Spoof Nobel Prize for dressing up as polar bears
Norwegian scientists won the Ig Nobel Award for investigating how reindeer react when they see people dressed up as polar bears.
The Ig Nobel Prize, a parody of the Nobel Prizes goes to scientists who have “done something that first makes people laugh, but then make them think”. Prizes are awarded in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace studies, health, engineering, art, Arctic research and economics.
The 2014 Prize for Arctic science went to Eigil Reimers and Sindre Eftestøl from the Department of Biology at the University in Oslo for the study “Response Behaviors of Svalbard Reindeer towards Humans and Humans Disguised as Polar Bears on Edgeøya.”
Although the Ig Nobel does not have the same status as its namesake prize, it has received considerable attention in the international media in the last few years. “The prize will give our article a larger audience than normal, and a bit of PR,”Professor Eigil Reimers says to the University in Oslo’s web site. Reimers admits that the news of the award was met with both surprise, pride, joy and a little chuckling.
First laugh, then think. The study, in which the scientists measured response distances for reindeer from a stalking polar bear and improvised five approaches from a person disguised as a polar bear for comparison with human encounters, is part of a larger project on how reindeer behave under different environmental conditions.
Since they were protected in 1973, the polar bear population on Svalbard has increased. In addition, melting Arctic sea ice has pushed polar bears to spend more time on land. This leads to more interactions with reindeer.
In the study, the scientists found that reindeer on Edgeøya fled longer when encountered by a person disguised as a polar bear compared to a person in dark hiking gear. This indicates that a predator-prey relationship has been established between reindeer and polar bears on Edgeøya. Reindeer on Edgeøya are more alert than reindeer in other parts of Svalbard, where there are not as many polar bears, Reimers explains.
Both Reimers and Eftestøl attended the award ceremony at Harvard University on September 19.
