Reposted from Polar Bear Science
Posted on April 7, 2019 |
A recent Netflix ‘Our Planet’ program with David Attenborough delivering a disturbing message of doom about walruses falling off a cliff to their deaths because of climate change is contrived nonsense on par with the bogus National Geographic starving polar bear video of 2017. The walruses shown in this Netflix film were almost certainly driven over the cliff by polar bears during a well-publicized incident in 2017, not because they were “confused by a combination of shrinking ice cover and their own poor eyesight“.
There are no precise details about the time and place of the incident shown in the ‘Our Planet’ film (see hereor here), except that these were Pacific walrus “in the Russian Arctic” according to The Times (5 April 2019): “David Attenborough’s Our Planet: Walruses plunging to deaths become new symbol of climate change“.
However, even with only that information, a short Google search for walrus falling off cliffs in Russia reveals an incident from 19 October 2017 that was reported by the Siberian Times: “Village besieged by polar bears as hundreds of terrorised walruses fall 38 metres to their deaths“.
In 2017, a group of about 20 polar bears, waiting for ice to form so that they could leave the village of Ryrkaypiy, stalked a herd of 5,000 or so walruses (see map below). The particular conformation of the region (see photo above) at Kozhevnikova Cape shows how frightened walrus could easily move from the beach (photo bottom left) to the top of the cliff (photo top right) along a gentle slop, and then be driven over the edge by fear or misstep. The bears were then able to feed off the many carcasses after the survivors took to the water.
See my blog post from last fall about the situation in Ryrkaypiy, location marked on the map above. Ryrkaypiy has a walrus haulout location nearby and the few dozen polar bears from the Chukchi Sea subpopulation that spend the summer on shore waiting for sea ice to reform during the fall present safety problems for the villagers.
Here’s a quote from one of the stories on the 2017 incident, at Gizmodo (25 October 2017), which blamed the incident on climate change: “Polar Bears Drive Hundreds of Walruses Off Cliff in Siberian Bloodbath”
Climate change is having all sorts of bizarre and terrifying consequences in Siberia. Outbreaks of zombie anthrax, massive methane blowouts, that sort of thing. But the latest freak incident—in which hundreds of walruses hauled out on a shoreline, before tumbling off a cliff in terror at the sight of approaching polar bears—reminds us how changes can ripple across the food chain, throwing delicate ecological relationships out of whack.
The incident in question occurred near Ryrkaypiy, a tiny village located on the northern coast of Chukotka bordering the Chukchi Sea. According to a report by the Siberian Times, 5,000 walruses recently hauled out on a shoreline near the village. The walruses were followed by about 20 polar bears, no doubt drawn by the stench of thousands of blubbery, flippered meals.
The arrival of the bears caused the walruses to panic, and many attempted to flee. Per the Siberian Times, “several hundred” fell to their deaths off the cliffs of the nearby Kozhevnikova Cape. The bears, naturally, went to town on the carcasses.
“The situation is alarming,” Viktor Nikiforov, Head of Polar Bear Patrol at World Wildlife Fund Russia, told the Siberian Times in the understatement of the century. “Many [walruses] crashed, falling from a height.”
Kristin Laidre, a polar bear expert at the University of Washington, told Earther that while she has not heard about walruses falling off cliffs very often, “certainly polar bears will be attracted to any prey on shore during the ice-free season, even if it’s close to a village with people.”
Mikhail Stishov, Arctic Biodiversity officer for World Wildlife Fund Russia, told Earther that in the last few years “it’s been a pretty typical situation with huge haul outs on the shore line (due to ice cover reducing). Ryrkaypiy is one of the regular haul out sites.”
A handful of other sites along the Russian and Alaskan Chukchi coast have also started playing host to massive groups of walruses, as the nearshore sea ice they use to access shallow water food sources disappears. For the Inupiat village of Point Lay on Alaska’s North Slope, hundreds to thousands of walruses have become a regular late summer spectacle.
As the above shows, WWF was there to witness the event and provide opinion. A Mikhail Stishov, Arctic Biodiversity officer for World Wildlife Fund Russia and Head of WWF project Polar Bear Patrol, Viktor Nikiforov were there. And who does Attenborough direct distraught viewers to at the end of this particularly disturbing ‘Our Planet’ episode? Why, WWF, who would be only too happy to accept your cash donatations.
According to The Times story on the ‘Our Planet episode:
“The series has a strong conservation message and the plight of the walruses is regarded by the producers as the most powerful story they found during the four years of filming.”
Bottom line: This “powerful story” is fiction and emotional manipulation at its worst. Even if the footage shown by Attenborough was not the 2017 incident in Ryrkaypiy (or a similar one from another year or similar location), we know that walruses reach the top of cliffs in some locations and might fall if startled by polar bears, people or aircraft overhead, not because they are confused by shrinking sea ice cover. Walrus will not replace polar bears as an icon for global warming because neither is being harmed by reduced summer sea ice.
Journalist should have asked where and when this footage was shot, but they did not. The media are therefore complicit in perpetuating myths about walrus, sea ice, and polar bears in order to advance an agenda while providing free advertising for Netflix.
Note, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that the Pacific walrus is not being harmed by climate change and are not likely to be harmed within the foreseeable future. The IUCN Red List (2015) said the Pacific walrus was ‘data deficient‘. Here’s my post announcing the 2014 summary paper about the walrus haulout phenomenon (pdf here). My GWPF video is below and a list of previous walrus posts is here.
HT/Cam_S who’s news tip I forwarded to Dr. Crockford and sparked her post.
I posted this review on Amazon about Attenborough’s “Planet Earth II” (14 people found it helpful, so not everybody is lost yet):
“There is some ineresting new footage in this series — and a lot of things that we have seen again and again, probably filmed with the new equipment but looking pretty much the same. Music is also an annoying, pale re-work of previous watery effects. At the end of every episode there is a bit of de rigueur environmentalist propaganda. But this would be all right, more or less, and I would give this BBC “hit” 4 stars — if only they would not sell out to the hysterical global warmist propaganda in the whole last episode, which is really painful to watch. One feels as if forced to attend a session of brainwashing speeches in some totalitarian state. Exaggerated, self-contradictory assertions, outright lies in some cases, premature conclusions based on short-lived, unconfirmed observations, emotional rather than scientific approach, all the trademarks of the scaremongering and hype that all but crushed any reasonable attempts to approach some existing issues but succeded in creating a multi-billion-dollars, Goebbels-like, fanatical, man-hating and self-loathing industry of those who want to rob others with the governments’ help, live well, and feel good about it, too. A pity Attenborough sold out to this shameless crowd at his advanced age. I suspect they threatened him with something — ostracism in his beloved BBC, most probably — they wouldn’t rise above that. No, I am not going to pay BBC for what they did. They are far beyond being simply ignoble.”
Correction: “Blue Planet II” it was named. After this series, I stopped watching Attenborough-commented episodes.
The last decent series narrated by him was Planet Earth (first one from 2006) but even that had some BS climate crap thrown in IIRC. At least the grandeur of the planet and its animal inhabitants was the main focus. I refuse to watch any of the newer series with him. The man is off his rocker.
Sad … the 93 old man is destroying his scientific credibility
… or perhaps has being manipulated by the financial beneficiaries, who ever they may be, with the aim of cashing in while he still can see and read ‘autocue/teleprompter. ‘
But he has no scientific credibility to destroy. He is merely an old fool.
@Kone Wone – Criticising David Attenborough for what he does or doesn’t do is legitimate.
Merely slanging a man of his stature is uncalled for.
Perhaps, as surely must be the case for you to comment as you did, you have never heard of his decade long contributions to bringing the world of nature to millions of people everywhere.
Either way, whether through rudeness or ignorance, Until you attain his stature and one time credibility (however unlikely that may seem) maintaining a degree of decency is in order.
Russell
If he acts like an old fool, he’s an old fool.
His only contribution to science is having a nice sounding voice.
They need another iconic climate-endangered animal after the demise of the polar bear story. Walruses appear to fit the bill.
@Javier,
try a 16 year old autistic Swedish girl.
JD.
“Scientists who study polar bears in the field -which Crockford ”
That’s Dr. Crockford, Griff. Show a little respect.
Science says that there are no surviving polar bears, walruses were scared to death by the ghosts of polar bears who rose from eternity to warn humans of imminent climate doom.
I have cancelled my Netflix account today.
How sad that a once genuine and dedicated wildlife researcher should have developed into a silly mouthpiece for all the ridiculous statements put out by the global warming fanatics. One would excuse him if it is the result of some sort of senility, but you cannot say that about his arch supporter The Prince Charles, who seems to use every speech he makes around the world to tell us all that the end of the world is nigh, and that we must return to living like they did in the middle ages if we are to ‘save the planet’
@Kone Wone – Criticising David Attenborough for what he does or doesn’t do is legitimate.
Merely slanging a man of his stature is uncalled for. Perhaps, as surely must be the case for you to comment as you did, you have never heard of his decade long contributions to bringing the world of nature to millions of people everywhere.
Either way, whether through rudeness or ignorance, Until you attain his stature and one time credibility (however unlikely that may seem) maintaining a degree of decency is in order.
Russell
I guess it’s ok with you if we slang men of lesser stature.
But Attenborough is famous, so he’s off limits.
Any more butts you want to kiss while you’re at it?
He can start with mine.
Until you attain his stature and one time credibility
What “stature and one time credibility” is that? A narrator on a TV show? Just about anyone could do that (I guess voice-training would help)….
And yeah, I’ve seen the shows. Dump the obvious pandering to eco-loons, and they would be much more credible.
Attenborough followed the BBC “party line” and eventually was the head of BBC2 (Which funded his career). Bellamy didn’t and was sacked.
How’s this: Attenburough’s an elitist scumbag.
It is a great shame that old Attenborough has been co-opted into supporting the man-made global warming hoax.
As they say, there’s no fool like an old fool.
Of course it was climate, summer was turning in to fall……..Blame it on the tilt of the earth..
I knew evolution was wrong all along and now climate science proves that is 100% true. NOTHING ADAPTS ever and everything humans do destroys the planet. Thanks for proving Darwin was a quack there Attenborough. /s
Attenborough’s the one that’s been calling humanity a pestilence.
Global warming is killing all the polar bears……what’s that? Uh huh.
This just in, global warming is causing the polar bear population to grow disastrously.
I thought sea levels were rising and making cliff dives a thing of the past.
With this bizarre behaviour, walruses have be come huge lemmings.
There are other examples of big lemmings.
In the financial markets as a rising stock market peaks with great convictions, here is the typical line.
It explains a lot.
“Come on in. It feels good. All the lemmings are doing it.”
And then over the financial cliff.
Very few participants avoid going over the cliff.
Oh dear, The Sun!
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aafc1b/pdf
From 1971… How convenient from those 20 scientists…
Minor warming is good for the Arctic (Maybe we should pray for warming in the Antarctic!); belief in the accuracy of the UN IPCC climate models is bad for your brain.
When weird shit happens in the natural world…. film it and blame Climate Change
Rinse and repeat…
It doesn’t even have to be weird. For example:
I stumped my toe — climate change.
I’m hungry — climate change.
I let the dog out — climate change.
The sky is blue — climate change.
1 +1 = 2 — climate change.
This what the film-makers say……
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6900011/Netflix-Walruses-fell-deaths-chased-polar-bears-NOT-climate-change.html
Sophie Lanfear, director of the Frozen Worlds series that features the Our Planet episode, defended the footage, saying two crew members watched the animals fall and claimed they were not being chased by polar bears.”
She said: ‘We filmed Pacific walrus falling from high cliffs. They were not being driven off the cliffs by the polar bears and we know this because we had two team members watching the cliffs from afar who could see the polar bears and were in radio communications with us to warn us about any bears approaching the crew closer to the walrus and the cliffs.
‘Once the walrus had rested at the top for a few days they wanted to return to sea when all the others below started to leave.
‘We would watch them for hours teetering back and forth on the edge before finally, falling off.
‘Fundamentally, the reason walrus used this haul out location is because of a lack of sea ice in the region, meaning they are coming ashore more frequently than they did in the past.
No Sophie, fundamentally the walrus fell off the cliff due to a combination of poor eyesight and not being very smart.
Notice that she very carefully did not say exactly where or when the event they filmed took place.
She said they “could see the polar bears” – suggesting there were indeed bears there. Bears don’t necessarily have to actively chase walrus to frighten them enough to make a mis-step off a cliff.
The incident at Ryrkapiy in 2017 involved “hundreds” of falling walrus: the incident she filmed in the Russian Arctic involved “hundreds” of falling walrus. What are the odds that two separate incidents involving hundreds of walrus happened along that coast in 2017?
Where and when was the ‘Our Planet’ sequence filmed – that should settle it conclusively. But no one is saying.
Susan
In the past fewer walruses came ashore because they were hunted to near extinction. More walruses haul out on land as populations grew. Besides those walruses migrated south where sea ice has been rare during this time of year for thousands of years.
Sophie Lanfear is a fear mongering master of deceptive narratives. Disgusting!
One one hand we are told that polar bears are starving to death because of a lack of sea ice.
Now we are told that walruses are vulnerable to polar bears because of a lack of sea ice.
So which is it? Is a lack of sea ice good for polar bears, or bad for them?
Well some say it’s about climate change while some disagree so it must be about climate change-
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techandscience/why-are-walruses-walking-off-cliffs/ar-BBVK3sF
This sciency stuff is easy peasy when you put your mind to it.
Attenborough – not to put too fine a point on it – is a halfwit.
Mr Attenborough is regrettably evidence that growing wisdom does not always attend growing age.