Thursday, September 9, 2010

And There She Was...

I've been lucky enough to sleep at the bottom of a glacier.
Seward Glacier, in Alaska.
We set up the tent and emptied our bags of food and toiletries.
These smelly items were all locked away in the bear-proof shed.
(We didn't want to risk attracting any grizzlies to our tent as we slept!)
Any cooking had to be done in the "Kitchen Area".
This was another way of ensuring that bears would not be attracted too closely to sleeping people.
After we set up camp, we admired the view of the glacier. We wandered to the very edge of the glacier, reached out and touched it. The glacier looked a little like slushy ice, which had frozen and become hard and icy.
We found a group of people who had been catching halibut. One of them was a guy we had met on our travels through Alaska, so he returned to the campsite with us and we all sat down to a great feast of fresh fish, cooked over the coals. His clothes still stank of fish and he (wisely) decided not to sleep in the tent. He didn't want to wake up with a bear eating him! Luckily for everyone, he huddled down and slept in the bear-proof shed.
The next morning was clear and bright, perfect weather for climbing mountains.
We hiked up, up and forever up the hill which sat beside the glacier.
We reached tree-top level and kept climbing.
We hit the snow and kept climbing.
It took me a few falls before I got my snow climbing legs sorted.
Legs aching, lungs working overtime... we kept climbing.
... And then we met her.
Mother Bear.
Her twin cubs were playing happily in the snow.
They didn't care about us.
She did.
She stood. She wavered in the air.
She sniffed. She stared...
And then, she ran!
She ran at us! A bear was running right at us!
Suddenly, all of the bear talks didn't seem so crazy! What were we supposed to do? Climb on top of each other and call out in loud and scary voices....
Yeah, right! She was running at us!!!
And.... then... she stopped.
She seemed to shrug, turned and walked off.
While she ate and wandered around, our hearts
were smashing out of our chests.
Next question.
Do we go back? We had come too far... so, No.
We kept climbing.
When we finally stopped, we were at the top of the mountain. All we could see was white... Snowfields, nearby mountaintops, the glacier. We were alone, at the top of a glorious mountain. We hungrily devoured our picnic lunch and started to prepare for the descent.
Although we had hiked for hours to reach our picnic spot, the return journey lasted mere moments. We dived onto the surface of the snow and slid on our stomachs.
Every time I think of the adventures I've had, I realise how lucky I am.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Threatened Species Day

© Australian Museum

Today is National Threatened Species Day. This date commemorates the anniversary of the extinction of the thylacine. The last thylacine died in a Hobart Zoo in 1936.

The thylacine was a large marsupial with a large dog-like head. Females had a pouch, opening at the back. She would have up to four young in a litter. Even males had a partial pouch.

The thylacine’s fur was a yellow-brown colour. Across its back, were about 18 dark stripes. It had a short, stiff tail and short legs. Its jaws were powerful, filled with about 46 teeth. It is believed that thylacines hunted kangaroos and other marsupials as well as birds.

The thylacine lived all over Australia. After many thousands of years of existence, it was eventually only found in Tasmania. The severe reduction in population and ultimate extinction is most likely a direct result of humans.

In Australia in the past 200 years, about 17 mammals have become extinct. Australia has the highest rate of animal extinction in the world.