As ice thins, so does Canada's polar bear population
Pastor Dale Morgan
As ice thins, so does Canada's polar bear population*
CHURCHILL, Canada, Dec 14 (AFP) Dec 14, 2007
Polar bears in Canada's Hudson Bay area are battling for survival, as
climate change reduces the time they can hunt for food, warn
environmentalists and locals in Churchill, the self-proclaimed polar
capital of the world.
"For many years, there were 1,600 to 2,200 of our polar bears, called
the western Hudson Bay sub-population," Bonnie Chartier, a Churchill
native who works as a guide for tour groups who come to this northern
town to spot the world's largest bear, told AFP.
"Now they're saying there are about 965. Boom! In a very short span of
time, we have a much smaller population and this has been attributed to
global warming," she said.
Polar bears are carnivores, and the seals that live in the Hudson Bay
are their favorite meal.
They hunt when the bay is frozen, venturing far out on the thick ice and
waiting patiently for a seal to pop its head out of the water for air.
They spend the part of the year when the bay is not frozen on land, fasting.
"In the last 20 years, our bears have been coming off the ice two weeks
earlier and going out about one week later, so you've taken three weeks'
hunting time out of their diet, including the crucial spring weeks, when
seals are pupping. Seal pups are easier prey for the polar bears,"
Chartier said.
"The bears are having a harder time. They're not able to put on enough
weight to carry themselves through the whole fasting season," she said.
With less possibilities to seek food on their natural frozen hunting
ground, the bears are tending to venture into town -- leading some
people to believe that stories of the bears' struggle to survive are an
exaggeration, designed to draw more tourists into Churchill to view the
mammals.
"The bear industry in Churchill is big bucks... what better way to keep
people coming than to tell them they'd better hurry to see the
disappearing bears," a Churchill local, who said he sees as many bears
today as he did years ago, told Britain's Daily Mail in an article
published last week.
"This is a local person taking the numbers at face value and saying, 'I
see 50 bears a day and that means numbers aren't declining.' In reality,
they are," biologist Brad Josephs, who works as a guide on Churchill's
polar bear viewings, told AFP.
"One reason you can see more bears around Churchill is because they are
desperate for food because they don't have as much time to hunt.
"Something similar happened in several villages north of Churchill: the
elders were telling the government there were more polar bears because
they were seeing more bears in town," Josephs said.
"So the government increased harvest levels but when they did a
population census, they realized there was not an increase in the bear
population but a decrease," Josephs said.
Chartier also insisted that polar bears are beginning to feel the
negative effects of global warming.
"We've seen a few bears that are skinnier than they should be," she said.
"Things have changed, there's no doubt about it," she added, referring
to the climate in her northern Canadian hometown.
"When I was a kid, we wore jackets in the summer. Nowadays, people wear
shorts and tank tops.
"Even storms have changed: they last half a day and when I was a kid we
would have a three-day blow.
"I'm worried for the polar bears -- they're going to be the first ones
to suffer."
Josephs's worries for the bears and the planet ran even deeper.
"A lot of people believe it might be too late to save the polar bear,"
he said.
"But maybe it takes the threat of losing a really charismatic species
like the polar bear, that everybody loves and that people go to see in
Churchill, for the world to wake up and say, hey, global warming is
real, and we have to do something about it."