I have been privileged enough to volunteer with Polar Bear
International (PBI), a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving polar
bears through research and education for the past several years. I just returned from visiting the town of
Churchill, Manitoba to experience the wild polar bears. My role while I was there is to go on the
tundra buggies with Frontiers North and talk to the guests about PBI and the role
of zoos in research and education. It is
also a time for me to learn more about current research from world renowned
scientists. Most importantly through, I try
to inspire the guests to remember that our everyday actions can and do make a
difference in the world around us.
This year was my third year volunteering with PBI in
Churchill, and I always leave feeling fortunate to be able to see bears in the
wild and inspired to make sure other generations can enjoy the same experience
I had. The previous two years, I had
also left feeling a bit disheartened about the state of bears in the wild, as
well as the evidence that the world is warming and its effects. However, most concerning is how little is
being done to combat this. In these
previous years, I met some resistance discussing climate change and polar bear
populations; however, this year the discussions felt different. This year, I left with a new feeling of
hope. As I interacted with the guests on
the buggies, I fielded a new surge of questions, which were widely centered on
how the western Hudson Bay population of bears can adapt or change to survive.
While some of these questions/ideas were unrealistic, I could not help feeling
that the message—these bears are in trouble—was getting out to the public. People were starting to listen and think,
“What if?” What if all this talk about
climate change is happening, and what if there is something I can do. The science behind climate and mathematical
models are very complicated and hard to interpret, but at least people are
questioning, listening, and hopefully most importantly, doing. So this year, I left feeling once again
inspired and fortunate, but also hopeful. Hopeful that my daughter could one
day have the same feeling I had when I saw a wild polar bear in its natural
environment.
-Zookeeper Julie
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