Page 22 - Canadian Geographic

DISCOV
DISCOVERYERY

WILDLIFE
WILDLIFE

EPIC EXFOLIATION

Canadian scientists have found evidence that bowhead whales
in Cumberland Sound, Nunavut, shed their dead skin by rub-
bing against large rocks. Researchers with the University of
British Columbia’s Marine Mammal Research Unit who saw the
whales engage in the previously undocumented behaviour said
that it appears to help the mammals slough off dead skin, along
with any accumulated micro-algae and parasites, which in turn
may help maintain a healthy appearance and improve skin func-
tion by stimulating the growth of new tissue.

Protarctos abstrusus ‘This is

The name of a 3.5-million-year-old species of bear whose defi nitely
fossilized cavity-ridden teeth have prompted scientists a good
to suggest that bears have long adapted to life in cold
climates by eating plenty of sugar. Researchers from the news story.’
Canadian Museum of Nature and the Natural History
Museum of Los Angeles County unearthed the fossils Marcel Gahbauer, co-chair
in the Canadian High Arctic and theorize that much of the Committee on the
like its modern-day Status of Endangered Wildlife in
cousin, the American Canada’s birds specialist subcom-
black bear, Protarctos mittee, reacts after the committee
abstrusus probably announced that the peregrine falcon is no longer at risk of extinc-
filled up on berries in tion throughout most of Canada. The bird has been on the endan-
the fall to pack on body fat gered species list since 1978 and could be removed from it if the
for hibernation. federal government acts on the committee’s recommendation.

% The amount by which vehicle collisions

with wildlife in Banff National Park have
been reduced in the 20 years since the fi rst wildlife overpass was ‘Tuna have been completely
built there. Scientists have come from around the world to learn off our radar. We are wired to
how to adapt and implement similar crossings in their own think of them only as food,
countries over the past two decades, buoying Banff biologists to
rock-star status in the realm of transportation ecology. not extraordinary wildlife.’ CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: VDOS GLOBAL LLC; CHRISTINA ANNE MCCALLUM/CAN GEO PHOTO CLUB;

Canadian fi lmmaker John Hopkins on the plight of the
bluefi n tuna, the subject of his recently released documentary
fi lm Bluefi n. Scientists estimate that the number of bluefi n
tuna has been reduced by as much as 90 per cent oceanwide,
largely due to overfi shing and declining forage fi sh stocks. PARKS CANADA; MAURICIO ANTÓN

Read the latest wildlife stories at
cangeo.ca/topic/wildlife

22 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2018