Polar bears aren’t hunting people, they’re just out of the ice: scientists
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For years, people living in Canada’s north have reported increasing numbers of polar bears on the coast, entering communities and encountering humans.
Researchers theorized that the bears were starving, forced ashore by shrinking sea ice to seek something to eat, possibly people.
When bears were removed from the ice, they also lost access to their favorite food source, ringed seal cubs, which forage and live on the ice.
But an 11-year study by researchers at the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Manitoba shows that sea ice shrinkage does play a role, but not in the way that people thought.
“What we saw was not skinny bears coming around,” said Douglas Clark, a professor in the School of Environment and Sustainability at the U of S.
“What we saw was that the longer they stayed away from the snow, the more likely it was that bears of all body conditions, classes, and all ages and sexes were going to be there,” Clark said. cbc The Morning Edition.
In other words, bears were encountering people more often because they were on shore more often.
Clark first began monitoring bears 15 years ago, setting up trail cameras at several locations in Wapusk National Park along the Hudson Bay, near Churchill, Man.
Parks Canada had noticed that bears were being attracted to some of the new regional camps, and they wanted to find out what was happening and whether the bears were seeking out people for food – or as a way to get by.
Clark, a polar bear scientist, was a former park warden with over 30 years of experience working with and studying polar bears in the Hudson Bay region.
Ultimately he and fellow researchers compiled 11 years of data, observed more than 500 polar bear visits, measured sea ice and compared that information to nearby human activity to figure out why the bears were having more encounters with people.
His comments, published recently arctic scienceTurns out bears don’t care about people.
They often lived around humans as sea ice was shrinking due to climate change, forcing them to stay near shore more frequently and for longer periods of time and closer to the people who lived and worked there.
Although some bears were hungry, they did not appear to be hunting humans.
“When things get really bad it’s really the disproportionately underweight, thin adult males. They’re very dangerous bears,” Clark said.
“So nutritional stress does play a role. It’s just that it doesn’t seem to have the role we thought, it’s just pushing bears into communities en masse.”
Alex Crawford, an assistant professor in the U of M’s Department of Environment and Geography who worked on the research, said it’s important to understand that polar bears didn’t become more predatory toward humans because they weren’t getting enough food.
Crawford said, “As sea ice declines, you would expect polar bears to interact more with humans because they would spend more time on shore. That’s still true. But it’s not just that those that are less healthy would be more likely to seek out humans.”
Like Clark, Crawford said a hungry polar bear attacking a person is still extremely dangerous.
“If they’re desperate they’re more likely to either look for your food or look for you as food.”
Crawford said the research project will continue to compile information on polar bears to see if long-term changes to their habitat and food supply ultimately change their behavior.
