For polar bears, summertime is definitely not when the living is easy.
They are apex predators, mighty hunters, and as Inuit and research scientists have long known, they prefer a good fatty meal of seal, caught from the sea ice.
But during the times of the year when there is no sea ice — and those times are getting longer, due to human-caused climate change — pickings are much more meagre.
In a new study published Tuesday in Nature Communications led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), scientists used GPS tracking, video collars, blood chemistry and other data to track the lives of 20 polar bears over three summer weeks near Churchill, Man.
Some bears, as expected, stayed on land and did very little, conserving energy and living off fat reserves, almost like hibernation.
Twenty bears were fitted with camera collars and tracked using GPS for about three weeks each, to see what they ate and did when they couldn’t use sea ice to hunt. Some foraged much of the day, roaming and swimming, but others stayed put on land to conserve energy. (Anthony Pagano/U.S. Geological Survey)
Others scrambled for food, foraging for berries and plants, chomping on antlers or birds — or in the case of one three-year-old female, swimming a remarkable total of 175 kilometres in the cold waters of Hudson Bay, stopping to rest on a beluga carcass that she briefly tried to eat.
An impressive range of tactics, but nevertheless, nearly every bear lost weight — an average of about a kilogram per day.
“What we found was that they had all these different behaviours and a lot of energetic strategies and none of that was able to prevent weight loss,” said co-author Karyn Rode, a research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center who has studied polar bears for more than 25 years.
“What our study was really getting at was what are the limitations to polar bears’ ability to adapt.”
WATCH | Collar footage shows how bears eat: [embedded content]
Risk of starvation on land
Polar bears do have a reputation as resilient creatures, adaptable or even opportunistic as predators.
In a 2022 report from Polar Knowledge Canada, Inuit knowledge keepers from the Nunavut communities of Pangnirtung and Kimmirut shared how bear movements change without ice.
“When the sea ice is formed the bears are out on the ice more. When the ice is gone you cannot tell where the bears are,” said Joe Arlooktoo of Kimmirut in the report, noting it depends on where their prey is.
An image captured by one a camera collars shows several bears on the beach near Churchill. During the study period that tracked the bears for about three weeks in August and September, some roamed the shoreline looking for food. (U.S. Geological Survey)
The new study was inspired in part by observations from Arctic communities, said Rode. Those observations prompted the scientists from USGS, Washington State University and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to quantify those movements, in terms of energy and food intake.
The tracking only lasted about three weeks for each bear, during August and September of 2019, 2021 and 2022.
But the researchers also calculated what might come next: how long the bears could go on if they didn’t find more calories somewhere.
Some had the fat reserves to survive, but others, the numbers suggest, would approach starvation before the end of November. That’s when, on average over the previous decade, the sea ice reforms in western Hudson Bay.
Only one of the 20 bears, a young male polar bear, gained weight during the study.
While his video collar failed, blood tests showed the four-year-old scored the one high-fat food source polar bears might find on land: a large marine mammal carcass that washed up, likely a seal or beluga.
“Unless they can encounter something like that, we wouldn’t anticipate that the weight loss we saw would be any different during other parts of the year when they’re on land,” said Rode.
University of Alberta professor Andrew Derocher, who did not take part in this research but peer-reviewed the paper, has studied polar bears across the Arctic for more than 40 years, and first wrote about how climate change impacts polar bears three decades ago.
He says the new study takes an “elegant approach,” pulling together many types of data to confirm what ice-free periods mean for polar bears.
“There’s really very little indication that there’s enough food on land for polar bears to make a living,” said Derocher.
Biologist Andrew Derocher has studied polar bears in Hudson Bay and elsewhere for more than 40 years. When he started, he said the population there was ‘fat and happy,’ but more recently, declining sea ice has made hunting more difficult. (Submitted by Andrew Derocher)
When he started work in Churchill in the 1980s, he says the bears were “fat and happy.”
On land, bears were killing birds, eating eggs, or foraging for plants, their teeth stained with blueberries. But they didn’t have to worry, he said, unlike some of the more vigorous, or perhaps desperate, foragers observed in the current study.
“The bears are doing what they’ve always done,” said Derocher.
“What’s clear from this … new study, is that whatever bag of tricks they’ve had, and they’ve been using them for probably thousands and thousands of years, it’s not gonna be enough.”
The polar bear lifestyle involves packing on weight when hunting is possible on the sea ice, says Derocher, a case of ‘survival of the fattest’ so the bear doesn’t starve when there’s not much other than plants and berries on the menu. (David McGeachy)
Limits of adaptation
Polar bears are classified as a species of special concern by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), and as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) — primarily due to loss of sea ice.
There are 19 recognized sub-populations of polar bears globally. While some have rebounded from hunting-related losses, there’s evidence two have already seen declines related to sea ice, according to the IUCN, including the western Hudson Bay group near Churchill.
“Another two to three decades of warming may be enough to push the population over the edge, where the rate of decline is accelerated and the population rapidly gets much smaller than it currently is,” said Derocher.
By mid-century, polar bears may not be able to survive as far south as Churchill, he said, a future also forecast in a 2012 review he co-authored with legendary polar bear researcher Ian Stirling.
There’s evidence of sea-ice related declines in two subpopulations of polar bears, including those of the western Hudson Bay, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. (Andrew Derocher )
Beyond cutting emissions to slow warming, Derocher says humans can help polar bears survive by limiting other types of mortality — like shooting problem bears. Some Arctic communities have followed the example of Churchill, Man., by securing garbage and using non-lethal tactics to keep bears away without killing them.
Further north, the prime hunting ground of sea ice will stick around longer, said Derocher, but it won’t be spared by climate change.
“Ultimately, the Arctic is warming in its totality and all populations are going to be affected by sea ice loss going forward in time.”
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
