Churchill problem polar bear reports for early 2022 have no mention of fat bears or excess sea ice

The first few reports on problem polar bear activity in Churchill are in, posted early this week (two together), starting the last week of July (25-31).

Shore of Wapusk National Park just south of Churchill, 5 August 2022, the back end of a fat bear.

Funny how these reports in recent years (these included) don’t mention the condition of bears the way they used to as recently as 2017 (or the state of the sea ice). I guess it’s so they can’t be used as evidence against the prevailing mantra that western Hudson Bay polar bears that spend the summer onshore are starving because of the lack of ice due to human-caused global warming!

Sea ice chart for Week 1 (25-31 July 2022):

Problem bear report for Week 1 (25-31 July 2022):

Sea ice chart for Week 2 (1-7 August 2022):

Problem bear report for Week 2 (1-7 August 2022)

Compare below to last year: in 2021, the first week of August was week 6 (2-8 August) for Churchill problem bear reports, with a total of 47 incidents to that point and one bear already in ‘jail’.

Sea ice anomaly chart for Week 2 (1-7 August 2022):

Showing much more ice than usual (light and dark blue) for this time of year. So why did some bears come ashore (and wander into town to cause problems) when many others remained on the ice offshore? Apparently, the answer is that the amount of ice doesn’t matter: some bears come ashore when they feel like it, at a location they prefer to spend the summer.

See reports from the last few years here.

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