Peaceful New Year

Bears of Hallo Bay

End of the Year.

Bird Facts

Bird Facts

1. Flamingos pair for a lifetime. Some stay with their mates for 50 years or more.
2. The chicks of large bird species often take the longest to hatch. Emu chicks, for example, take 60 days to hatch. Small songbirds take just 2 weeks.
3. A green woodpecker can eat as many as 2,000 ants per day.
4. The Japanese crested ibis is one of the rarest birds in the world. Probably fewer than 50 crested ibises are alive today.
5. The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska polluted approximately 1,180 miles of coastline and killed up to 100,000 seabirds.
6. Falconry was developed more than 4,000 years ago in eastern and central Asia. Birds were used because they could kill animals beyond the range of a hunter’s weapon. Genghis Khan reportedly had 10,000 falconers.
7. Coalminers often used canaries to detect poisonous levels of carbon monoxide gas. Miners knew that if the canary passed out, they were in danger, too. The phrase “Canary in a Coalmine” derives from this history.
8. The marsh warbler can mimic more than 80 different birds. Other renowned mimics include mockingbirds and lyrebirds.
9.  A pelican’s pouch-like beak can hold up to 2.5 gallons of water at a time. The beak will shrink to squeeze out the water before the pelican swallows its food.
10. A vulture named the Lammergeyer will fly with bones high in the air and then drop them onto rocks. It will then eat the smashed bones, like a circus sword swallower.

Disney Bear Movie

The Disney Movie, 'Bears' 
is now being advertised in theaters.

The movie will be coming to the big screen
April 2014.

Don't Miss it.

Our office manager, Sara, in front of one of the movie posters.

Keep It Healthy

For those long winter months.

Traditional Hot Chocolate

1 cup milk (or nut milk).
1/2 vanilla bean, split.
3 ounces semisweet or milk chocolate, cut into small pieces.

Heat milk to scalding in a medium saucepan, add vanilla, and let steep with the heat off for 10 minutes. Strain and return milk to saucepan to reheat milk. (You can use 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract instead and skip the steeping process.) Whisk in chocolate until melted and frothy. Serve, savor.

Polar Bears

Polar Bears

Ursus maritimus. Sea Bear. Ice Bear. Nanuk. Isbjorn. White bear. Beliy medved. Lord of the Arctic. Old man in the fur cloak. White sea deer. These are just some of the names for polar bears.
Ursus maritimus is the scientific name. It means sea bear. Commander C.J. Phipps, an office in the British navy and author of A Voyage towards the North Pole used it for the first time in 1774.
Later, the scientific name Thalarctos gained acceptance. It is a combination of the Greek thalasso, meaning sea, and arctos, meaning bear of the north.
In 1971, polar bear scientists returned to the bear's original scientific name, Ursus maritimus.

• To the Inuit, the polar bear is Nanuk, an animal worthy of great respect. In their poetry he is Pihoqahiak, the ever-wandering one.
• The Russian term for polar bear is beliy medved, the white bear.
• In Norway and Denmark, the polar bear is isbjorn, the ice bear.

Norse poets described the polar bear as white sea deer, the seal's dread, the rider of icebergs, the whale's bane, and the sailor of the floe. They praised polar bears for having the strength of 12 men and the wit of 11.

• In eastern Greenland, the polar bear is known as Tornassuk, the master of helping spirits.
• Sami (or Lapp) people refuse to speak the polar bear's real name for fear of offending him. Instead they call him God's dog or old man in the fur cloak.
• Nineteenth-century whalers referred to the polar bear as the farmer because of his slow, pigeon-toed gait.
• The Ket, a Siberian tribe, revere all bears. They call them gyp, grandfather, or qoi, stepfather.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas
from all the staff at
Hallo Bay Bear Camp

Silent Night

Silent night, Holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin , mother and child
Holy infant so, tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, Holy night
Shepherds quake, at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly, hosts sing Hallelujah.
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born.

Silent night, Holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord at thy birth
Jesus, Lord at thy birth.

Alaska Facts

Alaska

1. Nearly one-third of Alaska lies within the Arctic Circle.
2. The Alaska Highway was originally built as a military supply road during World War II.
3. The state boasts the lowest population density in the nation.
4. The discovery of gold in the Yukon began a gold rush in 1898. Later gold was discovered at Nome and Fairbanks.
5. Alaska is a geographical marvel. When a scale map of Alaska is superimposed on a map of the 48 lower states, Alaska extends from coast to coast.
6. The state's coastline extends over 6,600 miles.
7. Alaska is the United State's largest state and is over twice the size of Texas. Measuring from north to south the state is approximately 1,400 miles long and measuring from east to west it is 2,700 miles wide.
8. Agattu, Attu, and Kiska are the only parts of North America occupied by Japanese troops during World War II.
9. Oil is the state's most valuable natural resource. The area includes what is thought to be the largest oil field in North America.
10. In 1986 Mount Augustine erupted near Anchorage. 

Wolf

Wolf

Wolves are members of the family Canidae. Early taxonomists recognized about 24 New World and eight Old World subspecies of Canis lupus, with four subspecies thought to occur in Alaska. Recent studies of skull characteristics, body size, and color suggest that differences are slight with considerable overlap in the characteristics of wolves from various areas. Only two Alaska subspecies are now recognized. Wolves in Southeast Alaska tend to be darker and somewhat smaller than those in northern parts of the state. The pelt color of Alaska wolves ranges from black to nearly white, with every shade of gray and tan in between. Gray or black wolves are most common, and the relative abundance of each color phase varies over time and from place to place.
Most adult male wolves in Interior Alaska weigh from 85 to 115 pounds (38.6-52.3), but they occasionally reach 145 pounds (65.3 kg). Females average 10 to 15 pounds (2-5 kg) lighter than males and rarely weigh more than 110 pounds (50 kg). Wolves reach adult size by about 1 year of age.

 

 

Goodall Quotes

Mr. H is not just any stuffed toy; he has a story to tell.  "Don't give up when something goes wrong in your life.  Work hard and you can overcome most obstacles."  "I take him wherever I go.  I tell everyone that when they touch him some of the inspiration that I get from him will rub off on them."

Bear Fun

Hallo Bay Bears

Black-capped Chickadee

Chickadee

Active, acrobatic and agile with a perky cheerful air, the chickadee is one of the most widely recognized birds in Alaska forests. The black-capped chickadee is one of four chickadee species that occurs in the state and has a black cap and bib, white cheeks, soft gray back, wing feathers gray edged with white, and soft buffy-colored underparts grading to white in the center. Its song is often a 2 or 3 note whistle that sounds like "Hey, sweetie." Look and listen for their flocks in forest habitat, residential neighborhoods and parks.
Territorial during the breeding season, chickadees flock during the rest of the year. Small flocks made up of several adult pairs and unrelated juveniles are commonly seen from late summer through winter. Flocks of chickadees sometimes cross paths with kinglets, creepers, nuthatches and downy woodpeckers and form temporary associations.
Chickadees are specially adapted to endure Alaska's rugged winters. They have much denser, better-insulating plumage than other songbirds their size and a special ability to put on fat quickly. Birds burn fat as fuel to keep themselves warm in winter. A chickadee can put on eight percent of their body weight in fat each day. Chickadees are also able to drop their body temperature at night in order to conserve their winter fuel.