Science Diary: Bears – Distress

music; ambience bear cub distress

You don’t have to be a grizzly bear to recognize that this cub is unhappy. Welcome to Pulse of the Planet’s Science Diaries, a glimpse of the world of science from the inside.

JW: “It’s what you would call a scream. It’s actually very harsh on the ears. We don’t know how the mom gets any rest at all, really.”

Jasmine Ware is a PhD student at Washington State University, where a team of researchers is studying grizzly bear behavior. This 2-day-old cub is a new resident at WSU’s Bear Center.

[ambience]

JW: It definitely gets your attention not only the mom’s, but you know, anyone else that happens to be around, so it’s not necessarily that they’ve fallen out of the little bedding area. The mom makes a bed, and they all sit in there together. Especially at this age, it’s a rare event when you actually get to see the cubs the mom is laying over them, allowing them to have access to her milk, and she doesn’t really do a lot of moving. So, you may not even see that the mom has moved, but you’ll just start hearing screams and squeals. It’s most likely that they have gotten beaten out to milk by their brother or sister. Sometimes I’ve even thought I was hearing like a small child scream. It’s similar. You know, it’s very high pitched. You definitely don’t hear that in an adult bear. In adult bears it’s more of kind of a low groan, or they’ll clack their teeth together when they’re afraid. They won’t scream or squeal.”

[ambience]

The Bear Center inherits orphans, and so-called “problem-bears” from places like Yellowstone, and these bears provide scientists with insights that are difficult, if not impossible, to obtain in the wild.

Please visit our website a pulseplanet.com. Pulse of the Planet’s Science Diaries are made possible by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

Science Diary: Bears - Distress

Like human babies, hungry bear cubs express their dismay with an attention-getting scream.
Air Date:05/04/2009
Scientist:
Transcript:

music; ambience bear cub distress

You don't have to be a grizzly bear to recognize that this cub is unhappy. Welcome to Pulse of the Planet's Science Diaries, a glimpse of the world of science from the inside.

JW: "It's what you would call a scream. It's actually very harsh on the ears. We don't know how the mom gets any rest at all, really."

Jasmine Ware is a PhD student at Washington State University, where a team of researchers is studying grizzly bear behavior. This 2-day-old cub is a new resident at WSU's Bear Center.

[ambience]

JW: It definitely gets your attention not only the mom's, but you know, anyone else that happens to be around, so it's not necessarily that they've fallen out of the little bedding area. The mom makes a bed, and they all sit in there together. Especially at this age, it's a rare event when you actually get to see the cubs the mom is laying over them, allowing them to have access to her milk, and she doesn't really do a lot of moving. So, you may not even see that the mom has moved, but you'll just start hearing screams and squeals. It's most likely that they have gotten beaten out to milk by their brother or sister. Sometimes I've even thought I was hearing like a small child scream. It's similar. You know, it's very high pitched. You definitely don't hear that in an adult bear. In adult bears it's more of kind of a low groan, or they'll clack their teeth together when they're afraid. They won't scream or squeal."

[ambience]

The Bear Center inherits orphans, and so-called "problem-bears" from places like Yellowstone, and these bears provide scientists with insights that are difficult, if not impossible, to obtain in the wild.

Please visit our website a pulseplanet.com. Pulse of the Planet's Science Diaries are made possible by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.