January is the first month of the Arctic winter, the season when most polar bears really struggle to find enough to eat.
Here is what the sea ice looked like around the Arctic at the end of this month.
Compare to last year:
During a meeting of polar bear range states (Canada, Russia, Greenland, Norway, and the USA) in late January 2018 to discuss conservation issues, Canada — home to ~2/3 of the world’s polar bears — included in its presentation an updated population status and trend map approved by the Polar Bear Technical Committee in its presentation. This 2017 map replaces one from 2014 but is not yet available on the Environment Canada website.
UPDATE 11 June 2018: More recent versions of population and status assessment maps, published by Environment Canada 6 June 2018, conclude Southern Hudson Bay and Western Hudson Bay subpopulations have “likely declined.” See 11 June post here for more details and copies of the maps.
Comments Off on Status of Canadian polar bears updated map from Environment Canada
Posted in Conservation Status, Population
Tagged Canada, ecoregions, map, polar bear, Polar Bear Technical Committee, population, sea ice, status, trends
Sea ice charts for 18 January from NSIDC Masie show exactly as much sea ice in 2017 as there was back in 2006 – 13.4 mkm2.
Comments Off on Polar bear habitat update: as much sea ice in 2017 as 2006 at 18 January
Posted in Sea ice habitat
Tagged Canada, habitat, polar bears, sea ice, winter
Since mid-August, Vancouver Sun columnist Daphne Bramham has been filing a series of articles from an expedition cruise through the Northwest Passage for a feature called “Above the Arctic Circle”. One of these appeared on August 18, along with a video called “What to know about polar bears and global warming” and it contained an egregious error that should have stood out to any educated person as being wrong by several orders of magnitude:
We are not talking about a difference of opinion or interpretation but a simple fact that was outrageously wrong by a wide margin. You see it, don’t you? Continue reading
Comments Off on Columnist admits video on polar bears and global warming contained a serious error
Posted in Advocacy, Conservation Status, Population
Tagged advocacy, Canada, climate change, error, extinction, facts, false, global warming, misinformation, polar bear, population decline, population size, Postmedia, Vancouvern Sun, video
Although there are only two confirmed polar bear X grizzly hybrids (see recent posts here and here) – one in 2006 and a 2nd generation back cross in 2010 – there have been a few other unconfirmed sightings and/or hunters reports in addition to the Arviat animal shot last week, but how many?
In a CBC radio interview today (27 May 2016), polar bear biologist Andrew Derocher claimed there have now been 9 polar bear/grizzly hybrids reported in Canada (with the Arviat animal shot last week being the 9th).
I think I’ve tracked down the details on those six unconfirmed Canadian sightings, plus another from Alaska. But as you will see, some of the reports are so vague it’s hard to know whether these are the animals Derocher counts as hybrids or not.
Continue reading
Comments Off on Most polar bear hybrids said to exist have not been confirmed by DNA testing
Posted in Conservation Status, Hybridization, Sea ice habitat
Tagged Alaska, Canada, Derocher, grizzly, grolar, hybrid, pizzly, polar bear, sightings