Tag Archives: numbers

Expert reveals size of another Canadian polar bear subpopulation is increasing

Posted on May 31, 2020 | Comments Off on Expert reveals size of another Canadian polar bear subpopulation is increasing

In case you missed it buried in the details of my rebuttal two weeks ago about Facebook labelling a short PragerU polar bear video as “false information”, in his review of the video (18 May 2020) Canadian polar bear biologist Ian Stirling revealed that a recent survey of M’Clintock Channel polar bears documented a population increase. The problem is we have no scientific details about the survey – apparently completed four years ago, in 2016 – because the final report has not been made public (COSEWIC 2018, pp. 42-43; Crockford 2020).

bear-on-snowbank_Radstock_Stirling

Continue reading

Comments Off on Expert reveals size of another Canadian polar bear subpopulation is increasing

Posted in Conservation Status, Population, Sea ice habitat

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Full podcast of TV interview with Andrew Bolt in Australia talking about polar bears

Posted on March 27, 2019 | Comments Off on Full podcast of TV interview with Andrew Bolt in Australia talking about polar bears

This 10 minute television interview aired a few hours ago on The Bolt Report (Sky News Australia, 26 March 2019). A short excerpt was made available as a tweet but a link to the full length podcast is below.

Bolt report interview intro_26 March 2019

Ironically, despite the huge effort made by polar bear specialists and climate change activists to silence and discredit me over the last year or so, all it’s done is made more people willing to listen to what I have to say. My new book is selling phenomenally well and getting great reviews: if you haven’t ordered your ebook or paperback copy, you can do so here.

Continuereading

Comments Off on Full podcast of TV interview with Andrew Bolt in Australia talking about polar bears

Posted in Book review, Polar bear attacks, Population, Sea ice habitat, Summary

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Latest global polar bear abundance ‘best guess’ estimate is 39,000 (26,000-58,000)

Posted on March 26, 2019 | Comments Off on Latest global polar bear abundance ‘best guess’ estimate is 39,000 (26,000-58,000)

It’s long past time for polar bear specialists to stop holding out for a scientifically accurate global estimate that will never be achieved and determine a reasonable and credible ‘best guess’. Since they have so far refused to do this, I have done it for them. My extrapolated estimate of 39,000 (range 26,000-58,000) at 2018 is not only plausible but scientifically defensible.

Polarbear1_wikimedia_Andreas Weith photo Svalbard sm

In 2014, the chairman of the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) emailed me to say that their global population size number ‘has never been an estimate of total abundance in a scientific sense, but simply a qualified guess given to satisfy public demand.’

In my new book, The Polar Bear Catastrophe That Never Happened, I contend that this situation will probably never change, so it’s time to stop holding out for a scientifically accurate global estimate and generate a reasonable and credible ‘best guess’. Recent surveys from several critical polar bear subpopulations have given us the information necessary to do this.

UPDATE: I have made this a sticky post for a while: new posts will appear below.

Continue reading

Comments Off on Latest global polar bear abundance ‘best guess’ estimate is 39,000 (26,000-58,000)

Posted in Conservation Status, Population, Summary

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Polar bear numbers, margins of error, & consequences for conservation status

Posted on May 2, 2018 | Comments Off on Polar bear numbers, margins of error, & consequences for conservation status

Large margins of error in polar bear population estimates means the conservation status threshold of a 30% decline (real or predicted) used by the US Endangered Species Act and the IUCN Red List is probably not valid for this species.

Polar_Bear_Biologist_USFWS_working_with_a_Bear_Oct 24 2001 Amstrup photo

Several recent subpopulation estimates have shown an increase between one estimate and another of greater than 30% yet deemed not to be statistically significant due to large margins of error. How can such estimates be used to assess whether population numbers have declined enough to warrant IUCN Red List or ESA protection?

What do polar bear population numbers mean for conservation status, if anything?

Continue reading

Comments Off on Polar bear numbers, margins of error, & consequences for conservation status

Posted in Conservation Status, Population

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Global polar bear population size is about 28,500 when updates are included

Posted on April 12, 2017 | Comments Off on Global polar bear population size is about 28,500 when updates are included

Polar bear numbers have risen since 2005, no matter how you look at it:

Svalbard polar bear Jon Aars_Norsk Polarinstitutt

USGS estimated 24,500 (average) polar bears in 2005.

IUCN estimated 26,500 (average of 22,000-31,000) in 2015
(assessment completed in July, released in November).

Subpopulation surveys completed or reported after July 2015 (Baffin Bay, Kane Basin, Barents Sea) added ~2,000 bears.

This brings the adjusted average total at 2015 to ~28,500.

This may not be a statistically significant increase but it is also not the catastrophic decline that was predicted to occur in association with the abrupt drop of summer sea ice in 2007 to a new average of about 3-5 mkm2 [updated 1 June 2017].

Crockford 2017_Slide 12 screencap

Explained in full in this published paper, pgs 20-21:

Crockford, S.J. 2017 V3. Testing the hypothesis that routine sea ice coverage of 3-5 mkm2 results in a greater than 30% decline in population size of polar bears (Ursus maritimus). PeerJ Preprints 2 March 2017. Doi: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.2737v3 Open access. https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2737v3

UPDATE 26 March 2019: See “Latest global polar bear abundance ‘best guess’ estimate is 39,000 (26,000-58,000)“

Comments Off on Global polar bear population size is about 28,500 when updates are included

Posted in Conservation Status, Population, Sea ice habitat

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

The polar bear problem no one will talk about – the downside to large populations

Posted on September 28, 2016 | Comments Off on The polar bear problem no one will talk about – the downside to large populations

A large polar bear population with lots of adult males – due to bans on hunting – means more survival pressure on young bears, especially young males. To blame more problems with young male bears on lack of sea ice due to global warming ignores the downside to the reality Norway asked for when it banned hunting more than 40 years ago.

More hungry young males coming ashore looking for food is one of the potential consequences of living with a large, healthy population of polar bears. Biologist Ian Stirling warned of such problems back in 1974.

UPDATE: added below 6 Oct. 2016, statistics of defense of life shootings of polar bears in Svalbard since 1973.

svalbard-more-visitors-more-bears-shot_28-sept-2016-yahoo

Svalbard area polar bear numbers have increased 42% since 2004 and more hungry young polar bears almost certainly mean more polar bear problems, as folks in Svalbard (see map and quotes below) have experienced this year.
Continue reading

Comments Off on The polar bear problem no one will talk about – the downside to large populations

Posted in Conservation Status, Life History, Polar bear attacks, Sea ice habitat

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Western Hudson Bay polar bear numbers are stable, no trend in ice breakup or freeze-up

Posted on October 13, 2015 | Comments Off on Western Hudson Bay polar bear numbers are stable, no trend in ice breakup or freeze-up

This needs saying again: the latest study on Western Hudson Bay polar bears reveal the population has been stable since 2004 and there has been no significant trend in either breakup or freeze-up dates since 2001.

Triplets in Wapusk NP from McCall webpage 2013

Environment Canada and the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group concur that the current size of the WHB subpopulation is about 1030 bears. Documents found online indicate a new version of the 2013 WHB mark-recapture report (Lunn et al. 2013) is now available (Lunn et al. 2014) and that a new population survey is planned for 2016. A 2013 story based on false information produced by The Guardian that is still in circulation should be retracted.
Continue reading

Comments Off on Western Hudson Bay polar bear numbers are stable, no trend in ice breakup or freeze-up

Posted in Advocacy, Conservation Status, Population

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,