© Flora Rexford Ruby Kaleak heads out on polar bear patrol in Kaktovik, Alaska.
She was on duty Friday in the village of 300 people when a call came over the radio that a bear was inside a doorway, the Alaska Dispatch News reported ( ). Kaleak heard two whispered words: "Qanitchaq, nanuq," which in Inupiat means "arctic entryway, polar bear," referring to the home's narrow covered porch that serves as a barrier to the cold.
"They didn't say where or who," Kaleak said. "I thought that one of the young boys in town was pulling a prank." Armed with a 12-gauge shotgun that can fire rounds of beanbags, firecrackers or lethal slugs, Kaleak and a co-worker drove to a house where the call may have originated.
That's where she saw a shadow in the home's entryway that made her pause. Then, the head of a big polar bear popped up. "I was shocked. It was humongous," Kaleak said. "Just the neck and head was half the size of me, and I'm 5 (feet) 2 (inches)." The bear was feasting on a drum of seal oil in the entryway of 81-year-old Betty Brower's home, said Flora Rexford, Brower's granddaughter.
Comment: For more information about the corruption of science, check out:
- The Corruption of Science in America
- Biosafety and the Seralini affair: Systemic corruption of science and regulation
- Corruption of Science: When scientists give up
And don't panic!