Posted on Dec 24, 2022
Polar bears in a key region of Canada are in sharp decline, a new survey shows
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https://www.npr.org/2022/12/23/ [login to see] /polar-bears-canada-hudson-bay-dropping
Polar bears in Canada's Western Hudson Bay — on the southern edge of the Arctic — are continuing to die in high numbers, a new government survey of the land carnivore has found. Females and bear cubs are having an especially hard time.
Researchers surveyed Western Hudson Bay — home to Churchill, the town called "the Polar Bear Capital of the World," — by air in 2021 and estimated there were 618 bears, compared to the 842 in 2016, when they were last surveyed.
Polar bears in Canada's Western Hudson Bay — on the southern edge of the Arctic — are continuing to die in high numbers, a new government survey of the land carnivore has found. Females and bear cubs are having an especially hard time.
Researchers surveyed Western Hudson Bay — home to Churchill, the town called "the Polar Bear Capital of the World," — by air in 2021 and estimated there were 618 bears, compared to the 842 in 2016, when they were last surveyed.
Polar bears in a key region of Canada are in sharp decline, a new survey shows
Posted from npr.org
Canada
Wildlife
Posted >1 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Young bears need energy to grow and cannot survive long periods without enough food and female bears struggle because they expend so much energy nursing and rearing offspring.
"It certainly raises issues about the ongoing viability," Derocher said. "That is the reproductive engine of the population."
The capacity for polar bears in the Western Hudson Bay to reproduce will diminish, Atkinson said, "because you simply have fewer young bears that survive and become adults."
..."Young bears need energy to grow and cannot survive long periods without enough food and female bears struggle because they expend so much energy nursing and rearing offspring.
"It certainly raises issues about the ongoing viability," Derocher said. "That is the reproductive engine of the population."
The capacity for polar bears in the Western Hudson Bay to reproduce will diminish, Atkinson said, "because you simply have fewer young bears that survive and become adults."
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