe the polar bears and the black bears needn’t stress out….
- I think that this is an opportune time to remind everyone that wombats “eats, roots, shoots and leaves”.
(If you are scratching your head, think along the lines of “nut screws washers and bolts”)
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 05 29 at 10:59 PM • permalink
- It appears this discussion on how to stay safe in bear country is ever more timely.
If the bear is approaching in a defensive manner:
Stand your ground. Try to appear non-threatening.Example, whistle and pick your nose.
For example, to demonstrate your nonthreatening nature, try clearing your .44 magnum quickly through the muzzle.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 05 29 at 11:46 PM • permalink
- One of the funnier sights (if you have a large door to lock) every fall is the number of black bears who get soused on overripe and fermenting berries.
This is not a problem in Australia, as a soused koala bear is quite a different problem. Think wronwright without the keys to the TARDIS.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 05 29 at 11:48 PM • permalink
- Richard, Koalas are not bears. Please don’t insult them by calling them bears. Koalas smell funny and piss on politicians and tourists.
Think wronwright without the keys to the TARDIS.
is that after raiding the Sumerian Mead store? (and he’s lost the keys)
I read some humorous posts about US bears in some threads after that goose who loved the bears and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by his beloved bears, the sound was recorded on his camera.
- #23 El Cid…you slay me, you really do. Great site. Just about choked when I read “wave your arms to let him know you are a human and give him your scent…”.
What, they’re recommending you moon the bastard and let him get a sniff? If he sees you and you’re not closer to civilisation than Great Slave Lake, he’ll know what you are.
Oh, and this gem of wisdom:
“If an attack is prolonged or the bear starts eating, you it is no longer being defensive”
No shit?
Back when I trekked up, down and across the Sierra Nevada, many an encounter with our ursine friends was resolved by a sharp blast from an airhorn.
I could tell you stories that would curl your hair (or strighten it if you’re curly), but suffice it to say that common sense will usually work: like, don’t site in the middle of a blueberry patch for any length of time scarfing fruit; don’t take Oreo’s into your tent, etc.
By the way, that old saw about bears not being able to run downhill? Trust me, the only hill a bear can’t run down is the same one you can’t run down.
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 05 30 at 12:07 AM • permalink
- The First Rule of Bear Society is, don’t talk about Bear Society. The second rule of Bear Society…Posted by Daniel San on 2006 05 30 at 12:22 AM • permalink
- My rules about bears:
1. Avoid at all costs.
2. Pack potent fire power.
3. If avoidance impossible, refer to rule #2.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 05 30 at 01:24 AM • permalink
- 15. Aaron, not only that, but William Byrd II (in ‘Secret History of the Dividing Line’) wrote that after that expedition, where they ate bear just about every day, all the wives of his squad gave birth 9 months after the men got back home.
So here’s the solution to Europe’s demographic decline: EAT MORE BEAR.
Posted by Harry Eagar on 2006 05 30 at 03:20 AM • permalink
- If a bear approaches you:
Assuming I can ever get over the lack of desire to again spend something like 24 hours in economy flying over the deep blue Pacific – the same ocean that other plane was flying over when its lid peeled off and a few people learned, just before they died, that at terminal velocity it gets very hard to breath – and assuming that I ever step foot on American soil again and make it into bear country, I will do what I learned to do many years ago at the Warragamba Lion Safari place. Stay inside the car with the windows wound up. I believe that would be good for avoiding poison ivy too.
In the meantime I’ve got my Dettol. Just waiting for the first cane toad to appear in my backyard. He’s gonna get sprayed good and then, if the stories are true, will take no more than a couple of hops before dying. Ha!
I can’t read Danish quite as well as Swedish
Wow. Anyone who can read more than English has my admiration.
- #27 Achillea – Good link. I was particularly impressed by this comment:
The Ankorage office of the US Fish and Game Department has issued a warning to campers about high levels of bear activity this spring. They advise hikers and campers to wear little bells and carry pepper spray for defense. They also inform one of how to determine the different kinds of bear scat. Black bear scat has many seeds and smells of blackberries. Grizzly bear scat has small bells and smells of pepper.
- Here’s a great idea for those poor bears who are waiting for Gaia to provide poison ivy goodness: Why not drop in on Southern Cal? First of all, they love you so much they put a bear on the state flag. Second, I understand that tasty food grows on trees out there.
Black bear scat has many seeds and smells of blackberries. Grizzly bear scat has small bells and smells of pepper.
Bells?
I guess when they eat the elves, they even eat their shoes.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 05 30 at 09:45 AM • permalink
- 8 Frollicking
nature adapts, as it has dome for millions of years? …
Does Charles Darwin know about this, it could ruin all his theories.Um, Mr Frollicking? That pretty much IS his theory, in a nutshell.
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 05 30 at 11:59 AM • permalink
- Stoop Davy Dave
That was my cunningly disguised point.
its not survival of the fittest its survival of the most adaptable.
No one would bet on a man in a cage match Vs a bear.
Give the man a few 10’s of thousands of years and the bear is screwed though.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 05 30 at 07:40 PM • permalink
- RebeccaH—Don’t hike it… RUN it!
Oh, wait, running triggers the chase reflex in mountain lions…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 05 30 at 08:43 PM • permalink
Koalas smell funny and piss on politicians and tourists.
Think wronwright without the keys to the TARDIS.
The analogy still holds.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 05 30 at 08:45 PM • permalink
- Grrrrrrrrr. (said in a black bear sort of way)Posted by wronwright on 2006 05 30 at 10:08 PM • permalink
- RebeccaH — No good, the mountain lions plow right through it. On the upside, you don’t have to scratch long.Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 05 30 at 10:47 PM • permalink
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