Tag Archives: polar bears

When bears come to town

8 November, 2013From the field, Polar bearschurchill, conflict, polar bears, species trackeruser

A polar bear approaches a tundra buggy in Churchill, Manitoba. © Geoff York / WWF

The temperatures and winds are dropping nicely this morning. New slush ice is quickly forming again along the shores of the Bay as I sip my coffee and quickly check my email (yes- even in the far north and miles from any town, we have internet!).
One email is an update from our research partners at the University of Alberta. WWF has funded polar bear research through UAB for many years in Canada. Our conservation partners and members allow us to add critical funds that help make larger research projects whole or that add potential for graduate student involvement- training the polar bear researchers and mangers of tomorrow.
For those of you who follow our Polar bear Tracker site, the data from the West Hudson Bay comes from this partnership. The bears we are tracking in this region are almost all hanging out around Churchill now. While this is natural for the bears, and great for bear viewing, it poses unique issues for the town of Churchill. Issues shared by communities across the Arctic.
Polar bears gather around Churchill. Explore our polar bear tracker:

As many of you will have read or heard by now, we had an unfortunate polar bear incident in the town of Churchill just last week. A woman walking home early in the morning hours was surprised, attacked, and injured by a bear that had wandered undetected into town. Fortunately for her, a local Métis elder and lifetime resident heard her calls for help and came to her aid with only an aluminum snow shovel in hand. His actions saved her life, but he was severely wounded in the process. Other residents and Manitoba Conservation officers quickly responded and the bear had to be put down. Both injured people are recovering well in hospital. This marked the third human injury this year and the first since 2008. Given that, for much of the summer and fall, bears and people here are equal in number- the safety record in Churchill is still impressive.
Manitoba makes a significant investment of time and resources with their world class Polar Bear Alert program. Up here, the Provincial government pays full time professional conservation officers to patrol town during the season bears are onshore. They also operate a temporary holding facility that allows them a rare option to hold bears whose curiosity and lack of fear have led them to trouble within what’s called Zone 1- the core area of Churchill proper. Bears can be held here for up to 30 days before being released back to the wild and hopefully a little bit wiser.
Other communities are approaching this challenge with ingenuity but often lacking adequate resources. WWF is working with governments and select communities to pilot education, outreach, and deterrence programs. We are looking to share techniques used from other species to reduce conflict and to share best practices across regions through workshops and direct support of the Polar Bear Range States Conflict Working Group. From grants to start local patrol programs, to sponsoring field “classrooms” on electric fence construction, to supporting the development of a global database to track incidents- WWF is leading efforts to make sure communities and polar bears can be safe as we head into a less certain future.
Learn more about WWF’s work on human / polar bear conflict.

Talking on the tundra

8 November, 2013From the field, Polar bearschurchill, polar bearsuser

Geoff and the panel in Churchill, November 2013. © K.T. Miller

Participating as a panelist on Polar Bears International’s Tundra Connections is not only a great way to reach out to people, it’s also my way of reconnecting with the place polar bears call home and the people who live among them.
My panel team this week includes Dr. Martin Obbard from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Dr. Tom Smith from Brigham Young University, Kassie Siegel- lead attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, and Lance Rougeux from Discovery Education. We’re spending this week out on the tundra east of Churchill, Manitoba. During the day, we’re based in Buggy One, a specially equipped Tundra Buggy provided by Frontiers North Adventures as a mobile broadcasting studio. We roam old military trails in the Manitoba Wildlife Management Area in search of interesting wildlife, and do several broadcasts each day.
Watch Geoff and the panel talk about the bears of North America:

In the evenings we dock at The Tundra Buggy Lodge- best described as a series of tundra wagons connected in a line much like a train with sleeping, dining, and service cars. The Lodge is situated about 15 miles from town at Gordon Point, right on the shore of Hudson Bay. There we join up to 40 other overnight guests from around the world, take our dinner and morning breakfast, and provide presentations to the guests in the evening.
We use another Buggy that is kitted out with bunks as our sleeping quarters. As heat rises, I opt out of my stuffy top bunk and make my bed in the front window of Buggy 8. You could not ask for a more spectacular view in the morning! Today, between waking up and eating breakfast I was able to watch 4 adult males and one small female in the immediate area around lodge. Life is good indeed.

Welcome to the polar bear capital of the world

5 November, 2013From the field, Polar bearschurchill, polar bears, sea iceuser

Waiting for ice in Churchill. © Geoff York

It’s November, which means one thing for polar bears in Churchill Manitoba – it’s time to get more active and start looking for sea ice.

Polar bears come ashore in Hudson Bay in July as the sea ice completely melts. Due to bay currents and the freshwater outflow from the Churchill River, the Bay starts freezing first in the Churchill area and polar bears have adapted to this cycle. Because of this, Churchill is one of the only places in the world that people can predictably experience polar bears in their natural environment.

For the next few days, I will be working from Churchill. I will be sharing the incredible experience of viewing this unique species and its environment with WWF partners, members, and colleagues. While on the ground, I will also be meeting with research partners like Manitoba Conservation and other leading polar bear scientists from across North America. I’ll also be engaged with our conservation partners at Polar Bears International through their Tundra Connections Program– reaching out to school and university class rooms across North America and around the world via live webcasts.

Churchill doubles from a town of 900 to easily twice that during peak season, and you never know whom you might meet. This week I’m staying out on the tundra doing webcasts during the day and interacting with visitors in the evening at the remote Tundra Buggy Lodge. Tonight our panel of visiting scientists gave an impromptu talk to a group of 26 executives and family from the country of Columbia- in the North for the first time, keenly interested in learning about the impacts of climate change, and what they could do to influence positive change.

While the town of Churchill is nearly the same latitude as London, England- the weather and climate are drastically different. This is where boreal forest gives way to arctic tundra and where land meets sea. Temperatures this time of year range from -20 to 0 C and the snow, while light, is here to stay. The Bay is only now showing the earliest signs of slush and small patches of ice. The last of the grain ships is being filled with wheat from the Canadian plains and soon bound for Europe and the town is filled with new faces.

In the coming days I hope to use my time here to speak with a variety of people from around the world, both in person and via other outreach. I will also have unique opportunities to meet with colleagues and discuss shared projects, concerns, and our hopes for the future. All the while, I will be in polar bear country and have an unparalleled opportunity to watch bears being bears while we wait with them for the return of the Bay ice. I hope you’ll join us!

Svalbard polar bears – where are they now?

31 October, 2013From the field, Polar bearspolar bears, species trackeruser

In April 2013, our partners at the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) began tracking a number of polar bears on Svalbard using GPS-enabled collars. Here’s an update on two of the bears from NPI’s Magnus Andersen. See all bears on the Polar Bear Tracker.

Polar bear N26135

During the past few months, N26135 has walked all the way from the Svalbard archipelago, across the Barents Sea, past Franz Josef Land and finally ended up at Severnaya Zemlja. From her GPS track and daily sea ice maps, it seems like she has been forced to the east by the receding ice edge, or at least she has stayed with the ice as the edge has moved further and further east. At one point a few weeks ago, she moved onto land and followed the shore for some time before some sea ice returned to the area and she could go out on the ocean again. The past week, she has been moving in large circles out on the ice west of Severnaya Zemlja, presumably hunting seals. The winter is returning to the Arctic, and sea ice is again expanding southward and westward. We are following her movements with excitement, wondering whether or not she will move over towards Svalbard again during the coming winter.

Polar bear N23637

Winter has returned to Svalbard, and some polar bears have already entered their maternity dens. For those bears that will not den this year (only pregnant females do), land is still the only available habitat for them – even if the temperature has dropped below freezing, sea ice has still not formed. Higher sea water temperatures in recent years also means that ice forms at a slower rate, so sea ice habitat useful for seal hunting is still weeks away. N23637 has spent several months on land in the southern part of Spitsbergen, Svalbard, patrolling the shores in search for a number of potential food items, such as stranded carcasses of seals and whales, sea birds and their eggs and reindeer carcasses. However, for most polar bears it is the seal hunting that really matters in the long run, and to be a successful seal hunter polar bears must be able to move on sea ice where seals haul out to rest. N23637 is patiently waiting, like she has done every fall, we suspect. We believe she is representative of the local bears in Svalbard that never leave the archipelago – unlike N26135, who walked all the way to Severnaya Zemlja.

What’s new with the Svalbard polar bears?

11 September, 2013From the field, Polar bearspolar bears, species trackeruser

Polar bear N26135

N26135 is continuing her journey far into Russian territory. She crossed the Barents Sea, walked south of Franz Josef Land, passed the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya and continued all the way to the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. The ice edge has been receding in a north easterly direction and N26135 has continuously followed the ice.
During the last weeks she has moved to the north, again presumably a response to the ice conditions in the area. In the beginning of September she was at about 82 degrees north and 91 degrees east — that is very far away from Svalbard!
During the next month or so the seasonal ice melt will slow down as temperatures drop, and soon we will see a growing amount of ice again. We are following the movements of N26135 closely and cross our fingers that her collar will continue to transmit, so that we are able to document more of this fascinating journey.

Polar bear N23637

The difference in movement patterns between polar bears tagged in the same area in Svalbard is striking, as seen when we compare N23637 and N26135. Where one is crossing oceans the other is simply walking back and forth on a stretch of coastline of less than 100 km.
N23637 is constantly moving, slowly but surely along the coast. She may stop for a few days in one spot, but then continue. We believe that she is searching for food, both marine and terrestrial, and making use of whatever she can find, be it a carcass, plant material or maybe a seal on a piece of drifting glacier ice. She probably knows this area like the back of her paw, and has walked here since she was a cub, together with her mother for the first two years.
Research has shown that several generations of polar bears may stay more or less within the same area in Svalbard, using the same general region for denning and hunting in the same fjords. Fall has come to Svalbard now, the night is darker and the temperature is dropping below zero. Soon the mountain tops will be covered by snow. The bears are waiting for winter to come, and for the ocean to freeze up again.

Solving the walrus mystery

27 August, 2013From the field, Polar bearslaptev sea, polar bears, walrususer

A WWF-led research team, a Canon photographer, and crew traveled to Siberia’s Arctic coast on the Laptev Sea, to help solve a scientific mystery. The Laptev Linkages expedition was sponsored by Canon.
I must say, we have really succeeded in our goal for the Laptev Canon-WWF Expedition: collecting DNA samples from walruses in this remote area. Now, we can work on settling a debate that’s over 50 years old – Where do the Laptev Sea walruses fit in the big story?
These big smelly creatures live in between the Atlantic and Pacific walrus populations, and they have access to open waters in the winter. So the walruses living in the Laptev Sea might be a separate subspecies. Genetic analyses from old bones refer these guys to the Pacific population, but there are some uncertainties.

Read: How scientists study walruses

Our main goal on this voyage was to collect DNA samples from the Laptev walruses for analysis. After days of crawling carefully up to walrus herds, culminating in a five-hour, all night sampling marathon, we reached the magic number: 32 small samples of walrus hide. The walrus DNA samples are now in safe in a lab in Moscow, ready for analysis. We hope to have an answer early next year, through the collaboration of walrus scientists in many different countries.
Some interesting observations from the trip:

As a birder, I had an incredible trip, with more than 50 Arctic bird species. We found two breeding pairs of Sabine’s gull, and almost 20 species of waders.
Walruses everywhere! We may have observed almost 25 percent of the entire Laptev Sea walrus population in one single day.
Several interactions between polar bears and walruses, but nothing lethal. Most of the bears were in good shape despite being on land for relatively long time. Our guess is that in this specific area, the polar bears can handle being stranded without sea ice while they have walruses to feed on.

Sleeping bears lie

21 August, 2013From the field, Polar bearslaptev sea, polar bears, walrususer

A “sleeping” polar bear waits for a walrus calf to come close. Photo: Alexey Ebel / WWF-Canon

A WWF-led research team, a Canon photographer, and crew are traveling to Siberia’s Arctic coast on the Laptev Sea, to help solve a scientific mystery. The Laptev Linkages expedition is sponsored by Canon.
We have been watching the walrus haulout for days, and so far two polar bears have passed by. To collect genetic samples, we had to carefully sneak up on the haulout without frightening the herd. Now we have an opportunity to see how polar bears do it.
In larger walrus herds, bears may deliberately scare walruses into a stampede. Those in a hurry run over their weaker compatriots, and with little effort on the bear’s part, dinner is ready. But here on the spit, there are too few walruses to implement a strategy of mass chaos.
Today, another polar bear turned up and slowly approached the walruses, who bundled together. Young calves and mothers went straight into the water, while the large males barely moved. But they did keep an eye on the bear.
[youtube clip_id=”bCiu0isEbY8″]
The bear tried to get between the water edge and the walruses, but failed. Instead, it used another strategy: laying down by the water below the walruses, and waiting for a small calf to come up on the beach. You could see that the bear was not sleeping, just pretending.
The walruses were wary. For an hour, none came close to the “sleeping” predator. The bear gave up and moved on, 100 metres away from the walruses. What happened in the end, we do not know.
We are now off to Cape Tsvetkova – the largest known walrus haulout on Taimyr:

View Larger Map

The Laptev crew answers your questions!

20 August, 2013From the field, Polar bearslaptev sea, polar bears, walrususer

The Laptev Linkages crew. © Alexey Ebel

Gillian asks: What’s the purpose of the expedition?

Tom, our walrus expert, explains:
[youtube clip_id=”zXQEQV9APzM”]

Joshua asks: What has your research revealed so far on the expedition? Anything that stands out?

Polar bear at a walrus haulout. © Alexey Ebel / WWF-Canon

We won’t know the answer to the genetic puzzle for a while, because we’ll need to send our samples to labs for processing. However, we are making some interesting observations. Geoff says: “We encountered around 400 walruses gathered on a sandspit – likely the largest number of walrus recorded at this site in many decades, possibly ever.”

Barbara asks: How cold is it there right now?

The Arctic does get above freezing in the summer, but August can already be quite cold. Expedition member Tatiana is from Murmansk, Russia – the largest city in the Arctic. Even she is finding it chilly: “Being from northern Murmansk, it seemed absurd to me to take real winter clothes for an August trip. But it seems that I’m the one who was absurd. My snowmobile gloves and hat aren’t enough – the temperature generally doesn’t reach 1C. But despite these minor annoyances, I am very pleased with the experience.”

Hazel asks: I often hear about the threat to their survival as the ice retreats more quickly every year. How serious is the problem, for both polar bears and walrus?

Tom says: Sea ice loss is a clear and present danger to all life that depends on ice. Both polar bear and walrus depend on the ice as a platform to rest and feed. They’re expected to reduce in numbers, and to be found in fewer areas in the future. The reduced ice also means an increase in human activities in the Arctic like shipping and oil and gas development, which threatens these species even further.

@skootzkadoodles asks: Are walruses as threatened by climate change as other seal populations?

Yes – walruses often rest on ice, but when ice is unavailable they must congregate in larger numbers on land. They quickly exhaust nearby food, and have to travel longer distances to feed – this can be stressful. In addition, a large group of walruses can panic and stampede if disturbed by a predator, and some can be crushed to death.

Donald asks: Can’t polar bears hunt from land? Not that I’m happy about shrinking ice sheets, but is it impossible for them to adapt?

2 kilograms

The amount of fat a polar bear eats each day

Tom says it all comes down to calories: “Polar bears are highly specialized carnivores and require a significant amount of calories from animal fat to thrive in the tough Arctic environment. Fat comes mainly in the form of seals, which depend on sea ice.
Individual bears do feed opportunistically on carcasses, vegetation, eggs, and fish, but there aren’t nearly enough calories in terrestrial fare to sustain polar bear populations in anything like present numbers.
We also have to remember that the current rate of change is unprecedented in the history of today’s mammals. While some populations are likely to adapt new strategies, like spending more time fasting onshore, it is unlikely that true evolutionary adaptations in feeding ecology or physiology would be possible.”

Jasmine: Are the walruses and polar bears in the Laptev safe from oil spills?

Tom says: Oil exploration is still low in the Laptev Sea. The most likely spill would come from a ship – as summer sea ice decreases in this area, we’re seeing a big increase in commercial shipping north of Russia, through what’s called the Northern Sea Route.

How do walruses, ships, and oil exploration overlap? Explore on this interactive map!

Cameron and Karen ask: Are the walruses frightened if you get close?

Geoff says: “Walrus spook easily and can stampede into the water- the last thing we want to happen. When we took genetic samples this weekend, we were lucky – the winds were favorable, carrying our scent out to sea and away from the group, allowing us to eventually creep within 30 meters.
Watch a walrus stampede captured in 2009 (starts at 0:32):
[youtube clip_id=”IA-_QsCEZ0U”]

@buddhasloth asks: How do one become a researcher or an assistant on one of your expeditions?

On our Arctic expeditions, the researchers range from students working towards an advanced degree in Arctic field biology to established Arctic biologists. But even if you aren’t studying the Arctic, WWF-led trips to the region are available. Check out the trips offered by WWF’s office in the United States or contact your local office to learn more.

An incredible day for wildlife viewing

18 August, 2013From the fieldlaptev sea, polar bears, walrususer

Muskox, near Laptev Sea. © Tom Arnbom / WWF-Canon

I do not know where to start. Today, at more than 74.5 latitude, we have experienced more Arctic wildlife than most people do in a lifetime:

more than 600 walruses
five polar bears
three snowy owls
muskox
reindeer
stoat
siberian lemming
red-necked stint
thick-billed murre
snow bunting
arctic tern
pomarine and long-tailed skuas
and to our surprise, breeding Sabine’s Gull.

Walrus haulout, Laptev Sea. © Tom Arnbom / WWF-Canon

On top of that we sampled DNA from polar bear, walrus and arctic wolf (the last from scat).
Tomorrow we will move 50 kilometer south to a sand spit with more than 400 walruses. We do not know how we can top this, but I guess something unexpected could still happen.
– Tom

The king of the haulout

16 August, 2013From the field, Polar bearslaptev sea, polar bears, walrususer

A WWF-led research team, a Canon photographer, and crew are traveling to Siberia’s Arctic coast on the Laptev Sea, to help solve a scientific mystery. The Laptev Linkages expedition is sponsored by Canon.
We are heading out in the mist after an overnight stop at the larger Beigihevs island. More and more seabirds are passing the boat – a sign that we’re entering richer seas.
After a few hours we see a sandspit at distance. Yes! a few walrus, no more than maybe 30 individuals. YES! there are more than 400 of them, and in the middle, on a small piece of ice, is the king — a fat male polar bear. It is like sitting in a smorgasbord.
We are now 50 km south of Maria Pronchistcheva Bay. We will head up to the bay before deciding where we should camp. We have found the Laptev walrus, and the work can soon begin.
– Tom

What’s a haulout?

Walruses sometimes congregate in large numbers on land – this is called a “haulout”. In some areas where sea ice levels have decreased, we are seeing extremely large haulouts as the walruses abandon the ice and head to shore. On a previous trip through the Russian Arctic in 2009, WWF researchers encountered an enormous haulout of about 20,000 individuals. This is what it looked like: