Number of polar bears in Canada declining due to climate
2022.12.29 01:15
Number of polar bears in Canada declining due to climate
Budrigannews.com – Hudson Bay in Western Canada (NYSE:) A government report released this week found that the population of bay polar bears has decreased by 27% in just five years, indicating that the animals are being affected by climate change.
As they make their way back to the sea ice each autumn, the bears that live along the western edge of the Bay pass through Churchill, Manitoba, a tourist town in the subarctic. The local bear-viewing industry is worth C$7.2 million ($5.30 million) annually, making it not only the best-studied but also the most well-known population in the world.
However, according to the Government of Nunavut’s assessment, there were only 618 bears left in 2021, a 50% decrease from the 1980s.
John Whiteman, chief research scientist at Polar Bears International, stated, “In some ways, it’s totally shocking.” The fact that these kinds of declines are those that, unless sea ice loss is halted, are predicted to eventually result in extinction is really harrowing.
In order to hunt, polar bears stake out territories around seal breathing holes on the sea ice. However, the Arctic region is currently warming approximately four times faster than the rest of the world. Bears have to go longer without food as a result of seasonal sea ice forming later in the fall and melting earlier in the spring around Hudson Bay.
Due to the fact that four of the past five years have seen moderately good ice conditions, scientists warned that a direct link between the population decline and the loss of sea ice in Hudson Bay was not yet clear. All things considered, they said, environment caused changes in the nearby seal populace may be driving bear numbers down.
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Additionally, “the number of adult male bears has remained more or less the same,” despite the possibility that some bears have relocated. “A reduced number of juvenile bears and adult females is what’s driving the decline,” stated Stephen Atkinson, an independent wildlife biologist who led the government-funded research.
He added that the idea that bears are leaving western Hudson Bay is not supported by this demographic shift.
Andrew Derocher, who is in charge of the Polar Bear Science Lab at the University of Alberta, stated, “There was a very low number of cubs being produced in 2021.” We are looking at a population that is slowly getting older, and when there are bad ice years, older bears are much more likely to die.
Scientists are also concerned because the report suggests that declines have accelerated. Only 11% of the population changed between 2011 and 2016.
Between Russia, Alaska, Norway, Greenland, and Canada, there are 19 polar bear populations. However, scientists anticipate that the bears in Western Hudson Bay will be among the first to vanish because it is one of the locations that is situated at the extreme south.
The majority of the world’s polar bear populations are on track to disappear by 2100, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change in 2021.
