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Hudson Bay Polar Bears 'Could Soon Be Extinct'
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) 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."
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Show AllThis is no different than what the GW community has been producing for years. It now falls on deaf ears thanks to the conciet of that same community.
You would think that if someone keeps butting their head against the wall and it keeps bleeding, eventually the fools would open the door rather than indulge in the same wall butting year after year.
Hi Mightymite,
OK, I've given up trying to make heads or tails of your post. Does your "GW community" refer to the people and industries that are responsible for global warming? Or to those who study and report on the effects of global warming?
Similarly, to what do you refer in terms of what the GW community "has been producing for years"? The growing quantities of greenhouse gases? Or the publication of more reports on the impacts of increasing greenhouse gases?
And what is "it" that "falls on deaf ears"? Who are the "fools" butting their heads against what walls? Does the fact that the U.S. public gets tired of a particular story (Haiti earthquake tragedy? Gulf oil leak? War in Iraq?) make the issue any less important or relevant to those who are affected by it?
All I know is: when God comes back to earth, boy is she gonna be pissed.
Simply the GW community refers to those that study/report and opinion Global Warming.
The reports that have been "puffed" for impact, that have used inherently flawed models, that keep predicting catastrophe "tomorrow" if we do not do exactly as they say "today" Thats what they have been doing for years. Gore was caugt out in his film with multiple lies, lies have been exposed in some reports and by some people and organizations and then the famous culmination in England (that was really about nothing) that blew their credibility to bits.
"it" refers to the refusal to change their tactics or their admonitions. Instead of trying to approach the problem on the basis of "this is to your advantage", "this will be more cost effective", "this will save us money", "this will create many new jobs", "this will be to our country's benefit"...
They insist on the same "gloom and doom", insist on actions that by their own figures will have almost zero effect on the problem, insulting and childishly name calling their opposition (deniers) as if the science is settled and there is NO room for doubt. Calling for termination and punishment of industries with no alternatives in hand, rather than presenting a measured approach.
I think she is already "pissed"
OK, thanks for clarifying.
To summarize: let's kill the messengers delivering this bad news, because we are really getting tired of hearing all the gloom and doom. Especially the part where the global warming data indicate that it's happening faster than most global climate models predicted just 5-10 years ago.
Agreed. The IPCC 'worst-case scenario' models are being surpassed. Some researchers maybe spewing doom and gloom but that doesn't mean they're wrong.
"Calling for termination and punishment of industries with no alternatives in hand, rather than presenting a measured approach"
Termination/punishment of industry is a great idea, but you are trying to paint it as an extreme idea. We're all to familiar with your view - it's exactly the view that enables the godzilla monsters to rampage. My guess is that you have a stake in the rampage.
We should have terminated/punished the monsters back when they dismantled rail transit in early 20th century North America. The only reason they get away with these monstrous crimes is that the opposition is peaceful - too peaceful. It's long past time to raise some hell. Sell your stake in the monsters' rampage soon!
from the article:
~ 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. ~
just thought this bears repeating...no pun intended...
I don't know... I read that the polar bear population is at an all time high.
That is because DEA dropped thousands of bales of confiscated marijuana into the Arctic Ocean, but it landed on the ice and the polar bears found it. ;-)
What were you on Sarah Palins Facebook page lol......lol....lol
For real, the only people that think global warming is a hype, and full of overblown data, are people that are involved with killing our planet with no reguard to it's future and only care about personal gain and wealth, and of course dummies who vote for the group that hurts them the most. Ignorant religious freaks that believe in crazy people that claim to talk to God, but for some reason need to become millionairs in order to get Gods word out. The words God told them.
We are infact killing everything we come in contact with. We kill, and kill, and kill.The planet should retaliate against us, we have no respect for life, not even for each other. Animals are a gift , trees and rivers, are all kinda part of the whole planet deal. Once they are gone, so will we... be gone. So moch the people that tell us the gloom, and doom stories we have done that time, and time again throughout history, and we are always proven to be wrong, and then everybody agrees we were wrong... how stupid can we be !
Several studies have shown that the polar bears are prospering except where they are heavily hunted by humans. This continuous renewing of the sky-is-falling type messages are counter productive to a world of humans who really are doing negative things to the environment about which they need awareness.
I personally find Common Dreams to be greatly at fault for their continuous one-sided coverage of the global warming controversy. I sent a complaint to Craig Brown at CD and he replied
"We do cover both sides of the climate change dispute.
We carry pieces from those who think climate change is an imminent
threat; and, we carry pieces from those who think the greatest threat
is still a couple decades away.
Are you are referring to the knuckledraggers who think global warming
is a myth? If so, it is true that we don't waste our readers time with
articles about them. Just as we don't cover "both sides" of the flat
earth debate. Or the is the moon made out of cheese debate.
If that makes us biased, so be it."
There you have it. CD is biased. The pretense of covering both sides is laughable. Sort of like covering both sides of the civil war: those who favored slavery and those who thought slavery was an economic benefit.
How can there possibly be both sides to a one sided truth ? The earth is round, to those who thought it was flat, they sure were proven wrong, for those that thought slavery was a great economic deal they were wrong, always have been, always will be. That is just like fracking our countryside, and water system to get a few years worth of energy is stupid and irrisponsible. How can CD in good concience put articles full of Bullshit on this site ? To appease some delusional fanatics that will just never face the truth and reallity. Some people still do think slavery is a good idea, they do it in backward countries right now, does that make them right ? That would be a big fat NO....White Slavery as they call it is a horrible reallity especially to the victoms and their families. Does the fact it does not happen to everyone make it any less real. I am glad that CD does not put pathetic articles that do not tell the truth on here. I would not revisit the site if they did.
If you think there is another side to global warming like it isn't true than YOU are the problem. People like you have always exsisted, that is why it has taken the human race so many centuries to get as far as we have. We have centuries to go though before we become what we are capable of. We can never stop all that plagues us until the mentally ignorant, closed minded, self indulgient, greedy bastards wake the hell up. ! I fear that will never happen. However slowly but surely, we do move forward...we nolonger gather on the streets on a Saturday afternoon with our children to watch a hanging, we nolonger have Negro slaves that we beat, and trade like cattle, we nolonger cut the tongues out of liars. So with that said I am proud of us. All through history we have had to work so hard to teach each other how to behave, and what is right and what is wrong.... it is a tremendeous struggle. As long as people like George Bush can be allowed to run a Country we will not be able to move forward,and the fellow running the show now is proving having no brains like Bush is bad, but having a smart guy screw you can even be worse. Now he still has time to redeem himself but his current policies are making it more and more difficult to trust him.
Anyway go CD for holding your own !!!
Dear jerrymat:
an opinion is not biased, just because someone doesn't agree with you.
I'm sure that the seals feel that the public is biased towards the polar bears; after all ,Coca Cola made them media stars.
However,if the polar bears go,there will be more seals who of course eat more fish, in an ever depleted ocean. Soon the seal will be public enemy number one for eating more fish than the" biased "humans think they have a right to.
Then, after the seals are all killed off, the ocean will feel that mankind is biased because it doesn't understand overfishing.
I really think that in the overall picture ,or web of life, that Nature has so far tried NOT to be biased, but of course, everyone has a limit.
How many species will "mankind" exterminate before Nature decides that we humans are more trouble than we're worth? With all of the damage that we've done to the planet and to ourselves, Nature is ipso facto, nor biased and entirely correct. She has fired warning shots and those lobbed tar balls are hitting shore as we speak.
Wow... please get out of the way.
I work in Hudsons Bay the bears will start coming in of the ice in about two weeks, so far at least no one is noticing much change in them but I will come back here and report when my staff start seeing them. Any who want photos can email.
Truenorthlander@gmail.com
My presumption is that you are up in Churchill, Manitoba. Yep, I'd like photos, and will send email.
Across summer camping trips [via the Polar Bear Express] to Moosonee and Moose Factory, I came to know one of the native Cree families. We share our last name, because the British factor at Moose had joined the company after the War of Colonial Rebellion. So, I interceded for these nice folk with the Archivist of the Hudson's Bay Company Museum in Winnipeg. In a bound volume, they had his original 18th century contract with HBC, and sent a few photocopies.
IMO, The Bay has always adopted aggressive interest rates on their charge accounts. One year they requested my first born son, and he cried and cried.
Trylon
And Homo Sapiens (???) can start proclaiming: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! And pretty soon Homo Sapiens will become Homo Exctintus!
Polar bears are like a marker species, occupying an important position in the ecosystem. A serious decline in their numbers actually indicates something far more serious - not just there are fewer of these majestic creatures.