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See How Scientists Track Polar Bears With Groundbreaking “Burr on Fur” Tags

News Feed
Monday, July 15, 2024

Innovative “burr on fur” trackers now allow for the effective monitoring of male and subadult polar bears, bypassing the limitations of collar-based systems and improving wildlife research and management.New “burr on fur” tracking devices provide enhanced monitoring of subadult and adult male polar bears, presenting a less invasive alternative to traditional collars and expanding research capabilities into previously difficult-to-track demographics.A research team led by York University and a project involving 3M and Polar Bears International present field research deploying the first-ever fur tracking tags on polar bears, a less invasive method; the report was published today, on Arctic Sea Ice Day.New Tracking Technology for Polar BearsStudying polar bears just became a lot easier with new “burr on fur” trackers which confirmed scientists’ belief that subadult and adult males spend most of their time on land lazing around, conserving energy until the ice returns. A multi-institutional research team led by York University and including the University of Alberta, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Manitoba Sustainable Development, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, and Polar Bears International, used three different “burr on fur” prototypes to study their effectiveness.The paper, “Telemetry without collars: performance of fur- and ear-mounted satellite tags for evaluating the movement and behavior of polar bears,” published in the journal Animal Biotelemetry, details the first peer-reviewed examination of these new tracking devices that adhere to the fur of polar bears.New tracking technology offers a breakthrough in studying male and subadult polar bears, enhancing conservation efforts and data accuracy. Credit: Kt-Miller, Polar Bear InternationalAdvancements in Polar Bear Tracking MethodsStudying polar bears is a difficult feat with current radio collars only suitable to be used on female bears leaving out a swath of the population, but new technology is providing researchers with a new tool that has confirmed the behavior of adult male polar bears while on land waiting for the ice to form again.Efforts to develop less-invasive tracking options and tools that could work on polar bears of both sexes and nearly all ages have been ongoing for years with varying success. Collars have been and remain the primary means of studying polar bear movements. More recently, ear tag transmitters have been used as a lighter-weight alternative. While both technologies serve an important role in helping study and conserve polar bears, researchers continually strive to develop methods that are both minimally invasive and provide quality data.This led to a new tracking initiative known as “Burr on Fur,” which began as a challenge from Polar Bears International to 3M scientists, the global science and manufacturing company behind Post-It notes, to create a temporary, simple method for affixing small tracking units to polar bear fur. Three “Burr on Fur” prototypes were recently tested on wild polar bears along the coast of Hudson Bay, Canada, alongside traditional ear tag transmitters.York University Professor Greg Thiemann tagging a polar bear. Credit: York University researcher Tyler Ross, Polar Bear InternationalComparison of New and Traditional Tracking DevicesThe ear tag and “Burr on Fur” devices fill an important niche for scientists and wildlife managers. The new tags allow researchers to follow the movements of adult male and subadult polar bears, two groups that can’t be studied using traditional satellite collars. Adult males can’t wear collars because they slip off their cone-shaped necks and heads, and subadult bears grow too rapidly for safe collar use. Traditional ear tags are an alternative to collars. However, they currently require recapture to remove and, although rare, can pose a risk of injury to the ear. The new Burr on Fur tags are designed to be temporary, minimally invasive, and can be applied to both sexes and nearly all ages of polar bears.“Successfully attaching telemetry tags to polar bear fur has never been done before, and we’re excited to share the results of this innovative work,” said Tyler Ross, lead author of the paper and researcher at York University, “The fur tags showed great promise, and give researchers the ability to study the behaviors and movements of polar bears that we have very little data on, like subadult and adult male bears.”The three fur tag designs. Credit: York University researcher Tyler Ross, Polar Bear InternationalField Testing of Innovative Tracking TechnologiesFifty-eight wild bears were tagged using ear tags and three distinct fur tag designs to compare both the duration of time the tags remained active while attached to the bears and the accuracy of the trackers. Applied alongside a traditional ear tag, which relied on an Argos Transmitter, the three fur tags were:The Pentagon Tag: this five-sided device included five holes punched into its corners, allowing tufts of fur to be pulled through. It utilized an Argos Eartag Satellite Transmitter.The SeaTrkr Tag: an oval-shaped tag that had 10 holes punched to allow 10 fur-tuft attachments. This design used an Iridium-linked Telonics GPS SeaTrkr-4370 transmitter.The Tribrush Tag: a triangle tag outfitted with tubes along its borders, through which pipe brushes ensnared the fur, twisting it inside the tubes. This tag used the same Argos transmitter as the Pentagon tags.The research took place from autumn 2016 to 2021 with bears handled near Churchill, Canada, by the Polar Bear Alert Program and researchers at the University of Alberta, supplemented with operations by researchers at Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, York University, and Manitoba Sustainable Development in 2021-22 near the Manitoba-Ontario border.Results and Performance Analysis of New Tags“Our results are an important step in better understanding the movements and behavior of polar bears, especially adult male bears, which are difficult to track because they can’t be fitted with satellite collars. Temporary, fur-mounted tags could also help track the movements of bears relocated after potentially coming into conflict with people, making these tags an important tool for conserving polar bears and keeping northern communities safe,” says York University Associate Professor and Sustainable Environmental Management Coordinator Gregory Thiemann, the report’s co-author.The top-performing fur tag was the SeaTrkr Tag, which remained attached to the bears for an average of 58 days and had superior accuracy due to its use of GPS/Iridium technology. In second place, the Trishbrush Tags remained attached for an average of 47 days. However, for the Tribrush Tag, the times varied widely, with one falling off after only two days while another lasted 114 days – the longest of all the tags.Because they are permanently attached to the bears’ ears, the traditional ear tags remained in place for 137 days on average, while the shorter-term fur-based trackers proved to be reliable for shorter periods. The fur tags proved useful for monitoring bear behavior, and show great promise for future use in tracking polar bears, especially those that must be relocated after approaching too close to communities. Further testing and refinement are also being conducted on bears in zoos and aquariums through Polar Bears International’s Arctic Ambassador Center zoo and aquarium partners, allowing researchers to further refine the designs and see how they perform throughout different seasons. In the most recent round of zoo testing, a refined tag stayed on a bear for 75 days.Important Data about Male and Subadult Polar BearsThe new data adds to our growing understanding of subadult and adult male polar bear movements and behaviors, which have been historically understudied because they cannot be safely collared for long periods. Findings confirm that adult and subadult male bears reduce their activity while on land, consistent with prior studies that showed bears spent approximately 70 to 90 percent of their time resting during the ice-free period in Hudson Bay.Implications for Wildlife ManagementWhile the ear tags remained attached to the bears longer, the temporary and easily affixed fur tags give scientists a new tool for enhanced tracking of bears for purposes of both applied research and managing human-bear interactions. The tracking tech could be applied to other types of bears, supporting efforts to reduce human-bear conflict, and future applications could include testing on other species with fur. While traditional tracking methods, such as collars, will remain critical for longer-term studies, the fur tags will prove a valuable tool, particularly for understanding and managing increasing wildlife-human interactions as the climate warms.“The collaboration between Polar Bears International, 3M, academic institutions, and governmental partners is a testament to our commitment to improving Arctic wildlife research and conservation technology,” says Geoff York, Senior Director of Research and Policy at Polar Bears International, adding, “These advancements will have tangible implications for wildlife management, aiding in tracking polar bears and promoting improved human-bear coexistence. We’re eager to further refine and deploy this pivotal technology.”About Arctic Sea Ice DayThese findings were published on July 15, which is Arctic Sea Ice Day, an annual event created by Polar Bears International to spark actions and conversations about the rapidly melting Arctic ecosystem, including its global significance and how people can help slow this warming trend. The Arctic is now warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the planet, causing the sea ice to melt, which causes polar bears to spend longer periods fasting on land.Polar Bears International invites people to access the full report and urges the scientific community to consider the implications of these findings for further research and application in conservation and coexistence efforts.Reference: “Telemetry without collars: performance of fur- and ear-mounted satellite tags for evaluating the movement and behavior of polar bears” 15 July 2024, Animal Biotelemetry.

New “burr on fur” tracking devices provide enhanced monitoring of subadult and adult male polar bears, presenting a less invasive alternative to traditional collars and...

Polar Bear Melting Ice Climate Change

Innovative “burr on fur” trackers now allow for the effective monitoring of male and subadult polar bears, bypassing the limitations of collar-based systems and improving wildlife research and management.

New “burr on fur” tracking devices provide enhanced monitoring of subadult and adult male polar bears, presenting a less invasive alternative to traditional collars and expanding research capabilities into previously difficult-to-track demographics.

A research team led by York University and a project involving 3M and Polar Bears International present field research deploying the first-ever fur tracking tags on polar bears, a less invasive method; the report was published today, on Arctic Sea Ice Day.

New Tracking Technology for Polar Bears

Studying polar bears just became a lot easier with new “burr on fur” trackers which confirmed scientists’ belief that subadult and adult males spend most of their time on land lazing around, conserving energy until the ice returns.

A multi-institutional research team led by York University and including the University of Alberta, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Manitoba Sustainable Development, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, and Polar Bears International, used three different “burr on fur” prototypes to study their effectiveness.

The paper, “Telemetry without collars: performance of fur- and ear-mounted satellite tags for evaluating the movement and behavior of polar bears,” published in the journal Animal Biotelemetry, details the first peer-reviewed examination of these new tracking devices that adhere to the fur of polar bears.

Polar Bear Melting Ice

New tracking technology offers a breakthrough in studying male and subadult polar bears, enhancing conservation efforts and data accuracy. Credit: Kt-Miller, Polar Bear International

Advancements in Polar Bear Tracking Methods

Studying polar bears is a difficult feat with current radio collars only suitable to be used on female bears leaving out a swath of the population, but new technology is providing researchers with a new tool that has confirmed the behavior of adult male polar bears while on land waiting for the ice to form again.

Efforts to develop less-invasive tracking options and tools that could work on polar bears of both sexes and nearly all ages have been ongoing for years with varying success. Collars have been and remain the primary means of studying polar bear movements. More recently, ear tag transmitters have been used as a lighter-weight alternative. While both technologies serve an important role in helping study and conserve polar bears, researchers continually strive to develop methods that are both minimally invasive and provide quality data.

This led to a new tracking initiative known as “Burr on Fur,” which began as a challenge from Polar Bears International to 3M scientists, the global science and manufacturing company behind Post-It notes, to create a temporary, simple method for affixing small tracking units to polar bear fur. Three “Burr on Fur” prototypes were recently tested on wild polar bears along the coast of Hudson Bay, Canada, alongside traditional ear tag transmitters.

Greg Thiemann Tagging a Polar Bear

York University Professor Greg Thiemann tagging a polar bear. Credit: York University researcher Tyler Ross, Polar Bear International

Comparison of New and Traditional Tracking Devices

The ear tag and “Burr on Fur” devices fill an important niche for scientists and wildlife managers. The new tags allow researchers to follow the movements of adult male and subadult polar bears, two groups that can’t be studied using traditional satellite collars. Adult males can’t wear collars because they slip off their cone-shaped necks and heads, and subadult bears grow too rapidly for safe collar use. Traditional ear tags are an alternative to collars. However, they currently require recapture to remove and, although rare, can pose a risk of injury to the ear. The new Burr on Fur tags are designed to be temporary, minimally invasive, and can be applied to both sexes and nearly all ages of polar bears.

“Successfully attaching telemetry tags to polar bear fur has never been done before, and we’re excited to share the results of this innovative work,” said Tyler Ross, lead author of the paper and researcher at York University, “The fur tags showed great promise, and give researchers the ability to study the behaviors and movements of polar bears that we have very little data on, like subadult and adult male bears.”

Three Fur Tag Designs

The three fur tag designs. Credit: York University researcher Tyler Ross, Polar Bear International

Field Testing of Innovative Tracking Technologies

Fifty-eight wild bears were tagged using ear tags and three distinct fur tag designs to compare both the duration of time the tags remained active while attached to the bears and the accuracy of the trackers. Applied alongside a traditional ear tag, which relied on an Argos Transmitter, the three fur tags were:

  • The Pentagon Tag: this five-sided device included five holes punched into its corners, allowing tufts of fur to be pulled through. It utilized an Argos Eartag Satellite Transmitter.
  • The SeaTrkr Tag: an oval-shaped tag that had 10 holes punched to allow 10 fur-tuft attachments. This design used an Iridium-linked Telonics GPS SeaTrkr-4370 transmitter.
  • The Tribrush Tag: a triangle tag outfitted with tubes along its borders, through which pipe brushes ensnared the fur, twisting it inside the tubes. This tag used the same Argos transmitter as the Pentagon tags.

The research took place from autumn 2016 to 2021 with bears handled near Churchill, Canada, by the Polar Bear Alert Program and researchers at the University of Alberta, supplemented with operations by researchers at Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, York University, and Manitoba Sustainable Development in 2021-22 near the Manitoba-Ontario border.

Results and Performance Analysis of New Tags

“Our results are an important step in better understanding the movements and behavior of polar bears, especially adult male bears, which are difficult to track because they can’t be fitted with satellite collars. Temporary, fur-mounted tags could also help track the movements of bears relocated after potentially coming into conflict with people, making these tags an important tool for conserving polar bears and keeping northern communities safe,” says York University Associate Professor and Sustainable Environmental Management Coordinator Gregory Thiemann, the report’s co-author.

The top-performing fur tag was the SeaTrkr Tag, which remained attached to the bears for an average of 58 days and had superior accuracy due to its use of GPS/Iridium technology. In second place, the Trishbrush Tags remained attached for an average of 47 days. However, for the Tribrush Tag, the times varied widely, with one falling off after only two days while another lasted 114 days – the longest of all the tags.

Because they are permanently attached to the bears’ ears, the traditional ear tags remained in place for 137 days on average, while the shorter-term fur-based trackers proved to be reliable for shorter periods. The fur tags proved useful for monitoring bear behavior, and show great promise for future use in tracking polar bears, especially those that must be relocated after approaching too close to communities. Further testing and refinement are also being conducted on bears in zoos and aquariums through Polar Bears International’s Arctic Ambassador Center zoo and aquarium partners, allowing researchers to further refine the designs and see how they perform throughout different seasons. In the most recent round of zoo testing, a refined tag stayed on a bear for 75 days.

Important Data about Male and Subadult Polar Bears

The new data adds to our growing understanding of subadult and adult male polar bear movements and behaviors, which have been historically understudied because they cannot be safely collared for long periods. Findings confirm that adult and subadult male bears reduce their activity while on land, consistent with prior studies that showed bears spent approximately 70 to 90 percent of their time resting during the ice-free period in Hudson Bay.

Implications for Wildlife Management

While the ear tags remained attached to the bears longer, the temporary and easily affixed fur tags give scientists a new tool for enhanced tracking of bears for purposes of both applied research and managing human-bear interactions. The tracking tech could be applied to other types of bears, supporting efforts to reduce human-bear conflict, and future applications could include testing on other species with fur. While traditional tracking methods, such as collars, will remain critical for longer-term studies, the fur tags will prove a valuable tool, particularly for understanding and managing increasing wildlife-human interactions as the climate warms.

“The collaboration between Polar Bears International, 3M, academic institutions, and governmental partners is a testament to our commitment to improving Arctic wildlife research and conservation technology,” says Geoff York, Senior Director of Research and Policy at Polar Bears International, adding, “These advancements will have tangible implications for wildlife management, aiding in tracking polar bears and promoting improved human-bear coexistence. We’re eager to further refine and deploy this pivotal technology.”

About Arctic Sea Ice Day

These findings were published on July 15, which is Arctic Sea Ice Day, an annual event created by Polar Bears International to spark actions and conversations about the rapidly melting Arctic ecosystem, including its global significance and how people can help slow this warming trend. The Arctic is now warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the planet, causing the sea ice to melt, which causes polar bears to spend longer periods fasting on land.

Polar Bears International invites people to access the full report and urges the scientific community to consider the implications of these findings for further research and application in conservation and coexistence efforts.

Reference: “Telemetry without collars: performance of fur- and ear-mounted satellite tags for evaluating the movement and behavior of polar bears” 15 July 2024, Animal Biotelemetry.

Read the full story here.
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Contributor: 'Save the whales' worked for decades, but now gray whales are starving

The once-booming population that passed California twice a year has cratered because of retreating sea ice. A new kind of intervention is needed.

Recently, while sailing with friends on San Francisco Bay, I enjoyed the sight of harbor porpoises, cormorants, pelicans, seals and sea lions — and then the spouting plume and glistening back of a gray whale that gave me pause. Too many have been seen inside the bay recently.California’s gray whales have been considered an environmental success story since the passage of the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act and 1986’s global ban on commercial whaling. They’re also a major tourist attraction during their annual 12,000-mile round-trip migration between the Arctic and their breeding lagoons in Baja California. In late winter and early spring — when they head back north and are closest to the shoreline, with the moms protecting the calves — they can be viewed not only from whale-watching boats but also from promontories along the California coast including Point Loma in San Diego, Point Lobos in Monterey and Bodega Head and Shelter Cove in Northern California.In 1972, there were some 10,000 gray whales in the population on the eastern side of the Pacific. Generations of whaling all but eliminated the western population — leaving only about 150 alive today off of East Asia and Russia. Over the four decades following passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the eastern whale numbers grew steadily to 27,000 by 2016, a hopeful story of protection leading to restoration. Then, unexpectedly over the last nine years, the eastern gray whale population has crashed, plummeting by more than half to 12,950, according to a recent report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the lowest numbers since the 1970s.Today’s changing ocean and Arctic ice conditions linked to fossil-fuel-fired climate change are putting this species again at risk of extinction.While there has been some historical variation in their population, gray whales — magnificent animals that can grow up to 50 feet long and weigh as much as 80,000 pounds — are now regularly starving to death as their main food sources disappear. This includes tiny shrimp-like amphipods in the whales’ summer feeding grounds in the Arctic. It’s there that the baleen filter feeders spend the summer gorging on tiny crustaceans from the muddy bottom of the Bering, Chuckchi and Beaufort seas, creating shallow pits or potholes in the process. But, with retreating sea ice, there is less under-ice algae to feed the amphipods that in turn feed the whales. Malnourished and starving whales are also producing fewer offspring.As a result of more whales washing up dead, NOAA declared an “unusual mortality event” in California in 2019. Between 2019 and 2025, at least 1,235 gray whales were stranded dead along the West Coast. That’s eight times greater than any previous 10-year average.While there seemed to be some recovery in 2024, 2025 brought back the high casualty rates. The hungry whales now come into crowded estuaries like San Francisco Bay to feed, making them vulnerable to ship traffic. Nine in the bay were killed by ship strikes last year while another 12 appear to have died of starvation.Michael Stocker, executive director of the acoustics group Ocean Conservation Research, has been leading whale-viewing trips to the gray whales’ breeding ground at San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California since 2006. “When we started going, there would be 400 adult whales in the lagoon, including 100 moms and their babies,” he told me. “This year we saw about 100 adult whales, only five of which were in momma-baby pairs.” Where once the predators would not have dared to hunt, he said that more recently, “orcas came into the lagoon and ate a couple of the babies because there were not enough adult whales to fend them off.”Southern California’s Gray Whale Census & Behavior Project reported record-low calf counts last year.The loss of Arctic sea ice and refusal of the world’s nations recently gathered at the COP30 Climate Summit in Brazil to meet previous commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions suggest that the prospects for gray whales and other wildlife in our warming seas, including key food species for humans such as salmon, cod and herring, look grim.California shut down the nation’s last whaling station in 1971. And yet now whales that were once hunted for their oil are falling victim to the effects of the petroleum or “rock oil” that replaced their melted blubber as a source of light and lubrication. That’s because the burning of oil, coal and gas are now overheating our blue planet. While humans have gone from hunting to admiring whales as sentient beings in recent decades, our own intelligence comes into question when we fail to meet commitments to a clean carbon-free energy future. That could be the gray whales’ last best hope, if there is any.David Helvarg is the executive director of Blue Frontier, an ocean policy group, and co-host of “Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast.” He is the author of the forthcoming “Forest of the Sea: The Remarkable Life and Imperiled Future of Kelp.”

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Pills that communicate from the stomach could improve medication adherence

MIT engineers designed capsules with biodegradable radio frequency antennas that can reveal when the pill has been swallowed.

In an advance that could help ensure people are taking their medication on schedule, MIT engineers have designed a pill that can report when it has been swallowed.The new reporting system, which can be incorporated into existing pill capsules, contains a biodegradable radio frequency antenna. After it sends out the signal that the pill has been consumed, most components break down in the stomach while a tiny RF chip passes out of the body through the digestive tract.This type of system could be useful for monitoring transplant patients who need to take immunosuppressive drugs, or people with infections such as HIV or TB, who need treatment for an extended period of time, the researchers say.“The goal is to make sure that this helps people receive the therapy they need to help maximize their health,” says Giovanni Traverso, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an associate member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.Traverso is the senior author of the new study, which appears today in Nature Communications. Mehmet Girayhan Say, an MIT research scientist, and Sean You, a former MIT postdoc, are the lead authors of the paper.A pill that communicatesPatients’ failure to take their medicine as prescribed is a major challenge that contributes to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths and billions of dollars in health care costs annually.To make it easier for people to take their medication, Traverso’s lab has worked on delivery capsules that can remain in the digestive tract for days or weeks, releasing doses at predetermined times. However, this approach may not be compatible with all drugs.“We’ve developed systems that can stay in the body for a long time, and we know that those systems can improve adherence, but we also recognize that for certain medications, we can’t change the pill,” Traverso says. “The question becomes: What else can we do to help the person and help their health care providers ensure that they’re receiving the medication?”In their new study, the researchers focused on a strategy that would allow doctors to more closely monitor whether patients are taking their medication. Using radio frequency — a type of signal that can be easily detected from outside the body and is safe for humans — they designed a capsule that can communicate after the patient has swallowed it.There have been previous efforts to develop RF-based signaling devices for medication capsules, but those were all made from components that don’t break down easily in the body and would need to travel through the digestive system.To minimize the potential risk of any blockage of the GI tract, the MIT team decided to create an RF-based system that would be bioresorbable, meaning that it can be broken down and absorbed by the body. The antenna that sends out the RF signal is made from zinc, and it is embedded into a cellulose particle.“We chose these materials recognizing their very favorable safety profiles and also environmental compatibility,” Traverso says.The zinc-cellulose antenna is rolled up and placed inside a capsule along with the drug to be delivered. The outer layer of the capsule is made from gelatin coated with a layer of cellulose and either molybdenum or tungsten, which blocks any RF signal from being emitted.Once the capsule is swallowed, the coating breaks down, releasing the drug along with the RF antenna. The antenna can then pick up an RF signal sent from an external receiver and, working with a small RF chip, sends back a signal to confirm that the capsule was swallowed. This communication happens within 10 minutes of the pill being swallowed.The RF chip, which is about 400 by 400 micrometers, is an off-the-shelf chip that is not biodegradable and would need to be excreted through the digestive tract. All of the other components would break down in the stomach within a week.“The components are designed to break down over days using materials with well-established safety profiles, such as zinc and cellulose, which are already widely used in medicine,” Say says. “Our goal is to avoid long-term accumulation while enabling reliable confirmation that a pill was taken, and longer-term safety will continue to be evaluated as the technology moves toward clinical use.”Promoting adherenceTests in an animal model showed that the RF signal was successfully transmitted from inside the stomach and could be read by an external receiver at a distance up to 2 feet away. If developed for use in humans, the researchers envision designing a wearable device that could receive the signal and then transmit it to the patient’s health care team.The researchers now plan to do further preclinical studies and hope to soon test the system in humans. One patient population that could benefit greatly from this type of monitoring is people who have recently had organ transplants and need to take immunosuppressant drugs to make sure their body doesn’t reject the new organ.“We want to prioritize medications that, when non-adherence is present, could have a really detrimental effect for the individual,” Traverso says.Other populations that could benefit include people who have recently had a stent inserted and need to take medication to help prevent blockage of the stent, people with chronic infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, and people with neuropsychiatric disorders whose conditions may impair their ability to take their medication.The research was funded by Novo Nordisk, MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Division of Gastroenterology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), which notes that the views and conclusions contained in this article are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the United States Government.

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Costa Rica Rescues Orphaned Manatee Calf in Tortuguero

A young female manatee washed up alone on a beach in Tortuguero National Park early on January 5, sparking a coordinated effort by local authorities to save the animal. The calf, identified as a Caribbean manatee, appeared separated from its mother, with no immediate signs of her in the area. Park rangers received the first […] The post Costa Rica Rescues Orphaned Manatee Calf in Tortuguero appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

A young female manatee washed up alone on a beach in Tortuguero National Park early on January 5, sparking a coordinated effort by local authorities to save the animal. The calf, identified as a Caribbean manatee, appeared separated from its mother, with no immediate signs of her in the area. Park rangers received the first alert around 8 a.m. from visitors who spotted the stranded calf. Staff from the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) quickly arrived on site. They secured the animal to prevent further harm and began searching nearby waters and canals for the mother. Despite hours of monitoring, officials found no evidence of her presence. “The calf showed no visible injuries but needed prompt attention due to its age and vulnerability,” said a SINAC official involved in the operation. Without a parent nearby, the young manatee faced risks from dehydration and predators in the open beach environment. As the day progressed, the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) joined the response. They decided to relocate the calf for specialized care. In a first for such rescues in the region, teams arranged an aerial transport to move the animal safely to a rehabilitation facility. This step aimed to give the manatee the best chance at survival while experts assess its health. Once at the center, the calf received immediate feeding and medical checks. During one session, it dozed off mid-meal, a sign that it felt secure in the hands of caretakers. Biologists now monitor the animal closely, hoping to release it back into the wild if conditions allow. Manatees, known locally as manatíes, inhabit the coastal waters and rivers of Costa Rica’s Caribbean side. They often face threats from boat strikes, habitat loss, and pollution. Tortuguero, with its network of canals and protected areas, serves as a key habitat for the species. Recent laws have strengthened protections, naming the manatee a national marine symbol to raise awareness. This incident highlights the ongoing challenges for wildlife in the area. Local communities and tourists play a key role in reporting sightings, which can lead to timely interventions. Authorities encourage anyone spotting distressed animals to contact SINAC without delay. The rescue team expressed gratitude to those who reported the stranding. Their quick action likely saved the calf’s life. As investigations continue, officials will determine if environmental factors contributed to the separation. For now, the young manatee rests under professional care, a small win for conservation efforts in Limón. The post Costa Rica Rescues Orphaned Manatee Calf in Tortuguero appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

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New Records Reveal the Mess RFK Jr. Left When He Dumped a Dead Bear in Central Park

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he left a bear cub's corpse in Central Park in 2014 to "be fun." Records newly obtained by WIRED show what he left New York civil servants to clean up.

This story contains graphic imagery.On August 4, 2024, when now-US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was still a presidential candidate, he posted a video on X in which he admitted to dumping a dead bear cub near an old bicycle in Central Park 10 years prior, in a mystifying attempt to make the young bear’s premature death look like a cyclist’s hit and run.WIRED's Guide to How the Universe WorksYour weekly roundup of the best stories on health care, the climate crisis, new scientific discoveries, and more. At the time, Kennedy said he was trying to get ahead of a story The New Yorker was about to publish that mentioned the incident. But in coming clean, Kennedy solved a decade-old New York City mystery: How and why had a young black bear—a wild animal native to the state, but not to modern-era Manhattan—been found dead under a bush near West 69th Street in Central Park?WIRED has obtained documents that shed new light on the incident from the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation via a public records request. The documents—which include previously unseen photos of the bear cub—resurface questions about the bizarre choices Kennedy says he made, which left city employees dealing with the aftermath and lamenting the cub’s short life and grim fate.A representative for Kennedy did not respond for comment. The New York Police Department (NYPD) and the Parks Department referred WIRED to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC). NYDEC spokesperson Jeff Wernick tells WIRED that its investigation into the death of the bear cub was closed in late 2014 “due to a lack of sufficient evidence” to determine if state law was violated. They added that New York’s environmental conservation law forbids “illegal possession of a bear without a tag or permit and illegal disposal of a bear,” and that “the statute of limitations for these offenses is one year.”The first of a number of emails between local officials coordinating the handling of the baby bear’s remains was sent at 10:16 a.m. on October 6, 2014. Bonnie McGuire, then-deputy director at Urban Park Rangers (UPR), told two colleagues that UPR sergeant Eric Handy had recently called her about a “dead black bear” found in Central Park.“NYPD told him they will treat it like a crime scene so he can’t get too close,” McGuire wrote. “I’ve asked him to take pictures and send them over and to keep us posted.”“Poor little guy!” McGuire wrote in a separate email later that morning.According to emails obtained by WIRED, Handy updated several colleagues throughout the day, noting that the NYDEC had arrived on scene, and that the agency was planning to coordinate with the NYPD to transfer the body to the Bronx Zoo, where it would be inspected by the NYPD’s animal cruelty unit and the ASPCA. (This didn’t end up happening, as the NYDEC took the bear to a state lab near Albany.)Imagery of the bear has been public before—local news footage from October 2014 appears to show it from a distance. However, the documents WIRED obtained show previously unpublished images that investigators took of the bear on the scene, which Handy sent as attachments in emails to McGuire. The bear is seen laying on its side in an unnatural position. Its head protrudes from under a bush and rests next to a small patch of grass. Bits of flesh are visible through the bear’s black fur, which was covered in a few brown leaves.Courtesy of NYC Parks

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Conservation

U.S. Military Ends Practice of Shooting Live Animals to Train Medics to Treat Battlefield Wounds

The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act bans the use of live animals in live fire training exercises and prohibits "painful" research on domestic cats and dogs

U.S. Military Ends Practice of Shooting Live Animals to Train Medics to Treat Battlefield Wounds The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act bans the use of live animals in live fire training exercises and prohibits “painful” research on domestic cats and dogs Sarah Kuta - Daily Correspondent January 5, 2026 12:00 p.m. The U.S. military will no longer shoot live goats and pigs to help combat medics learn to treat battlefield injuries. Pexels The United States military is no longer shooting live animals as part of its trauma training exercises for combat medics. The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which was enacted on December 18, bans the use of live animals—including dogs, cats, nonhuman primates and marine mammals—in any live fire trauma training conducted by the Department of Defense. It directs military leaders to instead use advanced simulators, mannequins, cadavers or actors. According to the Associated Press’ Ben Finley, the bill ends the military’s practice of shooting live goats and pigs to help combat medics learn to treat battlefield injuries. However, the military is allowed to continue other practices involving animals, including stabbing, burning and testing weapons on them. In those scenarios, the animals are supposed to be anesthetized, per the AP. “With today’s advanced simulation technology, we can prepare our medics for the battlefield while reducing harm to animals,” says Florida Representative Vern Buchanan, who advocated for the change, in a statement shared with the AP. He described the military’s practices as “outdated and inhumane” and called the move a “major step forward in reducing unnecessary suffering.” Quick fact: What is the National Defense Authorization Act? The National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, is a law passed each year that authorizes the Department of Defense’s appropriated funds, greenlights the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons programs and sets defense policies and restrictions, among other activities, for the upcoming fiscal year. Organizations have opposed the military’s use of live animals in trauma training, too, including the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA, a nonprofit animal advocacy group, described the legislation as a “major victory for animals” that will “save countless animals from heinous cruelty” in a statement. The legislation also prohibits “painful research” on domestic cats and dogs, though exceptions can be made under certain circumstances, such as interests of national security. “Painful” research includes any training, experiments or tests that fall into specific pain categories outlined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For example, military cats and dogs can no longer be exposed to extreme environmental conditions or noxious stimuli they cannot escape, nor can they be forced to exercise to the point of distress or exhaustion. The bill comes amid a broader push to end the use of live animals in federal tests, studies and training, reports Linda F. Hersey for Stars and Stripes. After temporarily suspending live tissue training with animals in 2017, the U.S. Coast Guard made the ban permanent in 2018. In 2024, U.S. lawmakers directed the Department of Veterans Affairs to end its experiments on cats, dogs and primates. And in May 2025, the U.S. Navy announced it would no longer conduct research testing on cats and dogs. As the Washington Post’s Ernesto Londoño reported in 2013, the U.S. military has used animals for medical training since at least the Vietnam War. However, the practice largely went unnoticed until 1983, when the U.S. Army planned to anesthetize dogs, hang them from nylon mesh slings and shoot them at an indoor firing range in Maryland. When activists and lawmakers learned of the proposal, they decried the practice and convinced then-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger to ban the shooting of dogs. However, in 1984, the AP reported the U.S. military would continue shooting live goats and pigs for wound treatment training, with a military medical study group arguing “there is no substitute for the live animals as a study object for hands-on training.” In the modern era, it’s not clear how often and to what extent the military uses animals, per the AP. And despite the Department of Defense’s past efforts to minimize the use of animals for trauma training, a 2022 report from the Government Accountability Office, the watchdog agency charged with providing fact-based, nonpartisan information to Congress, determined that the agency was “unable to fully demonstrate the extent to which it has made progress.” The Defense Health Agency, the U.S. government entity responsible for the military’s medical training, says in a statement shared with the AP that it “remains committed to replacement of animal models without compromising the quality of medical training,” including the use of “realistic training scenarios to ensure medical providers are well-prepared to care for the combat-wounded.” Animal activists say technology has come a long way in recent decades so, beyond the animal welfare concerns, the military simply no longer needs to use live animals for training. Instead, military medics can simulate treating battlefield injuries using “cut suits,” or realistic suits with skin, blood and organs that are worn by a live person to mimic traumatic injuries. However, not everyone agrees. Michael Bailey, an Army combat medic who served two tours in Iraq, told the Washington Post in 2013 that his training with a sedated goat was invaluable. “You don’t get that [sense of urgency] from a mannequin,” he told the publication. “You don’t get that feeling of this mannequin is going to die. When you’re talking about keeping someone alive when physics and the enemy have done their best to do the opposite, it’s the kind of training that you want to have in your back pocket.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

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