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| Female Grizzly paw ~250lbs |
On May 20th I held "paws" with a big ol' grizzly bear! Say what?! I NEVER in my life saw that coming. Hanging out with grizzly bears was not on my bucket-list, but I definitely just crossed it off :) One of Matt's professors, Dr. Chantal Vella, is a professor at WSU and is conducting research on grizzly bear insulin sensitivity. Matt, two of his classmates (Maddie and Emily), and I had the opportunity to help monitor the grizzly bear's fasting glucose levels. We helped move the bears from their enclosures to the procedure room and then drew blood to measure glucose levels. Let me tell you, moving an unconscious 500lb bear is no easy task! We worked with 4 bears, two males and two females. It was an incredible experience to say the least.
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| Gathering blood for a glucose test |
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| Maddie's counting the bear's heart rate |
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| Matt's waiting to draw blood |
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| Emily loving the bear <3 |
Here's a new fun fact for you! Did you know that a grizzly bear's heart rate varies with the breathing rate? When the bear inhales you hear the heart beating, but when the bear exhales, the heart beats stop. Isn't that crazy?! Not only was it fantastic to listen to a grizzly bear's heart beat, but hearing an unsteady heart beat was unnerving. We helped with 4 different bears, and the heart rate was around 30bpm - that's very low compared to humans. A-maz-ing! You learn something new every day!
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WSU Bear Center is working on quite a few research projects and you should check them out! The staff is wonderful and the bears are well cared for. If you are ever in Pullman, go visit the bears!
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