Goose

• In the fourth quarter of 2023, the Otjikoto Mine produced a quarterly record of 81,111 ounces of gold.
• For the fourth quarter of 2023, the Otjikoto Mine's cash operating costs were $451 per gold ounce produced ($503 per ounce gold sold).
• All-in sustaining costs for the Otjikoto Mine for the fourth quarter of 2023 were $816 per gold ounce sold.
• Gold production at Otjikoto is expected to be relatively consistent throughout 2024.

• It's noteworthy that Honk is the nemesis of Bonk, another meme featuring a dog with a baseball bat.
• This rivalry extends to the crypto world, as Bonk is also a memecoin on the Solana blockchain with a significant market capitalization.
• Given the popularity of geese in memes, $HONK could initiate a third phase, positioning itself as the Shiba Inu of Solana.
• As community support played a pivotal role in the success of Shiba Inu, Honk appears to have a promising future.

• Operation Northern Fur's goal was to dismantle a network of illegal wildlife trade activities both within Canada, and between Canada and the United States.
• Operation Northern Fur resulted in charges for illegally importing, exporting, and transporting wildlife.
• Created in 1995, the Environmental Damages Fund is a Government of Canada program administered by Environment and Climate Change Canada.
• The Fund directs monies received from fines, penalties, court orders, and voluntary payments to projects that will repair environmental damage or benefit the environment.

• Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) take advantage of the winter to build up their fat reserves.
• Intensive hunting of seals, a resource rich in fat, allows bears to store up enough energy to get through the summer.
• The adaptations that bears will have to make to meet the challenges brought about by climate change are numerous and unpredictable.

An unusual sighting – a polar bear in fresh water

• Some 80 km from the Inuit community of Mittimatalik, the Bylot Island field station was bustling with activity.
• Today, scientists from a variety of backgrounds scour the Quarliktuvik valley floor, which is generally flat, to study the soil, water, plants and wildlife.

• The image was foggy, but what I initially thought were two colleagues walking side by side, turned out to be the distinctive shape of a polar bear.
• Everyone in our group had the necessary protective equipment — bear spray, anti-bear cartridges and sometimes even a rifle — but I alerted them by radio and immediately returned to the field station.
• They waded in quickly enough to keep the bear, who was swimming on the surface, at a safe distance.
• 1:45 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.: the bear swims in the lake […], makes 4 dives to try to catch a goose.
• During the afternoon, the bear used this technique two more times, once failing and once with success.

What are the benefits of this behaviour for bears?

• Nowhere in the scientific literature is there any mention of such behaviour.
• At best, there are reports of attacks on murres in the ocean near the coasts, an environment very different from the calm, shallow ponds where we observed the bear’s attacks.
• the time the bear spent swimming and its success in hunting, allowed us to answer this question.

An energy boost, but far from sufficient

• First of all, a goose provides relatively little energy — around 200 times less than a ringed seal weighing 45 kilograms.
• Hunting geese could therefore be of benefit to certain bears from time to time, but on a population-wide scale, it will not alleviate the energy deficits caused by the melting ice pack.

David Bolduc received funding from the NSTP and the Canadian Association for Humane Trapping. Matthieu Weiss-Blais received funding from NSERC, FRQNT and NSTP.