Polar Bears vulnerable to extinction

It is tough being a polar bear! The northern, white bear is the poster child of the climate change movement. And it is known that polar bears have always had long, difficult summers with little food.

Studies have shown that because of longer summers due to warming temperatures, and receding sea ice, polar bears can lose an extra 2.2 lbs (1 kg) per day which they cannot afford to do.

Polar bear starvation can result when the ice breaks up early or when winter comes late. They are not like grizzly bears. When forced to live on land and eat fruits and berries like other bears, polar bears do not derive enough calories.

Hunting on the ice is the way polar bears survive as their primary diet is blubber-rich seals. Seals can usually escape when hunted underwater. But when polar bears catch them on the ice, the very fast ocean creature is ungainly, and at a disadvantage.

Thus, according to ScienceDaily.com U.S, Geological Survey Polar Bear Research Program lead author Anthony Pagano, "with increased land use [by polar bears], the expectation is that we'll likely see increases in starvation, particularly with adolescents and females with cubs."

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has also warned that thinning and disappearing sea ice is resulting in “increasing numbers of polar bears …spending longer periods in the summer open-water season along Arctic coastlines. Here, their powerful sense of smell attracts them to human communities: garbage, stored food, dog teams, and animal carcasses bring them into greater conflict with Arctic people.”

To try to save hungry bears, the WWF has instituted steel food storage containers for those who take advantage of spring low temperatures to store their food outside, as well as electric fences to protect dog sled teams.

Other alarming factors for the polar bear includes: destruction of food web chains; loss of fur insulation due to oil spills; poisoning from oil spills; and growing oil well numbers.

Scientists have estimated that 30 percent of the population has already disappeared since 1987. And it is now thought that the above factors, as well as climate change, will lead to a further decline in polar bear numbers of another 30 percent by 2050.

Polar Bear Capital of the World

Churchill, Manitoba, Canada is on a natural polar bear migration route, and has been called the polar bear capital of the world for the large bear. The Polar Bear Control Program, started in 1969 tries to keep both people and polar bears safe.

Starving bears come to town to scavenge food from the landfill and are driven off by conservation officers. In 1979 a new idea was also instituted.

If the same bear does not ‘get it’ after being scared off a few times, it is put in “polar bear jail”. This facility has grown to over 25 holding pens since 2006. Conservationists find that the inmates are commonly teenage bears (2 to 5 years old).

The idea is not to feed them, but to turn them loose after 30 days—by then most of the bears do not ever want to be in Churchill again. The polar bears are released 70 km north of Churchill once the summer season starts to wind down. By ice freeze up all have been released. Several thousand bears have been saved from being shot due to the program.

An advocate of polar bear northern community education, Kim Tichener of Polar Bears International,  has written “an empowered and informed community willing to make practical compromises can change the narrative and find a bit of grace for an animal that extends so much of it to us.”

February 27th is International Polar Bear Day. Learn more about polar bears.

Sources

Polar Bear. (2024). World Wildlife Fund. https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/polar-bear

Polar bears unlikely to adapt to longer summers. (2024, February 24). Science Daily: Washington State University.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/02/240213130402.htm#

Polar bear. (2024, February 26). Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_bear

Polar bears and climate change: What does the science say? (2022, December 7). Carbon Brief Ltd. https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/polar-bears-climate-change-what-does-science-say/

State of Grace: Coexisting with Polar Bears. (2023, October 13) Polar Bears International. https://polarbearsinternational.org/news-media/articles/coexisting-with-polar-bears

Churchill Polar Bear Alert Program protects both bears and humans. (2014, April 11). Churchill Wild. https://churchillwild.com/churchill-polar-bear-alert-program-protects-both-bears-and-humans/

Welcome to the polar bear capital of the world: ‘It’s kind of epic’. (2022, December 22). National Geographic Society. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/polar-bear-capital-of-the-world-hudson-bay-churchill