I guess the thing about blog posts is you are suppose to do them more frequently. It has been over two years since I last wrote about my arctic experience. Since then I have returned to the arctic for another month of research in 2019, helped start an environmental consulting company, wrote countless reports for clients as an environmental consultant as well as interfacing with the BC government about grizzly bear management in Northeastern BC and lost my job due to the global pandemic of Covid-19.
Now you are all caught up. During the period of social distancing and isolation and now, being unemployed, I have done a lot of thinking and reflecting on my past experiences. Over the next few months I am going to share stories and lessons of my past research projects and job experiences to 1) motivate myself to write more in a creative way (my goodness scientific writing has taken it's toll on my creativity) 2) hopes that reflecting will give me more clarity and perspective as I head out into the job-searching field again. I am very lucky that I am in a position that I can take time right now and reflect, that I do not have worry about not being able to pay bills , finding a place to live, or looking after a child. Up until this point in my life, although I am grateful for the opportunities I have had, all of my jobs have been about needing something that will pay me in order to get out of debt. I finally have the chance to think about where it is I want to go with my career, what is right for me, what things align with my values and ambitions and most importantly I think, what will make me happy.
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Well, it certainly has been a while since I contributed to my blog. A lot has happened since I wrapped up my field work for my M.Sc. I finished writing and defending my thesis and then I got the opportunity of my life time, to go do research in the Canadian Arctic.
When I got the confirmation e-mail that all my paperwork had gone through, and there was a lot of it, I was overcome by emotion. The dream I had as a 9 year old, to go to the arctic and see a polar bear in it's natural environment was actually going to come true. Now I wasn't hired as a research technician for studying polar bears, although I was told that there was almost a guarantee that I would see them, I was hired as a freelance biologist/ rope safety technician. My primary job was to assist in all installments of fixed ropes to access cliff ledges where we could easily, and safely access nesting sites of the main study species, the Thick-Billed Murre. When I first started, I had no idea what a Thick-Billed Murre even looked like, having done no previous work on seabirds. I was pretty naive as to what working with them would be like...I mean I worked with bears, how aggressive could these 1.5 kg birds actually be. After flying into Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, the crew and I spend 4-5 days gathering, organizing and purchasing all the equipment needed for 2 months on an uninhabited, fly-in only arctic Island. To say the grocery lists were long, is an understatement...people eat a lot, especially when doing field work. There are a lot of double and triple checking lists and making sure that our gear did not go over the weight limit for our two twin otter flights! You never really know when your flight is going to be in the arctic...there is an estimated departure date and time, but everything hinges on the weather....and not only the weather in Iqaluit, but the weather in Cape Dorset (where the plane has to re-fuel) and on Coats Island...which is really just an estimate. We were lucky, as both the days and both years we were set to fly, the weather was in our favour. The flight to the island is 3 hours with a re-fueling stop. Flying into the island, and seeing the impressive limestone cliffs rise out of the frozen sea is awe-inspiring... well until you get to the beach we land on and you look up and realize you have to haul all the gear we packed on the plane up those cliffs. Luckily, there are two pulley systems set up to help with the hauling...I mean it is not easy. It took us a better part of six days to get all the gear up to camp...for one out of our two flights...but we did it. Opening all the cabins and making sure everything is working is the next important task. We have to make sure the solar panels are working so we can charge our various field and lab equipment. In the 2017 field season we had a bit more trouble shooting to do as only one of the grad students has been there previously, the other 4 of us had not. The next task is to make sure we have some sort of supply of fresh water, where in the early season, that comes from collecting 60 litter barrels of snow and melting them on the stove throughout the day. Later in the summer of 2017, I helped install a gravity fed water system, made of two 60 litter barrels with pipping, that we filled using an electric pump supplied by the melt water stream behind camp. Once we spend about four days opening camp, it is time to start the Science! Stay Tuned for Life in a seabird colony part 2: Let the Science Begin! It is interesting how taking a break form something that has consumed your life for the better part of three years gives you new insight and vigor. I took a year away from the academic world to help out with a family member who had fallen ill and although the decision was difficult, it was by far the best I have ever made. It is easy to loose perspective of the tings that are truly important when you are so engrossed in the work you do, but when it comes down to it, family comes first.
I returned to school in January, and right off the bat was back into the swing of things, reading, analyzing and trying to get a hold of the illusive supervisor. At the end of February it was time to head out into the field yet again to check up on our GPS collared females, but this time we would not be replacing them with new units. After nine years of trapping, following, poking, proding, measuring and observing had finally come to an end, so obviously had many eager volunteers that wanted to experience bear research first hand. Among the groups that came out with our two crews was the Discovery Channel's Daily Planet. The day the camera crew joined us, we were handling a female that was on cycle to have cubs, which is always an exciting experience. The day started with our typical morning powwow in the parking lot, where we run through safety protocols and equipment and talk about the expectations of volunteers and how safety comes first and then the well being of the bear(s) comes first. The camera crew arrived later then discussed and was slow moving. The novelty of working with a camera crew wore off quickly after having to deal with camera directions and "re-doing" shots in -36 degree weather. The female bear was in a particularly awkward den for us to easily tranquilize and get at her, so Marty decided the best thing to do was to just remove the collar. She did not end up having any cubs with her, which wasn't surprising after the poor food year in 2014. Despite the trials and frustrations of working with a camera crew, it was a pretty surreal experience at first, having grown up watching the Discovery Channel and thinking how amazing it would be to do some of the research featured...then realizing maybe a kid will be inspired by the segment on my research. The rest of the week went fairly smooth with a few snow machine mishaps from the extremely cold temperatures. Many of the females were in fairly elaborate dens, so it was difficult to get at them in order to get them out of the den to measure them. In many cases we just removed the collars in the dens (don't worry the bears were tranquilized) and did a few measurements to get an estimate on body condition. The finally day of field work was a pilgrimage of sorts. The two core crews combined with a few Parks Canada staff and started with a long snow machine ride into the area where the project first started. The final bear to have its collar removed was fittingly, the first bear to be collared with the project, bear 414 (also known 636). The bear 636 is one recognized by many researchers who pass through the study area of the park, as she is always seen close to the logging roads. To the bear crew, she is always known to be the "trap hussy" as if there is a trap set in her home range, she will most likely be in it. One summer, while trying to catch a harder to trap female who's home ranged overlapped with 636, we caught 636 21 times in a summer. As wildlife biologist we are taught not to get attached to study animals, as they are subjects and wild animals and should not be romanticized. My supervisor Dr. Martyn Obbard is true to this, however he even got a bit emotional when taking off 636's collar. I have been invested in this project for the last four years, and over that time my appreciation and respect for black bears has only grown. Through my summers in the park observing and following each individual bear I have learned so much about their behaviour, the way they utilize their home ranges, their adaptability and memory capacity and their personalities. I am truly grateful for the opportunity I have had with this project and I hope that the analysis and eventually paper that I publish will do justice to these incredible animals. Although the field component of my research is now over and I am now chained to my desk analyzing and writing and re-analyzing and re-writing, each day I come to the data set with new excitement in learning even more about bear behaviour and their space use. Well, what a surprising week of den work! After anticipating a low survivor rate for the cubs of last year, we were pleasantly surprised! I guess we underestimated the acorn crop. From the females that we handledthat had yearlings, all of them survived, and most were in pretty good shape too! The picture to the left, is of my hold a cub of the year, from one of the females that has been collared with the project since 2006. She had 3 cubs in total, all with eyes already open and weighing between 1.5-2.0 kg!!! Fat little guys! She weighed in at 180, although wasn't the biggest female of the week. That record was held by bear 642 who weighed 120 in the summer, weighed 210lbs in the den! Which, when you think of it is pretty incredible, as by the time we get to them at the end of February, they have already lost 40% of their body weight! Below is a picture of me with another cub of the year, notice the different in size from the one above. This little guy and his sister were surprise cubs. Their mother was suppose to have yearlings in the den this year, but obviously lost them some time early in the spring. The mother was in poor condition when we caught her in July, but she had gained some weight in the fall, she weighed close to 140lbs in the den. Hopefully I will see these cubs as yearlings next winter! We had lots of interesting people come out with us, including a film crew from Oasis HD. The series will be looking at Algonquin Provincial Park through the seasons and will be airing sometime in June. Keep your eyes peeled! Time to pack up the snowshoes, the x-country skis, the snowmachines and the tranquilizers and head back to the place I feel most at home, Algonquin Provincial Park. This will be that second year that I will be diving head-first into a dark hole in the ground and coming face to face with sleepy black bears. Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but they are hibernating and the tranquilizers help ease the worry...well, unless you're my mom, in which case nothing will ease your worry. I think my anticipation is higher this year then last because of the dry summer we had, it was hard on the bears. The females that we caught throughout the summer were VERY thin and bony, which was concerning at the time as well as now, as most of the females in our study had cubs. It will be very interesting to see how many of those cubs survived. So going up to a bear den, we have a good idea of what to expect, but bears always surprise you. We have 10 dens to do this week coming up, all scattered around the central-west area of the park. With all the funding cuts, we are going ot be relying on our ancient snowmachines and our trusty snowshoes to get the job done...Which probably means some very early mornings. When you work on a research project with such a large charismatic, you obviously draw the attention of a lot of people. In 2008, one of my favourite TV personalities/ person, Rick Mercer, went out with my supervisor and the grad students at the time for a day of bear denning (See YouTube clip below). I remember watching it and thinking "one day that will be me"...little did I know it would be. Not only was the episode hilarious and adorable, but it also brought important attention to the context of scientific research in a medium that the public could enjoy and comprehend. I really enjoy working with large charismatic mega fauna, as many people tend to relate to them and they provide a natural path of communication. Who didn't have a teddy bear when they were growing up, or visit the zoo and see the polar bears? People have an intrinsic interest in bears making it easier to communicate the science and research surrounding them a bit easier. Despite having worked for the Algonquin Black Bear Project for two years, it is still surreal for me that I am living my childhood dream of working with bear species. I mean how many people do you know, that can say that and still be in their twenties! Of course my dreams have changed slightly since I was 9, as originally I wanted to work with Polar bears, but having this kind of opportunity has also broadened my aspirations as an Ursid researcher....Got my eyes set on Borneo and the Sun Bears now. For now though, I am quite enjoying my research and am looking forward to the next few years I have with it. I am off the the Park! See y'all in a week! |
Blog by:
Sarah K. Poole
An enthusiastic, passionate scientist with a love for art and adventure Updates
September 2020
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