The Polar Bear

The Polar Bear is getting quite a lot of attention these days, mainly because of climate change, which is making them very vulnerable if their habitat melts.

They are native to the Arctic Ocean and it's surrounding seas. It is the world's largest predator found on land. A adult males weighs between 400 and 680kg, while a female is much smaller and weighs about half that size. Although it's closely related to the brown bear, it has evolved to occupy a narrow ecological niche, with many characteristics for cold temperatures, moving across snow, ice and open water, and hunting seals which make up most of its diet. Most Polar Bears are born on land, yet spends much of the year on the frozen sea.

My first real live experience of a Polar Bear was as a child in the Auckland Zoo here in New Zealand. Whilst I loved the creature and it was always a must to view it, it used to sadden me. Our bear had formed the habit of pacing back and forth, back and forth along the concrete path of it's pool (prison), occasionally diving in to cool down. Worse, with the warm Auckland temperatures, it's coat was full of algae, and gone was it's wonderful white colour, and in it's place was a lovely shade of green. Yep - a green Polar Bear.

It died a long time ago, and I was pleased, as no matter how well it was looked after, it must have been miserable.

So it was with trepidation that I visited the Polar Bear enclosure at the San Diego Zoo in July 2008. I have to say that the San Diego Zoo really have outdone themselves making this enclosure an enrichment one for it's Polar Bear, and even though I would rather see the bear on the Arctic Sea Ice, I didn't go away saddened.

When I got there the bear was in the water...

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

I was really amazed with the viewing window - and pleased there was hardly anyone around so I could take photos...

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

I was really willing it to come closer to the window to get a nice close up, but it wasn't to be. But I loved the way it played with his ball..

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

While Polar Bears probably don't have big red balls on the ice in the Arctic, at least it had something different to do in the Zoo. Anything that can enrich an animal's life in the zoo is well worth the effort in my opinion.

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

After this shot the Bear got out of the water, and I waited and waited and waited for it to come back. It didn't so I went around searching for another view, and I was not disappointed.

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

Just look at this magnificent creature. Such a shame it's a wild animal as I wouldn't mind cuddling up to it at all!

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

It climbed up onto the rock where there was some grass, then proceeded to play...

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

The sun was quite hot - it was July so was probably trying to get a bit of shade. Although there was plenty of shady areas, it seemed to love this grass..

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

Look at that nose!

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

Isn't he adorable?

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

He still couldn't get the grass exactly how he wanted it, so he tried again...

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

This is better isn't it?

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

Like my new hat?

From Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

Looks better from this side I think!!

I could have stayed with him for ages but time was marching on and the zoo was simply huge. It really needs two days to view it all. This Polar Bear seemed happy, didn't have any repetitive behaviour traits and his coat was in fantastic condition. I couldn't ask for anything better.

The polar bear is classified as a vulnerable species, with 5 of the 19 polar bear subpopulations in decline. Unrestricted hunting raised international concern for the future of the species however, populations have rebounded after controls and quotas took effect. For thousands of years, the polar bear has been a key figure in the material, spiritual, and cultural life of Arctic indigenous peoples, and the hunting of polar bears remains important in their cultures.

Global warming as the most significant threat to the polar bear, primarily because the melting of its sea ice habitat reduces its ability to find sufficient food. On May 14, 2008, the United States Department of the Interior listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

Maybe in the future the only place we'll see the Polar Bear is in the zoo. I hope not.

These photos were taken with my Canon EOS 20D which has now been superseded by the Canon 50D. One of these days I'm going to upgrade!

24th July - San Diego, Tijuana Mexico - San Diego

Got up earlier today and caught the blue line trolley to the International Border, then walked into Mexico. Got a bit lost when we got there so caught a taxi to Revolucion Street for $5. Tijuana is known to be a bit dicey so wanted to take no chances. Mexico is so different t anywhere I've been. Dry, dusty, hot and very poor. The sellers along the street are very aggressive trying to sell you things. If you stopped and bought one, you would immediately be surrounded in old women and children begging you to buy their wares.

At first because of what we had been told, we were very wary, but soon relaxed a bit and took out our cameras. Kept our wits about us though. Met some lovely people - Mexicans are generally happy people, and nice, with some rip off artists. We walked around for a few hours and bought a few things. I got some leather belts very cheap. Mike bought some leather
boots - very nice ones at that too. In the end we got sick of being haggled so headed back over the border. Bought some Kahlua (big bottle for $12 at the border duty free. Nice stuff! Mike got some Tequila. We've already drunk half the kahlua (sharing it with Steven in SFO). We need to drink it up as it's too heavy to take home with us!

Back to the trolley bus, passport stamped and back to the hostel. Packed up some of Mike's gear - trying to fit his boots in his luggage. We then headed to the pub around the corner and had a game of 10 pin bowls. I hate the game but still managed to get three strikes. Mike plays league in NZ and so was out of my league.

We then met Linda Binns from the SWC and took her to the kiwi pub on 6th and E st. Lots of kiwi stuff around the pub - including rugby jerseys, surfing memorablia and the toilets were named the Long Drop. It was ladies night so all wine was half price, so we bought a bottle of Matua Valley Pinot Noir for and shared that. After drinking the wine - Linda had to
leave us, so Mike and I walked around the Gaslamp area and down to the Exhibition area looking for somewhere to eat. There is a comic convention on in San Diego - with 120,000 attendees, which meant that place is packed so we finally found a spot at Subway where we shared a $5 footlong sub. People were wandering around dressed up as their favourite comic characters. Reminded me a bit about 'Furries'.

Got back to hostel about 10pm, wrote all my memory cards to CD and HDD, booked airport shuttle and tried to sleep. No go. I think I got maybe 2 hours sleep as I had someone sleeping above me in a bunk that tossed and turned which shook the bed all night. Shuttle picking us up at 4.45am! Gulp.

23rd July - San Diego

Up early again today - but Tiffany at Hooters must have worn him out as he took ages to get ready so didn't get away until 10am. We got on the trolley bus near our hostel and got off at San Diego's Old Town. Wandered through Old Town for a bit. It was very hot, then got tickets for the Old Town Trolley Bus City tour. It takes you around the whole of San Diego and you can get and off as you please.

We got off first at the harbour by the Maritime Museums. Denis Conners racing boats were on display and you could pay (through the nose) to ride on them. We decided not to. Back on the bus and passed the USS destroyer museum. Got off at Seaport Village and wandered around. Too expensive so just had a yoghurt icecream and sat in the shade and listened to a woman wailing - I mean singing. Back on the bus again, and over the Coronado Bay Bridge. Got off at Coronado hotel and walked along the promenade along the beach front. Mike pretended to be a guest of the hotel and went in and used their facilities to get changed (hotel guests only). He went for a swim, while I lay on the beach in the sun for half an hour. Water was dirty - oily from the naval base/shipyeards. After the swim Mike once again pretended he was a guest and went in and used their towels and showers while I sat primly outside!!

The hotel was fantastic - we wandered through it afterwards, and had a beer at the bar and pretended to live the life of Riley for a while. Afterwards, walked back to the bus and got the ride back to Oldtown via Balboa Park. Got to Oldtown about 4.15pm and then caught the Number 9 bus to Seaworld. We were rather shocked at the price of Seaworld, $61 so visited the 'guest relation' desk. Explained we were from NZ and only had a few hours (which we did), and that we were deaf. The result was that we got in for half price $30.50. A much better price.

Seaworld was huge. My feet were killing me. Mike had blisters. I think this meant that we didn't enjoy it as mjch as we would have liked. However we walked around taking photos - sea otters, orcas, beluga whales, turtles polar bears dolphins. Had some dinner, went on the arctic Ride then rushed over to be on time for the 8pm Shamu Show (Shamu RocksO. Very good but my photos won't turn out - got a bit dark. Left that and went by the moray eel's. Got to touch one - very slimy! I didn't think they would feel slimy - I expected it to be more like a shark skin - but no - slimy slimy - ewww!

Took the #8 bus back to oldtown, and jumped on the trolley bus back to our hostel at 10pm - 12 hours of walking. I have no feet left. You can call me stumpy!

Found out the manager of Lucky D's hostel where we're staying is a kiwi - and co-incidentally comes from Northcote - and lives in Lake Road - the same road as me. How coincidental is that??? - Almost as coincidental as bumping into the Restalls in London Picadelly Tube at Rush hour 25 years ago!!

22nd July - San Diego

Got up early - 7.30am Free breakfast on 3rd floor (why is it that we always seem to get the top floor of a hostel when we have heavy baggage? - no elevators - we have to walk up 4 flights of stairs.) The breakfast was only sugared cereal so I headed to the room and got one of our packaged porridges to fill the gap.

Wandered to broadway and caught the #7 bus to the Zoo. On the way we saw lines and lines of homeless people - many of them elderley, queueing up for food at the Salvation Army soup kitchen. Very very sad.

Arrived at the zoo at 9am. it's simply huge. We got in for half price because we were deaf. I like playing this deaf card when it works like this. We purchased the full ticket and got the audio tour first. I couldn't hear anything that was said, but we got a good overview of where everything was from this tour. Started walking, starting with the rare Francois Langurs. The panda exhitibition was fantastic, and the aviaries were great too. Needless to say I took many many photos. I"m not sure how I'm going to fit everything on my computer when I get home. We got lunch about 2pm, then took the gondola up to the Polar bears. Like the hippo exhibit, you could view the underwater which was interesting. Back down the gondola, we were going to leave, but found the reptile/snake pit so ended up going through that as well. Saw a huge Burmese Python which was albino so a gorgeous yellow and white colour. Would make lovely shoes (Just kidding!)

Out of the Zoo we then walked through Balboa Park. By this time it was 5.30 so none of the museums were open, but still gorgeous to walk through the spanish architecture. We needed to find our way back to the hostel, so caught the free trolley back up near the zoo, and found the bus stop. We were told the hostel was miles away so should catch the bus, not walk, so
we did, but ended up that we could have walked as our stop was only two blocks away. We got back to the hostel at 8pm - I was too tired - so just had porridge for dinner and headed to bed, while Mike once again pounded the pavements in search of something more substantial. He found it in the form of Tiffany at Hooters!!! I'm sure I'm going to get Scurvy as I haven't been able to find suitable fresh fruit and vegetables while I've been away. I think I'm turning into porridge!