Reposted from Dr. Susan Crockford’s Polar Bear Science Posted on May 15, 2020 | Comments Off on Still pack ice around Bear Island in the Barents Sea on 15 May: last time was 2003 It’s very open drift ice (1-4/10th concentration) but still: Bear Island (Bjørnøya) in the southern Barents Sea was still surrounded by pack…
From Polar Bear Science Sea ice more than 1.2m thick over Hudson Bay portends a good year for polar bears Posted on May 8, 2020 | The chart below shows what sea ice thickness over Hudson Bay was like at the first week of May in a so-called a ‘good year’ (2019) – when polar bears…
From Polar Bear Science Posted on May 5, 2020 | A recent paper that attempted to correlate pollution levels and body condition in Barents Sea polar bears reports it found body condition of female bears had increased between 2004 and 2017 despite a pronounced decline in summer and winter sea ice extent. “Unexpectedly, body condition…
From Polar Bear Science Posted on March 29, 2020 | Comments Off on Svalbard finds tranquilizing & removing problem polar bears comes with risks to bears In Svalbard, Norway, it is routine practice to chase polar bears away from settlements with snow machines and helicopters, then tranquilize and relocate them if necessary but in late…
From Polar Bear Science Posted on March 24, 2020 | Winter sea ice maximum extent on March 5 was the highest since 2013 The most positive thing that US National Snow and Ice Data Center sea ice experts could say about this year’s winter sea ice maximum was that it wasn’t a record breaker. But…
From Polar Bear Science Posted on March 19, 2020 | On Tuesday 17 March 2020, several polar bears were reported in and around the community of St. Anthony on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, adding another threat on top of coronavirus concerns in the province. The photo below is from a 2018 Newfoundland sighting from…
From Polar Bear Science Posted on March 1, 2020 | Sea ice around Svalbard, Norway at the end of February 2020 is way above average, as the graph below shows – with more polar bear habitat now than there has been in two decades. Some comparison charts below show that the graph above includes some…
Reposted from Dr. Susan Crockford’s Polar Bear Science Posted on February 24, 2020 | Google says many people ask this question so here is the correct answer: polar bears are not going extinct. If you have been told that, you have misunderstood or have been misinformed. Polar bears are well-distributed across their available habitat and…
Reposted from Polar Bear Science Posted on January 12, 2020 | This aerial shot of six fat polar bears lolling around on a sand beach on the coast of the Southern Beaufort Sea, Alaska, was taken by NOAA employees in July 2019. It exemplifies the reality that bears in this subpopulation are currently abundant and…
Reposted from Polar Bear Science Posted on December 7, 2019 | The media are so gullible. So eager are they for a sympathetic polar bear victim that news outlets everywhere carried a story earlier this week about a Russian polar bear that had ‘T-34’ spray-painted on its side. They took the word of Russian polar…