I feel like this should be in GD, but if this isn't news...




Polar bear genitals shrinking due to pollution
Shrinkage could endanger animals with already low reproduction rate

The icecap may not be the only thing shrinking in the Arctic. The genitals of polar bears in east Greenland are apparently dwindling in size due toindustrial pollutants.

Scientists report this shrinkage could, in the worst case scenario, endanger polar bears there and elsewhere by spoiling their love lives and causing their numbers to diminish.

In fact, all marine mammals could get affected by these pollutants, "especially the Arctic fox, killer whale and pilot whales," wildlife veterinarian and toxicologist Christian Sonne at the National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark in Roskilde told LiveScience. These animals bodies also carry extremely high levels of these contaminants.


Polar bears from northernmost Norway, western Russia and east Greenland are among the most polluted animals in the Arctic, as they feast on ringed seals and bearded seals. The blubber of these seals accumulates high levels of organic pollutants loaded with halogens such as chlorine. These organohalogens can act like hormones.

Sonne and his colleagues looked at formaldehyde-preserved genitals from 55 male and 44 female east Greenland polar bears, collected from 1999 to 2002 by about 30 polar bear subsistence hunters regulated by the Greenland government.

The adult polar bear testicles the researchers examined were on average roughly three inches across and 1.8 ounces in weight, although they could dramatically enlarge during the height of sexual activity from January to July. Their bacula, or penis bones, were on average nearly seven inches long.

The scientists found the higher the level of organohalogens in polar bear, the smaller testicle and baculum size and weight likely were. Ovary size and weight decreased as organohalogen levels rose as well.

Slow to mate
Polar bears have among the lowest reproductive rates for terrestrial mammals. The scientists say reducing polar bear penis size would make sex less successful, upsetting naturally slow-to-grow polar bear numbers. Testicle and ovary shrinkage would upset polar bear reproduction too.

Future research should examine the effects of low levels of organohalogen contamination, Sonne said. "How long do we have to go down in exposure levels to obtain no-effect levels? Is it possible at all?" he explained.

Sonne and his colleagues reported their findings online Aug. 16 via the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
© 2006 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

simple physics...its COLD

The bear on the pic seems ready to some buttsecks.

this one beats it

I was hoping this thread would be about more than some polar bears balls.

well, in a way does it matter? they are going to be extinct soon anyways . as long as it doesn't hurt them i don't see an issue

that is an absolutely fantastic lede.

I was in the pool!!

Not impressed by 7 inches:

that polar bear got a sweet tan

hehe too cute

I live in L.A. I guess I can blame the smog for my teenie weenie.

Wouldn't that qualify as anatomy?

I live in Boston, so what's my excuse? It's not like I swim in the Charles.

physics... derives from physiques, dummy.

uh wouldn't it physiology?

I'm glad my job isn't measuring polar bear balls.

"goochie goochie goo!"