'I can haz blood?' The surprising world of pet blood transfusions

Don Juan, Napoleon, Gucci, Azur, and Marissa are very friendly and will rush to welcome anyone who enters their room, and that's what makes them good blood donors. "I chose them for their hematological characteristics, but also for their good disposition. We didn't want cats that would be stressed when handled or that needed excessive sedation," said Dr. Marie-Claude Blais, Professor at the University of Montreal's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Where they are housed, the five cats (four males and one female) can climb to the top of their trapeze and out into the yard through a cat flap. They can lounge on a hammock all day long or play cat and mouse. What is more, the door to their room is never locked, so they can get their daily dose of hugs, a benefit not necessarily stipulated in their contract. "Our cats are chosen by interview. In the last selection process, out of the 12 cats we evaluated, we only ended up keeping one," Blais said.

An ethics committee oversees the various aspects of this unique blood bank, which also includes canine "volunteers." Unlike their feline counterparts, Bacho, Dali, Gaspard, Bowie, and Dexter do not live at the CHUV University Veterinary Hospital, but with their families. They come to the hospital at the request of veterinarians and give blood once every six weeks at most. "It's true that the idea of animals donating blood is strange," Blais said, "but the dogs seem to adapt well. Anyway, they don't seem to mind coming to the hospital."

Which animals need blood transfusions? Mainly those on the operating table, but also bleeding accident victims or anemic animals with cancer or immune dysfunctions, for example.

The blood bank already existed before Dr. Blais arrived in 2008, but she has given it a new dimension. "Let's say I optimized the service -- everything had to be rethought, from changing the blood collection bags to redefining protocol." Maintenance and turnover of blood products requires proven expertise. Storage life is limited and the quantities needed for transfusions fluctuate constantly. "Sometimes we have immediate needs we can't meet, sometimes we have to throw out expired units. It breaks our heart," Blais said.

Clinician and researcher

Dr. Blais' research activities focus on internal medicine and veterinary hematology. "A lot of knowledge has developed in my field of internal medicine, but there is much to discover in some areas," she said. On top of her research, she is giving courses in Gastro-intestinal Diseases, Emergency Medicine, and Nutrition, running two wetlabs and supervising graduate seminars. She also devotes herself to a clinic for small animals every two weeks, which requires about 45 hours of work.

Blais came to the University of Montreal after conducting a postdoctoral fellowship in Transfusion Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 2006. She documented a new blood type in dogs: DAL for "Dalmatian." "I remember dancing in my office when I realized I was dealing with a new canine blood group," she said.

Her discovery caused a stir when her article, published in 2007 in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, received praise from the editor, Jane Wardrop of the University of Washington. In the editorial entitled "A Welcome Discovery," the author pays tribute to the Quebec researcher. Her findings provide "an exciting and welcome addition to the current body of knowledge in veterinary transfusion medicine and will hopefully prompt further research in this area," it said.

Dottie and Henriette

Blais made her discovery while following the case of a dog name Dottie. Brought by her owner to the Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania due to health problems, the dog received a preliminary blood transfusion to underg

o surgery. A few days later, a second transfusion was needed; in the meantime, however, the dog had developed antibodies that prevented a new transfusion.

In fact, no blood available was compatible with Dottie's system, and the staff wanted to stop there. "Why not investigate further?" Blais asked. "We would have done it for humans."

It must be noted that the blood system of dogs is quite different from ours. When the researcher took on the subject, 12 canine blood groups were known. Dogs do not have antibodies in their blood directed against most of these. Consequently, an animal can receive blood from almost any other individual; its immune system will accept it. It's during the second transfusion that things get complicated, because it can be fatal.

As a result, none of the 55 blood donors at the US veterinary hospital had a system compatible with Dottie's. "We had to call upon the Dalmatian breeding community, and the response was immediate. Through social networks, we had blood samples from 13 Dalmatians in 48 hours. Three were compatible."

Subsequent research showed that several Dobermans and a Shih Tzu had a similar blood type. More recently, it was discovered that a dog kept at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, a Beagle named Henriette, had the same blood type. This discovery opened up a whole new area of research.

With her team in Pennsylvania, she repeated her exploit by revealing a similar rarity among cats (she co-authored the article published in the same issue of the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine). "There are certainly other groups and sub-groups to document," says the researcher smiling.

She notes that her canine blood bank is looking for casual donors. With approximately 50 animals, the network can accommodate other "volunteers." They are looking for dogs of good size, healthy, and an easy-going temperament. They must be able to cooperate willingly with veterinary medicine.

INDIA'S DEADLIEST ANIMAL COUNTDOWN (BASED ON HUMAN KILLING PER YEAR)

              In this countdown we start from the least deadliest to the most deadliest animals. This countdown is based on the human deaths per year. So, here we go now-

10. Stray Dog:

                India has a large number of stray dogs in the cities. This Dogs normally do not attack the human, but at the time of mating and fighting season these Stray dogs sometimes become very dangerous and attack the human. Normally the children are attacked by them. Every year, there are 1000 dog biting cases are filed in India, though the death of human by dog biting is not huge in number. approximately 10-20 people are found dead by dog biting, every year. That's why this stray dogs are in number 10 in our countdown list.

Stray Dog

9.  Black Bear:

             In the Himalayan region of India, this black bears are found. They are very much aggressive, they can attack without any reason. This attacks normally occurs in the morning section. The number of human deaths by black bear are approximately 20 human per year in India. But they attack human more often than stray dogs, That's why they are the number 9 in our countdown.

Black Bear

8. Honey Bee:

               Honey bees are found everywhere in India. This honey bees are very much territorial, they attack everything that looks dangerous to them. The death of human per year due to honey bee attack is much greater than the stray dog attack. approximately 40-50 people are died every year due to honey bee attacks. That's why this stray dogs are in number 8 in our countdown list.

Honey Bee

7.  Scorpion:

Black scorpion

              In India, around 86 species of scorpion lived are found out of them 50 are very much deadly for the human. Scorpions are found everywhere in India, The death of human per year due to scorpion bites are much greater than the previous animals. Every year around 80 people are found dead due to scorpion attacks. That's Why, scorpions are our number 7 in this countdown. 

The next animal in this least leaves in water.... and they do not attack human for protection, they attack human for food.

6. Crocodile: 

              In India, crocodiles are well known human attacker. They lived in the Shallow water or lakes. These crocodiles attacks adult human. Crocodiles attack are very common where human and crocodile habitat coincide. They are sneak attackers. Every year  around 100 people died due to human attacks. They are our number 6 animal in this countdown.

Crocodile

Our next is known for it's sneak attacks, it attacks it's prey until they are at most 5 meters near of it.

5. Leopard:

Leopard

              Leopard is one of the big cat that found across everywhere in India. Leopards attacks are very much often in these years as the depleting of the forest causes their habitat loss. and for food they entered nearby human habitat for food. Leopards are found in the nearby village fields, and they often attack solitary human when they get chance. Every year around 150-200 human found dead due to leopard attacks. That's why leopards are our number 5 in the India's Deadliest Animal Countdown based on human killing per year.

             In the past there are a list of man eater leopards who kills people at a high rate. 

            The Panar Leopard kills around 400 human in his live span.

            The Kahani man eater kills around 200 human, and the Rudraprayag man eater kills 125 human.

4. Bengal Tiger:

Bengal tiger

            Bengal tiger is one of the deadliest man-eaters of in India. According to the wildlife researchers, bengal tigers are the only remaining man eaters in this world. though it is proven that only injured and old tigers become man-eaters. The Sundarbans is the place where this killing takes place mainly. Though there are other places where tiger kills human. Every year around 300 people died due to tiger attacks. Bengal tigers are our number 4 in this list.

Our next animal in this countdown is worshiped by the humans.

3. Elephant: 

             Elephants might looks like big and slow moving animal but they are very deadly when they get angry. The wild elephants entered the human habitat for food and destroy everything in there path. In the jungle of the wild elephants, those elephants destroy the homes and food of the humans. and often kills human. Every year 2,000 people are killed due to Elephant attacks.

Wild Elephant

2. Snakes:

            Snakes are considered to be the most deadliest animal on the earth. India is the home of the venomous snakes. The Cobra, The King Cobra, The Krait, Python, Russell Vipers,Saw Scaled Viper, Purple Pit Viper, Common Rat Snake all those deadly venomous snakes are in here. Every year almost 50,000 people found dead due to snake attacks. They are our number 2 in our countdown.

The Krait

            Now it's the time for the number 1 animals which kills more human in India than others. Our number 1 animal of this countdown is..........

1. Mosquito:

             Mosquito is very much common insects of India. But mosquito bites are the cause of the deadliest viral fevers- dengue, malaria and more. Every year almost 200,000 people found death due to mosquito bites. That is why I choose the mosquitoes as the deadliest animal in this Deadliest animal countdown list. 

Mosquito

           Here you see the deadliest animal countdown based on human killing per year. leave your comment please about the countdown... we are eagerly waiting for your replies.

INDIAN MIGRATORY BIRDS.

          Indian subcontinent host a huge number of migratory birds in summer as well as in winter. It is estimated that almost one hundred species fly to India every year. There are a lot of sanctuaries that serve them as their temporary habitat. Usually birds starts migrate in search of food or due to extreme cold winter season. and once they start their migration no one can stop them except extreme bad weather.
          Here are a list of some important migratory birds of India-

BIRDS THAT COME TO INDIA IN SUMMER-

Black crowned night heron

Asian koel

Blue tailed bee eater

• Asian Koel
• Black crowned night heron
• Eurasian golden oriole
• Comb duck
• Blue cheeked bee eater
• Blue tailed bee eater
• Cuckoos

Comb Duck

BIRDS THAT COME TO INDIA IN WINTER

Starling

Common teal

• Siberian Crane
• Greater flamingo
• Ruff
• Black winged stilt
• Common teal
• Common greenshank
• Northern pintail
• Yellow wagtail
• White wagtail
• Northern shoveler
• Rosy palican
• Gadwall
• Starling
• Wood sandpiper
• Spotted Sandpiper
• Eurasian wigeon
• Black tail godwit
• Spotted redshank
• Bluethoart
• Long billed pipit
  

  

  Rosy palican

DAYING ERING WILDLIFE SANCTUARY IS BANS ENTRY WITHIN PREMISES

              Daying ering wildlife sanctuary is situated in Arunachal Pradesh, India. It is now bans entry within premises due to the recent salt lick ambush laid by hunters, killing a bird, and disappearance of of two camera trapping from the sanctuary. There had been restriction of hunting and poaching to some extent in the sanctuary in the past two years.
              This sanctuary is located at Pasighat. This is located on the island- boating through the river Siang is the only way to reach this sanctuary. It's spread over an area of 190 sq km and houses of varieties of animals and birds. It is divided into three ranges- Anchalghat, Sibiamukh and Barghuli. 75% of the Sanctuary is covered with alluvial grassland, 15% are the woods and 10% is covered by water.
              From September-February, a variety of migratory birdslike cranes, wild ducks, storks, water fowls and hornbills migrate here from far off places making it a bird's paradise. A few of the birds come here from Siberia and Mongolia.
              Deer, wild elephant, buffaloes and other small animals are found in this sanctuary. Aquatic birds such as spot-billed pelican, bear's pochards, Indian skimmer, lesser adjutant, lesser whistling teal, black-bellied tern and the darter also make the sanctuary as their home. More than 100 aquatic species such as water monitor lizards, pisces turtle and other reptiles live in the waters of the sanctuary. The Bengal tiger is the special features of this sanctuary. although, it is rarely seen.

             This ban is very much painful for those who love to capture the pictures of the birds.

NEW MEMBERS IN THE SUNDERBANS

          With a spurt in cub sighting in the Sunderbans, officials say actually there could be more tigers in the mangroves than what the latest camera trap study revealed-103. The successive sighting of two cubs, in the forests of Pirkhali under Sajnekhali tourism zone and Arbesi under Basirhat range, have given a new boost to the animal’s critical habitat and conservation efforts in the single largest block of tidal mangrove forest in the world.

        “In the recently-concluded camera trap study, no tiger image was captured in the North 24 Parganas. Last week, a beat officer clicked the snap of a cub with its mother. A big male, which has possibly fathered the cub, was also sighted near the spot. We hope the three will be the newest additions to the figure of 103, the minimum number of tiger in the mangroves.” Said Soumitra Dasgupta- The Sunderbans Tiger Reserve field director. Though a final call could be taken only after comparing their stripe patterns with those of recorded images, he added.

         The good news does not ends with this, there are more good news for the wildlife and the the Royal Bengal Tiger lovers;

         Foresters have also photo-captured another cub, hardly 3-4 months old, with its mother in the forests of Pirkhali I during a routine patrol. “We were all euphoric at that time. The moment the tigress spotted us, she tried to take the cub away from our sight. But the cub was in no mood to hang up on the new-found adventure in its life. He kept staring at our lenses and we had enough scope to take their snaps. Later, the tigress shooed away the cub and again appeared from behind the bushes to have water.” Said a forester, who was present in that spot.

SELLING WHITE RHINOS TO SAVE THEM- IS THAT A SOLUTION?

                   In effort to curb rhino poaching, the South African Govt. is taking a different approach- selling them. Within the last two years the Kruger National Park (KNP) has sold 170 white rhinos to private ranches. This is necessary to improve the conservation of status of white rhinos in the country by establishing rhino populations on the private ranches.
                   KNP has been a target of rhino poaching because of its long international boundaries. It has lost 381 rhinos, the official statistics reveal. Selling the rhinos also generate the income of the KNP. Though no black rhinos have been sold as reported. black rhinos are critically endangered species, of which fewer than 5000 remains in the wild, worldwide.

                    South Africa is the home of rhinos since the beginning. 70% of the rhino population lives here. But illegal poaching stoked by growing demand for the rhino horns has diminished the rhino population in South Africa.
                    But selling the rhinos is a alternative solution, if KNP can not find a good way to stop this poaching then the day is not far when all the rhinos are either sold or killed by the poachers.

TORTOISES ARE GOING TO WALK FASTER???????

                                                  Though it looks to be impossible, but it's true- tortoises are going to walk fast in the Twycross zoo.
                                                  This zoo is training its giant tortoises to walk faster. Staff members at  the Twycross, are feeding treats to Speedy(70), Tom(40), Shelly(30) so that they can exceed their speed of less than one mile per hour as they cross a new larger pen, the daily express reported. " we use a target and the tortoises' favorite foods. We hold the target a few centimeters in front of them and when they touch it with their nose we say 'good' and feed them. we the move the target further away and repeat the process," Kris Hern- a zookeeper, said this.
                                                If this examination is successful then it is a big proof of the Darwin's  struggle for existence and the theory of his evolution.

BUMPY-FACED REPTILE RULED THE WORLD BEFORE THE DINOSAURS

                                                     During the Permian era, there was only one super-continent called Pangea existed on the earth. Animal and plant life dispersed broadly across this land. Now by a new theory published in the Journal of vertebrate paleontology supports the idea that there was an isolated desert in the middle off the Pangea with its own fauna. Roaming in this desert in what is now northern Niger was a very distinctive creature known as Pareiasaur. They were very large herbivorous reptile and they were very common in that desert  during the middle and late Permian era [about 266-252 million years ago.]
                                                 The main author of this theory, Linda Tsuji said, "Imagine a cow-sized plant-eating reptile with a knobby skull and bony armor down its back."

                                                 Newly discovered fossils belong to the aptly genus Bunostegos which means knobby[skull] roof. Fleshing out of the details, the archaeologist have candidly explain that the face of the Pareiasaur appears as if it has been made by a kindergarten, who went wild when he was using the brush. Most of the Pareiasaurs had a bony knobs on their skulls but Bunostegos spotted the largest, most bulbous one's ever discovered. In life, these were probably skin-covered horns like those on the heads of the modern giraffes. Although at the first blush these features seem to suggest that Bunostegos was an evolutionary advance Pareiasaur, it also had many primitive characteristic. Tsuji's analysis showed that Bunostegos was actually more closely related to older and more primitive Pareiasaurs which leads us to to conclusions: 

1. its knobby noggin was the result of convergent evolution 
2. that is genealogical lineage had been isolated for millions of years 

                                         The archaeologists had explained that Bunostegos were not live alone in the desert, some fossils of another creature creatures were found there, named Gorgonopsian- a mammal like carnivore. 

                                          Some scientist believed that the modern day turtles are the direct descendants of Pareiasaurs. During the phase of this discovery, the knob lizard was studied and was found to be a primitive lizard. It had separated from the original ones millions of years ago. It was obliterated from the surface of the earth, roughly 248 million years ago.

CAVE BEAR

SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION 

Skeleton of the cave bear

• KINGDOM : Animalia

• PHYLUM : Chordata 

• CLASS : Mammalia

• ORDER : Carnivora

• FAMILY : Ursidae

• GENUS : Ursus

• SPECIES : Ursus Spelaeus  

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

• SIZE :  About 7 ft to 10 feet long.

• WEIGHT : 500 - 1000 pounds

• LIFE SPAN : 15 -20 Years

• HABITAT: Mountains  and woodlands of the Europe

• HISTORICAL EPOCH : Middle to late Pleistocene age

INTRODUCTION:  

                              Cave bear was a species of bear that come in the earth at the middle Pleistocene age, around 1,000,000 years ago, and extinct from the world at the late p]Pleistocene age, around 20,000 years ago.From the study, it is proved that this bears spend much more time in the cave than the brown bears, that is why the scientists name them cave bear.

DESCRIPTION: 

                             Cave bears had a large head with a massive canine teeth. From the cave painting it seems that they had a short ears and a pig-like face, which makes them look like the modern teddy bears. Its front legs were massive, with huge paws and claws- like today's grizzly. males are almost 900- 1100 pounds heavy, where the females are almost 500- 600 pounds heavy- that shows, the males are twice bigger than the females. from the study, its looks like they grew larger in the glaciation periods than the inter-glaciation period.

HABITAT AND RANGE :

Fossil structure of the cave bear

                            Cave bears' range stretched across Europe, from Spain to great Britain in west, Italy, Poland, parts of Germany, the Balkans, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia, Hungary, Romania and parts of Russia, including the Caucasus, and northern Iran; though no evidence were found for what we can say that the they lived in Scotland, Scandinavian or the Baltic countries, which were completely covered in extensive glacial at the time. The cave bear inhabited low mountain areas, they seems to avoid the open plains. They preferred the forest areas.

DIET :

                            From the study, it looks like they cave bears are very much herbivorous, even more than the brown bears.it dug up the roots, ate berries, etc. It may have dug up burrowing animals such as marmots. it is suggested that the cave bears may be specialized on digging up root-beds in deep glacial silt.

REPRODUCTION :

                            It is expected that cave bears had similar breeding habits to the brown bears.

THREATS :

1. Saber-tooth and other carnivores used to hunt cave bears for their foods, 
2. Many fossils were found which indicates that many sub-adult cave bears often failed to get through the hibernation. It's probably because the adults excluded them from the best feeding areas and so they failed to put on enough fat to survive winter. 
3. Human also hunt the cave bears not only for food, they hunt them for the hunting ritual or they kept the skull as the winning trophies. they also killed them for their habitat, as they can take shelter in the caves of the cave bears.

EVOLUTION :

                          It is thought that the cave bears were came from the Plio-Pleistocene Etruscan bears(Ursus Etruscus) who lived in the earth from, 5.3 million years ago to 10,000 years ago. The immediate precursor of cave bears were most probably Ursus Deningeri.

EXTINCTION : 

Human hunting cave bear

                          The extinction of the cave bears were very controversial, and very mysterious, it is not happened for a single factor, a complex set factor happened, for the studies of different scientist, we can conclude, the main causes are these-

1. Human hunts too much cave bears that leads them to their extinction.
2. Climate change is also a heavy factor, at the time of the beginning of the ice age cave bears might not adopted that climate change. and gone extinct. 
3. At the beginning of the ice age there was a huge food crisis, that leads the cave bears in starvation and also the predators killed too much cave bears for food.
4. Some scientist thought that at the time of the beginning of the ice age, cave bears were attacked by some virus and bacteria, that caused their extinction.  

                       Though my personal view is the cave bears not gone extinct, at the beginning of the ice age or before the beginning of the ice age, a group of these cave bears started to migrate to the north, and evolved into polar bears, read my this article THE EVOLUTION OF POLAR BEAR

REFERENCE :

1.  FATE OF THE CAVE BEAR by Andrew curry
2. CAVE BEAR by Bob Strauss
3. Huge Cave Bears: When and Why They Disappeared from livescience staff
4. cave bear Wikipedia
5. cave bear  BBC science

SAVE POLAR BEAR PROJECT

                                  We know there are around 25,000 polar bears alive in the world and if we try our best, then we can only save them till the existence ice on the Arctic. As we all know that the genetic changes in the polar bears are mainly because of the very cold temperature in the Arctic region. so as long the ice are there, polar bears can exist.

                                  But now a days scientists think that the excessive hunting of the polar bears and for the increase of the human habitat, these bears lost their own privacy and habitat. Which can be a very important cause of the extinction of the polar bears in the near future(long before the melting of the ice in the Arctic region). So the scientists are taking may new theories and concepts to stop this.

                                Here I'm giving my own concept/ theory to save those polar bears.

                                Polar bears are found in these regions-  Arctic region, Greenland, Russia, Canada, Alaska, Svalbard.

                               To make an theory about the conservation of the polar bears, we have to figure out the factors related to the polar bears. the factors are-

             1. The environmental changes- As the time goes the thickness of the ice layers are getting less to lesser.

             2. Hunting- People hunt them to reduce the unwanted attacks from them, and also for the oil and the skin.

            3. Food crisis- People not only kill the polar bears but also kill other small/large animals for there needs. this makes a huge impact on the Arctic life food chain. and since polar bears are in the top of this chain, so it effects them the most.

   

       MY PROJECT - 

REQUIRED AREA AND PRIMARY NEEDS FOR THAT AREA-

mother bear playing with it's cub

                    We have to choose a quite big place, about 1000 sq km. Obviously it'll be a polar area, and must have the same climate just like where they used to live. it helps them to live freely. Now we have to make sure that the place is completely secure from the poachers and the common people. Now we need to arrange the preys for them,  seal is the primary diet for the polar bears. so it's necessary that the chosen place must be a place where seals used to come. and also we can try for many kind of fishes. now we fit 24 hours running automatic cameras. so we can watch the family's every move.

WORK-

               Here the real work comes. we have to collect a polar bear family consisting of the mother and her children. then we examine them, to see if they are all healthy enough to adopt. Now if they are enough healthy, then we take them, otherwise we collect another family. Now the chosen family will be shifted to our chosen area. now we will watch them every hour and see if they have facing any problem. Here not only we can just watch them and give safety to them, but also we can do some research work about them, work like, we can observe them every single minutes to know more about them and find the difference and the common factors between them and the other bears. this might help us to know about the evolution of the polar bear which is still a mystery. Now we observed that family till the cubs are ready to leave the family, when  those cubs leave the family, we take them and send them to there real place. 

polar bear family

WHAT HELP WE GET FROM THIS- 

• we can do more research works about the polar bears.
• we can observed more clearly that how the polar bears teach their cubs.
• we can ensure increase of two or three or four new adult polar bears in the planet.
• we can control and able to stop the poachers from poaching.
• after doing this for the 1st time, we can continue this process and that time we may do it in a large scale. this surely helps us to increase the number of polar bears.

    If you like my concept or have any problem or new thought, please share.

WHITE TIGER MYSTERY SOLVED BY SCIENTISTS

           The milky coats of the white Bengal tigers are caused by a single change in a know pigment gene, a new study has found. for long time the cause of this coats of the white tigers are mystery. now, scientists have discovered that their spectacular white coats are produced by a single change in a known pigment gene. " The white tiger represents part of the natural genetic diversity of the tiger that is worth conserving." said Shu-Jin Luo of the China's Peking University.

MYSTERIOUS COSMIC IMPACT CAUSES THE EXTINCTION OF THE WOOLLY MAMMOTHS??

                                           Woolly mammoths may have died as a result of the climate change following a major cosmic impact near the end of the Ice Age. A catastrophic event in Earth's history around 12,800 years ago, scorched the air, melted bedrock and altered the course of the Earth's history, researchers said. However, exactly what happened then, still unclear. Researchers say a comet may have scraped our planet's atmosphere or a meteorite may have slammed into the Earth's surface, causing global combustion. The researchers have found ample evidence to support their theory.
                                          

The Life Of The Polar Bear Cubs

THE LIFE OF THE POLAR BEAR CUBS

                                                  Polar bear baby cubs usually born in December or in early January in their den. Usually they born in pairs; though it is seen that there are three cubs or one cub, but it is almost rare that there are four cubs. A traditional area of these dens is called Bogan Valley. These dens are find just below the Ridge of Retzuis mountain, which is in Svalbard.

                                        We know that polar bears are the one of the largest and deadliest carnivore of the bear family. But it is very funny that cubs of the polar bears are very much opposite. They are very much dependent and helpless. It is seen that male cubs are bigger than the female cubs.

INFORMATION ABOUT THOSE DENS-
                                        When the ice floes break up in the fall, ending the possibility of hunting, each of the pregnant females digs a suitable dens. Each of these dens has one or two narrow entrance tunnel which leads their main chambers. Each den has one to three chambers. These dens usually are in the snowdrifts, but they may also be made underground in permafrost[1] if it is not sufficiently cold enough yet for snow. Normally these dens are situated on the land which is a few kilometers away from the seacoasts. Those who do not have den on the land, they have their den on the sea ice.

BIRTH OF THE CUBS-
                                        Within the middle of November, the female polar bears entered their den and closed the entrance tunnel of the den. There she enters a dormant state similar to hibernation[2]. This hibernation-like state does not consist of continuous sleeping; but in this time the heart rate of the polar bear slows down from 46 to 27 beats per minute. the body temperature of the polar bears do not decrease in this time. In this meantime female polar bears give birth to their children.

LIFE AT THE DEN-
                                                  New-born baby cubs are of around 12 inches long and of the weight around 450-690 g. New-born cubs are born in the den with no sense. They are deaf for the first 24 hours, they are blind for the first one week. Their smelling and walking ability do not develop for several weeks. After two months they will have grown a thick and protective fur. Their teeth emerged and they have the ability to walk but not in the outside, only inside the den. This den is for protection and it also provides a means of conservation of mother's heat. Mother polar bear never left their cubs alone in this time.

LIFE OUTSIDE THE DEN(EARLY STAGE)-
                                         When the weight of the cubs are around 23-35 pound, which takes almost 90 days after birth, mother polar bear breaks open those entrance tunnel and get out of the den. Cubs also get out with the mother. Though it is too early for them to leave the den completely. The cubs and their mother used to roam near the den for almost two weeks after they came out of the den, sometimes it takes more than two weeks. In this meantime, the cubs used to be familiar with the world outside den and they also develop their walking muscle in this time. Though they are starting to wander outside the den, they remain in the den around 85% of the time during this early stage of life. In this stage of life they never sleep outside the den.

LIFE OUTSIDE THE DEN(LATER STAGE)-
                                        When the cubs walking muscles are ready enough to walk in the snow without falling, mother polar bear first take them to the sea, and introduce them to the sea. If the sea is far from the den,or the family trapped into deep ice fall or open water, sometimes mother bear carry their cubs on their backs. Till the age of 18 months the cubs need intensive cares from their mother. After they crossed their age of 18 months, though they do not need intensive cares from their mother, they cannot live their life alone. Till the age of 30 months, they used to live with their mother. after that they started their new life, without their mother. After leaving the mother polar bear sibling use to live together for sometimes and hunt and share food. After some more time they used to live alone.

DIET-

                                In the early stage of life when the cubs live inside the den they just drink mother's rich-fat milk; this milk has a taste of the cord liver and the smell of the seal and fish. The milk of the polar bear is richer than the milk of the whale and contains more protein than the milk of the seal. When the polar bear cubs are starting to go to the sea coasts with their mother, they first introduced to the solid food. In this time the cubs' diet is mother's rich milk and seal blubbers. After the age of 15-18 months the cubs are gone completely carnivore.

HUNTING-

                                      Before the age of eight months they are not able to learn hunting. After eight months when they are use to go outside with their mother, they use to learn the way of hunting. Generally they first learn to hunt seals. They develop their hunting skills by watching their mother, hunting seals. But they need a lot of time to perfectly execute this technique. 

THREATS-

                                    The only threat for an adult polar bear is the human. Human hunts polar bears for their body parts. We will discuss about this in my later posts. Though human is not the threats for the polar bear cubs, they have many other threats. Their first threat is starvation.Since they are completely dependent on their  mother, So, before their birth, if mother polar bears cannot find enough food for them, then that winter becomes the last winter of the mother and the cubs. Their next threat is being hunted by other animals.    In the beginning of the life, when they live their 85% time of life in the den, sometimes mother polar bears go outside the den for collecting food, in this time, some other carnivore take the cubs with them for their diet. And their final threat is the adult male polar bear. It is seen that male polar bears sometimes kill the cubs. Though I do not find any confirm information about this killing, but I think the males kills the cubs to be in a relation with the mother polar bears. As far the female polar bears are with their child they are not ready for breeding. So males kill the cubs to be in a relation with the female.

WORDS-

permafrost[1] = soil at or below the the freezing point of the water for two or more years

hibernation[2] = to pass the winter in a dormant state

THE EVOLUTION OF POLAR BEAR

                                              In present days, Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are generally found in the Denmark (Greenland), Norway (Svalbard), Russia, United States (Alaska) and Canada. Previously many papers are published about the evolution of the polar bears. Many of them said that polar bears were evolved from the brown bears; the polar bears were separated from the brown bears about 150,000 years ago. There is another theory that polar bears were evolved from the grizzly bears, and they were separated from the grizzly bears about 600,000 years ago. My paper is not about those ideas; rather it is a new concept of the evolution of the polar bears.

BASIC CONCEPT OF MY THEOREM

                                                 My concept of the theorem is that the polar bear was evolved from the cave bears ((Ursus spelaeus). Cave bears lived in the earth about 5.3 million years ago to 11,000 years ago. Now they are extinct. I shall give some points to establish my concept.

HABITAT

                                        The cave bear's range stretched across Europe; from Spain and Great Britain in the west, Italy, parts of Germany, Poland, the Balkans, Romania and parts of Russia, including the Caucasus; and northern Iran. The largest numbers of cave bear remains have been found in Austria, Switzerland, southern Germany, northern Italy, northern Spain, Croatia, Hungary, and Romania. The huge number of bones found in southern, central and Eastern Europe has led some scientists to think Europe may have once had literally herds of cave bears.

                                             Therefore we conclude that, after every generation the number of cave bears were increasing in a high rate or may be in a very high rate. So clearly the next generations need more places for their habitat and diet. So they migrate- Some of them migrate to the northern sides, then at 2.58 million years ago the ice age happened and ice sheets were established in Northern Europe, Antarctica and Greenland. After this they stayed in those icy cold areas.

BODY, SKELETON & PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

                                               Here I’m giving some points for establishing my theory.                                        

The average weight for males(cave bears) was 400-500 kilograms or 880-1102 pounds, and for females (cave bears) was 225-250 kilograms or 496-551 pounds where the weight for males(polar bears) is 350-500 kilograms or 700-1500 pounds, and for females (polar bears) is 150-250 kilograms or 330-550 pounds. The most important point to be noted that, in the cases of both bears we can see the weight ratio of the males and females is 2:1.

If we compare the skeletons of the cave bears and polar bears, then we can find that skeletons are very similar.

The cave bears had a very broad domed skull with a steep forehead. Now if we study the skulls of the polar bears we can see they also have a very broad domed skull with a steep forehead.

      

ADOPTATION OF POLAR BEARS

                                        We know that polar bears have a great adaptation history.  Here are they-

SMALL AND ROUNDED EARS- Polar bears have small and rounded ears which help them to prevent the cold water from entering the bear’s ears and freezing their eardrums. This also helps conserve body warmth in sub-zero temperature.

LONG STIFF HAIR BETWEEN PADS OF THE BEAR’S FEET- It protects their feet from the cold and provides traction on the ice. It helps them to swim in the cold icy water and also helps them from slipping on the slippery ice. Their hair usually shakes free any water on ice formed after swimming.

HOLLOW FUR- It traps air inside, thus making the bear buoyant in water. The layer of air provides insulation between their warm bodies and the cold Arctic air & water. Insulation provided is lost when fur is covered with oil.

THICK LAYER OF FAT (BLUBBER) UNDER SKIN- It is up to 11 cm thick. It insulates bear from Arctic cold. Though it make some problems also. It causes the overheating. To prevent in warm days or after some physical works. If they are over heated, they release the heat from the body through areas where fur is absent or where blood vessels are close to the skin. Examples- muzzle, nose, ear, foot, pads, inner thighs, shoulders.

SKIN UNDER THE FUR IS BLACK- This is to ensure that the polar bear has a better heat retention rate.

                                        So we arrived to the vital question, that how this huge evolution happened within a very short time of period (respect to the evolution history).

                                        Here it’s my theory about that evolution- The population of the cave bears getting larger and larger, now from the theory of Charles Darwin we conclude that, over population creates the insufficiency of food and habitat: resulting in struggle for existence. So the relatively weak group/groups of cave bears have to migrate to other places for food and habitat. In this migration, one or more than one group migrate to the northern side of the Europe, the Antarctica and Greenland. They started their journey of life there. Then about 2.58 million years ago the ice age happened, and the whole Antarctica, Greenland and the northern Europe completely covered with ice. Permanently great ice sheet established there. Clearly that was not a favourable condition for living.  Now, as the time passed, their population getting higher again and they faced the problem of insufficient food and habitat. The climate is already against them. So these occurs,

Over population + natural destruction à struggle for existence

Struggle for existence+ confinementà  balance of nature

Balance of nature + change in conditionà struggle for existence

Struggle for existence+ beneficial variationà natural selection

Natural selection+ time à speciation

Explanation:

                                   As the time passed the population of those group of cave bears were getting larger and larger, and in the other hand ice covered the whole lands. Clearly the nature was against them. So, over population and natural destruction causes struggle for existence.

                                 This struggle for existence and their confinement in the in Northern Europe, Antarctica and Greenland causes a balance of nature. As the ice sheets completely disjoint the Northern Europe, Antarctica and Greenland from the world, so a completely new and separated eco-system created there and this was balanced.

                                 In this new eco-system some changes happened in the physical condition of the cave bears. These changes in physical conditions and natural conditions of cave bears cause changes in the organic conditions of the cave bears. So after some generation there exist cave bears whose physical and organic conditions are not the same. So in the new eco-system there exist cave bears with different variations. In the way of life it causes another struggle for existence.

                                  This struggle for existence was about the existence of the better mutating cave bears. So in this fight of existence the beneficial variation wins. That is, those cave bears whose variation were favourable in those conditions were selected by the nature

                                  The chosen variation of the nature only survives there and others were extinct. Thus as the time goes that chosen variation created a new species. The species called polar bear.

DIET –

                                   The morphological features of the cave bear chewing apparatus, including loss of premolars, have long been suggested to indicate their diets displayed a higher degree of herbivore than the Eurasian brown bear. Indeed a solely vegetarian diet has been inferred on the basis of tooth morphology. Results obtained on the stable isotopes of cave bear bones also point to a largely vegetarian diet in having low levels of nitrogen-15 and carbon-13, which are accumulated at a faster rate by carnivores as opposed to herbivores. However, some evidence points toward the occasional inclusion of animal protein in cave bear diets. For example, toothmarks on cave bear remains in areas where cave bears are the only recorded potential carnivores suggests occasional cannibalistic scavenging. So we conclude that the cave bears were omnivorous, or at least they were not completely vegetarian. Therefore when it is necessary, they can be carnivore.

                               Now we all know, polar bears are completely carnivorous.

       Now here is my concept about the evolution of cave bears into polar bears-

                                      After the glacial period, they total northern Europe, Greenland and Antarctica completely covered with ice sheet. So the temperature went too low, and all the plants died. So the only thing for diet remains, were animal proteins. Since cave bears were omnivorous, they had no problem for taking animal protein for diet.

WHY POLAR BEARS ARE NOT EVALUATED FROM GRIZZLY OR BROWN BEARS-

                                       According to my theory, polar bears came to earth about 1.5 to 1 million years ago. And they came from the cave bears. Whereas grizzly bears are very junior to them. The brown bears came to the earth almost at the same time of the time of the polar bears. Now we know at the ice age period the arctic sea was completely frozen. Now I believe, at that time some troops of the brown bears migrate there, and they entered the territory of the polar bears. There those two different types of bears met to each other. And after breeding they started a new species, its grizzly bears.

                                      Now from the concept of heredity of Mendel, we know that the characteristic of the paternal and maternal genes take part in the time of breeding. Now grizzly bear were the half-breed of the polar bear and brown bear. Hence in the DNA of grizzly bear some characteristic of brown bear and some characteristic of polar bear dominant there.

                                      Scientists find that the mitochondrial DNA of polar bear is very much similar to the mitochondrial DNA of grizzly bear, so they consider the fact that polar bears evolved from grizzly bear. Though I believe, grizzly bears are evolved from the polar bears.

                             Hence polar bears are evolved from the cave bears.