Hudson Bay Polar Bears ‘Could Soon Be Extinct’
by Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Polar bears in the Hudson Bay area of Canada are likely to die out in the next three decades, possibly sooner, as global warming melts more Arctic ice and thus reduces their hunting opportunities, according to Canadian biologists.
![[Polar bears in the Hudson Bay area of Canada are likely to die out in the next three decades, possibly sooner, as global warming melts more Arctic ice and thus reduces their hunting opportunities, according to Canadian biologists. (ALAMY)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/hudsonbaypolarbears.jpg "hudsonbaypolarbears.jpg")
Polar bears in the Hudson Bay area of Canada are likely to die out in the next three decades, possibly sooner, as global warming melts more Arctic ice and thus reduces their hunting opportunities, according to Canadian biologists. (ALAMY)The animals in western Hudson Bay, one of 19 discrete sub-populations of the species around the Arctic, are losing fat and body mass as their time on the floating sea ice gets shorter and shorter, according to the researchers from the University of Alberta.
The sea ice is where the bears hunt ringed and bearded seals, their main prey, and they have to build up enough fat in the winter, when the ice is at its greatest, to get through the summer, when the ice retreats from the shoreline and the bears can find no food.
But the ice has been melting earlier in the spring and forming later in the autumn, so that the bears are now spending on average three more weeks on land per year, without food, than they did three decades ago, the researchers say. As a consequence, their body weight in that time has dropped by 60lb, females have lost 10 per cent of their body length, and the west Hudson Bay population has declined from 1,200 animals to 900.
If the decline in the sea ice continues – as predictions of global warming suggest it will – it is feared that the bears could die out in 25 to 30 years, or perhaps in as few as 10, if there are a succession of years with very low sea ice cover. The Hudson Bay group of bears is the second-most southerly population and might be expected to feel the effects of climate change early. The Arctic sea ice as a whole reached its lowest-ever recorded extent in September, 2007. In the last two years it has recovered, but it is once again declining rapidly this year.
The dependency of the bears on the ice has long been known, and the animals have become an iconic species in terms of being used to promote awareness of global warming. But predictions of how long they may survive have until now been little more than educated guesses.
The significance of the new study is that it is based on a mathematical model which matches the weight and energy-storing capacity of the bears, which are known – the west Hudson Bay animals are the most closely observed of all polar bear populations – against the annual ice shrinkage and the time they have to spend on land without food.
Carried out by Professors Andrew Derocher and Mark Lewis, with graduate student Peter Molnar, it has been published in the journal Biological Conservation, and Professor Derocher talks about it at length in the current issue of Environment 360, the online environmental journal of Yale University in the US.
“We understand very well things like how fat a bear has to be to produce a certain number of cubs, and we know a lot about how much energy these bears are burning during the period of time over the summer that they’re forced ashore when the sea ice melts,” Professor Derocher says. “And from there it’s fairly easy to run various scenarios of sea ice change to look at when, basically, the bears’ fat stores run out – and when that happens the bears, of course, subsequently die.”
He adds: “There’s been a gradual decline in [the bears'] body condition that dates to the 1980s and we can now correlate that very nicely with the loss of sea ice in this ecosystem. And one of the things we found was that the changes that could come in this population could happen very dramatically, and a lot of the change could come within a single year, if you just ended up with an earlier melt of sea ice.”
©independent.co.uk
This new medicine that I was given is still making me feel really sick to my stomach so I am going to have to go and lay down.
I did want to comment that I feel very sad when I read articles like this because I love polar bears and all animals and I know that their misery and suffering is being caused by man’s unwillingness to make the changes needed to reach that 350 mark that is needed.
I keep on hoping that the best in man will kick in gear and we will start thinking of the planet as a whole and what is best for the whole planet and start making the changes needed.
I am feeling better now, so I thought I would finish making my comments.
When I first read the story one of the thoughts that came to me was remembering how years ago now, that I was scolded for posting my petitions to save the polar bears because they thought I wasn’t being White Nationalist enough. Fighting for the survival of the planet was considered anti white nationalist behavior back then. I was told that once the White race was saved that the polar bears and all the other animals I was fighting to protect would be saved. Now, all these years later, I see more White Nationalists fighting to save the environment and animals. Garfield, you are a White Nationalists but you are also fighting for the environment. You were the first White Nationalist I met on the web, who was fighting on this issue that is very important to Greens.
I also remember my good friend and I laughed at my being scolded for posting petitions to save the Polar bears. It is still funny to me. One needs to find the humor in any situation they find themselves in. It still amazes me that so many people in this country don’t believe in climate change. Do you know how many times I was scolded for my belief that climate change was real? Al Gore’s first book really spoke to me and was the beginning process for me to be able to find my way home from the deep spell I was under.
I think many of us feel like how could we have allowed ourselves as women to believe we are the slave to men and must obey his every command or we deserved whatever punishment the man decided was to be opposed. Not all White Nationalist men are as extreem CI/WN as Jeff was. We were the FLDS of White Nationalism. Not being allowed to wear pants and going camping in long parrie dresses was so much fun. Maybe it is because I am a traditional Catholic woman who believes that the man is head of the home and the woman is the heart of the home, that it was easy for Jeff to take me to the place where he had total control over every aspect of my life. I still hear women who are still being deceived to think that being born woman means being a slave to the man. I hope someday they will realize that it is one thing to be traditional and another thing to allow yourself to be totally controlled by a White Nationalist man who can do anything he wants to you because he is a man and you are a woman. I will always be me and if people don’t like that, than that is their problem and not mine.
I am glad I have gone through all the things that I have been through because it made me the strong woman I am today, who knows what she must do and is not afraid to do it. We have a choice. We either fight and move forward in life to save this nation (The United States) or we continue to deny what is really going on and live in the delusion that we can continue to do nothing and still survive. WE MUST ACT WITH COURAGE AND BE WILLING TO PUT THIS COUNTRY FIRST. Will we pick up the torch of lady liberty and the sword of our ancestors and fight all enemies foreign and domestic who wish to bring the downfall of our nation on our watch as Daughters and Americans?
I will never stop trying to do the right thing. This blog I hope will live long after I live and like Paul Revere be a warning and a wake up call to my fellow Daughters and Americans.
The hour glass is running out. Will our generation answer the call that our parents generation answered in fighting Hitler? I hope so. Our children and grandchildren deserve that we fight with as much courage and strength as our parents fought the last world war. That same hate is present in the world today. Someday we will have to either fight or submit to that message of hate. I choose we fight and win the victory so that our future generations will inherit a nation that is free and brave.