More Davis Strait polar bears onshore in the last two days

Four bears were photographed outside of Red Bay, Southern Labrador on Thursday 8 March and a bear was spotted ashore in NE Newfoundland overnight on Wednesday.

Red Bay Labrador polar-bears 8 March 2018_Vicki Hancock photo_CBC 9 March 2018

CBC News reported this morning (9 March 2018, 4 polar bears spotted trekking through Labrador):

“A group of four polar bears has been photographed just outside Red Bay, Labrador.

Vicki Hancock spotted the bears, which she described as all looking like adult bears, on Thursday and posted the photos on Facebook.”

These four are unlikely to be adult bears traveling together – it is probable they are big two year old cubs, a triplet litter that has beaten the low odds of all three surviving past the first year. All look to be in excellent condition.

VOCM reported this additional detail:

“Vicki Hancock posted some photos of the bears on Facebook. She says the bears were last spotted on Saddle Island, and are still in the area.”

Saddle Island is a large island (barely visible in the map below) that’s offshore from Red Bay, across the Strait of Belle Isle from the northern peninsula of Newfoundland.

Red Bay Labrador location_google maps

The other incident happened in Elliston (marked in yellow in map below), which is just south of the town of Bonavista, Newfoundland on the northeast coast, local news outlets say a bear was reported on shore the night of Wednesday, 7 March 2018.

RCMP did not sight the bear but found the footprints.

Elliston Bonavista Peninsula Newfoundland location Google maps

I guess it’s time to start putting these all on a map, like I did last year after numerous bears were spotted onshore well into April.

Sea ice conditions

Here is what the ice maps look like for the region on 8 March:

Newfoundland daily sea ice stage of development 2018 March 8 ice warning

Sea ice Canada 2018 March 8

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