Alaska Science Forum

Birding Story

Bear Hugs

A Big Bear Hug for Pamela Holien-Ridlen

for sending us a dozen teddy bears to donate to the Haven House for our Bear Hugs Project.

The project helps gather new and gently used teddy bears for abused children, men and women.  One of the rooms at the Haven House is called their 'safe room' in which the police and councilors talk with the abused victim to find out what happened to them.  During the interview with the children, they are allowed to choose a teddy bear to hold and hug.  This is in an attempt to give the child a feeling of safety and caring in hopes that the child will feel comfortable enough to tell the police what happened to them so the offender will be caught and charged for their horrible crime.  After the interview, the child is allowed to keep the teddy bear they were hugging and the child is then sent to a safe location to live with caring relatives or family friends that will care for and protect them.

 We noticed that during our tour of the Haven House they were terribly short of teddy bears.  In our community alone they say they go through 250 teddy bear per year.  Now just imagine how many teddy bears other Haven House organizations go through in larger communities.

 Anyone wishing to donate a teddy bear, feel free to find new or gently used teddy bears and bring them up to Alaska with you when you visit us or mail them to us.  We are also promoting people to donate teddy bears in their own community as well.  We are hoping this idea will spread to other areas and communities around the world.

The Cave Bear

Fate of the Cave Bear

Friday Wolf Facts

Fun Facts About Wolves

1. In order for a new wolf cub to urinate, its mother has to massage its belly with her warm tongue.
2. The Vikings wore wolf skins and drank wolf blood to take on the wolf’s spirit in battle. They also viewed real wolves as battle companions.
3. The earliest drawings of wolves are in caves in southern Europe and date from 20,000 B.C.
4. Wolves do not make good guard dogs because they are naturally afraid of the unfamiliar and will hide from visitors rather than bark at them.
5. The autoimmune disease Systemic Lupus Erythmatosus (SLE), or lupus, literally means wolf redness, because in the eighteenth century, physicians believed the disease was caused by a wolf bite.
6. Wolves are the largest members of the Canidae family, which includes domestic dogs, coyotes, dingoes, African hunting dogs, many types of foxes, and several kinds of jackals.
7. Wolves run on their toes, which helps them to stop and turn quickly and to prevent their paw pads from wearing down.
8. Wolves have about 200 million scent cells. Humans have only about 5 million. Wolves can smell other animals more than one mile (1.6 kilometers) away.
9. A wolf pup’s eyes are blue at birth. Their eyes turn yellow by the time they are eight months old.
10. A male and female that mate usually stay together for life. They are devoted parents and maintain sophisticated family ties.

Goodall Quotes

We had the lovely fortune to have Dr. Jane Goodall visit us this summer.

She had so many interesting stories and comments that over the winter we would like to share them with you.

"It is easy to be overwhelmed by feelings of hopelessness as we look around the world.  We are losing species at a terrible rate, the balance of nature is disturbed, and we are destroying our beautiful planet.  We have fear about water supplies, where future energy will come from - and most recently the developed world has been mired in an economic crisis.  But in spite of all this I do have hope, for without it all we can do is eat and drink the last of our resources as we watch our planet slowly die.  Let's have faith in ourselves, in our intellect, in our staunch spirit and in our young people.  And let's do the work that needs to be done, with love and compassion."

Bear Art

Spirit Drum Design

Beautiful Hand painted drums by Joan Hellquist 

Alaska Facts

Alaska Fun Facts

* Alaska is as big as England, France, Italy and Spain combined.
* If New York City had the same population density as Alaska, only 16 people would be living in Manhattan.
* Alaska's largest city, Anchorage, covers 1,955 square miles (including the entire political municipal district). The state of Rhode Island covers 1,045 squre miles while Delaware also covers 1,955.
* More than half the world's active glaciers are in Alaska.
* About 5 percent of Alaska is covered by glaciers.
* There are more than 3,000 rivers and 3 million lakes in Alaska.
* Alaska is one-fifth the size of the "Lower 48," larger than the next three biggest states combined, more than twice the size of Texas and 488 times larger than Rhode Island.

 

The Lure of the Loon

The Lure of the Common Loon

The Spirit of the Great Bear

Bear Spirit Names

In many cultures, the bear was looked upon with such reverence that members of the culture were not allowed to speak the word for "bear". Instead, they referred to the animal with varied and creative euphemisms. These euphemisms are related here. The general catagory refers to names that were wide-spread through several native American groups. Many cultures found a spiritual kinship with the bears, and speaking the name of the animal would bring swift retribution from the gods.

• Angry One (Cree)
• Big Great Food (Cree)
• Big Hairy One (Blackfoot)
• Black Food (Cree)
• Broadfoot (Estonian)
• Dark Thing (Koyukon)
• Divine One Who Rules the Mountains (Ainu)
• Dweller in the Wilds (Ostyak)
• Famous Lightfoot (Finn)
• Fine Young Chief (Navajo)
• Food of the Fire (Cree)
• Gold Friend of Fen and Forest (Ural Altaic)
• Good-tempered Beast (Cree)
• Great Man (Siberian)
• He Who Lives in the Den (Navajo)
• Illustrious Pride (Finn)
• Lord of the Taiga (Tungus)
• Master of the Forest (Lapp)
• Old Man of the Mountain (Lapp)
• One Who Prowls at Night
  
• Owner of the Earth (Siberian)
• Pride of the Woodlands (Finn)
• Reared in the Mountains (Navajo)
• Sacred Man (Lapp)
• The Strong One (Taglish)
• That Which Went Away (Koyukon)
• The Thing (Koyukon)
• Unmentionable One (Blackfoot)
• Venerable One (Vogul)
• Winter-sleeper (Lapp)
• Wise Man (Lapp)
• Wooly One (Lapp)
• Worthy Old Man (Ural Altaic)

Saturday Fun Facts

The World of Polar Bears

Quote the Raven

How to tell a Raven from a Crow

Bear Hugs

Teddy Bear Hugs Program

 Two seasons ago we started the Teddy Bear Hugs Program after taking a tour of some of the non-profit organizations around Homer.  We toured one called the Haven House which helps abused children, women and men get through very difficult times in their lives.

One of the rooms that they have is called their 'safe room' in which the police and councilors talk with the abused children to find out what happened to them.  During the interview with the children, they are allowed to choose a teddy bear to hold and hug.  This is in an attempt to give the child a feeling of safety and caring in hopes that the child will feel comfortable enough to tell the police what happened to them so the offender will be caught and charged for their horrible crime.  After the interview, the child is allowed to keep the teddy bear they were hugging and the child is then sent to a safe location to live with caring relatives or family friends that will care for and protect them.

Over this summer we found that not only adults wanted to donate teddy bears but kids wanted to help out as well.  One does not have to buy a new teddy bear but only to talk with their kids and have them pick one from their room that they want to donate to a child in need.  We had a lot of kids this year give one of their own teddy bears to the project, and that just warms the heart.

Anyone wishing to donate a teddy bear, feel free to find new or gently used teddy bears and bring them up to Alaska with you when you visit us.  Also, please donate teddy bears in your own community as well.  We are hoping this idea will spread to other areas and communities around the world.