As Crockford’s report reveals, plankton growth – the critical health measure of marine life in the Arctic – reached record highs in August 2020. More plankton (‘primary productivity’) due to…
Category: Polar Bears
Fact: polar bears are thriving despite sea ice loss according to the scientific literature
Is Facebook now an expert on polar bear conservation status? Apparently they have decreed themselves the last word for online content. There is a plan afoot to label anything that…
Polar bear sea ice habitat highs and lows in early February
Sea ice across the Arctic in the first week of February is a mix of highs and lows. Bering Sea is back up to almost normal coverage, as is the…
Polar bears can come ashore any time of year and cause trouble: a timely reminder
If you thought polar bears were only a danger to people in summer when sea ice is low, think again. Bears do occasionally come ashore early to mid-winter looking for…
More food for Polar Bears: Arctic report card 2020 highlights the huge benefit of less summer sea ice
As well as summarizing sea ice changes, NOAA’s 2020 Arctic Report Card features two reports that document the biggest advantage of much less summer sea ice than there was before…
Late fall polar bear habitat 2020 compared to some previous years
As is usual at this time of year, the Canadian Archipelago, the Beaufort, East Siberian and Laptev Seas are well covered in ice (see regions on map below). As for…
Polar bears again attracted to Russian town by dead walrus Attenborough blames on no sea ice
Lack of sea ice caused by human-caused global warming is not causing increasing numbers of polar bears to congregate around Ryrkaypiy in the late fall. A combination of increasing numbers…
The conundrum of Hudson Bay bears that left shore late in 1983 with video from CBC archives
In 1983, it was claimed that freeze-up of Hudson Bay was so late that polar bears didn’t leave the shore until the 4th of December – several weeks later than…
Polar bear habitat update for late November
Sea ice formation is ahead of usual in some regions and behind in others but overall, sea ice habitat is abundant enough for this time of year for virtually all…
Good news: Gulf of Boothia and M’Clintock Channel polar bear survey results
Reposted from Polar Bear Science Posted on November 17, 2020 Final reports for two Canadian subpopulations reveal the number of polar bears in M’Clintock Channel has more than doubled since…
Shorefast ice formation and the fall feeding season for polar bear
What may seem like a silly question is actually fundamental to polar bear survival: in the fall, why do Western Hudson Bay bears correctly expect to find seals in the…
Western & Southern Hudson Bay polar bears experience earliest freeze-up in decades
This is shaping up to be one of the shortest ice-free seasons in at least 20 years for both Western and Southern Hudson Bay polar bears.
Ten fat polar bears filmed raiding a stalled Russian garbage truck
From the Siberian Times today (20 October) is a story with few facts but a fabulous video of six fat adults and four fat cubs as they set siege to…
Some surprises in polar bear sea ice habitat at mid-October 2020
Arctic sea ice has been growing steadily since the minimum extent was reached a month ago, with shorefast ice now developing along the Russian and Alaskan coastlines as ice cover…
A Geological Perspective of Polar Bears
Guest “geological perspective” by David Middleton A Popular Narrative Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are the poster child for the impacts of climate change on species, and justifiably so. To date,…
S. Beaufort polar bear population stable since 2010 not declining new report reveals
A just-released report on the latest count for the Alaska portion of the Southern Beaufort subpopulation reveals that numbers have been stable since 2010 despite claims the population has continued…
Polar bear researchers try very hard to make good news in Kane Basin sound trivial
In an astonishing display of under-selling good news, the authors of a new paper announcing that Kane Basin polar bears are doing well have avoided mentioning that the population increased…
Potential impact of the second-lowest sea ice minimum since 1979 on polar bear survival
The annual summer sea ice minimum in the Arctic has been reached and while the precise extent has not yet been officially determined, it’s clear this will be the ‘second…
Attenborough’s new attempt to scare people about polar bear extinction and walrus deaths
Attenborough’s new attempt to scare people about polar bear extinction and walrus deaths
Sceptical covid-19 research and sceptical polar bear science: is there a difference?
This essay about medical researchers having trouble getting their papers published because the results don’t support the official pandemic narrative has disturbing parallels with my experience trying to inject some…
First polar bear alert report for Churchill an astonishing seven weeks later than last year
The first report of the Polar Bear Alert Program in Churchill, Manitoba was released today (1 September), a full seven weeks later than last year due to many bears remaining…
Amid crying over low Arctic ice, W Hudson Bay polar bears leave ice as late as 2009
This year, the last collared Western Hudson Bay polar bear to leave the ice left as late, or later, than the last collared bear did in 2009 (which was an…
