From: Ian Stirling <
[email protected]> Subject: polar bears disturbance Date: March 25, 2020 at 10:26:09 AM PDT To: Richard Weber <
[email protected]> Dear Richard, Thanks for your email enquiring about the possibility of bothering polar bears at a ski camp at Ayr Lk, about 55 km W of Clyde River, from mid-April to mid- May. I am not personally familiar with the area around your camp, though I conducted field research on polar bears worked about SE Baffin as far north as Broughton Island, through 4 spring seasons back in the late 1970s. I am also quite familiar with the polar bear field studies conducted by colleagues on eastern and NE Baffin in subsequent years. It is my understanding that the maternity dens that have been reported from eastern Baffin Island have mainly been found and reported from a relatively narrow band within a few km of the coast, and not as far inland (55 km) as your camp or up on glaciers. Areas around the heads of fiords are favoured by family groups in early spring because they tend to have good populations of pupping ringed seals for mother bears to hunt after leaving the maternity den but few adult males that might be dangerous to cubs at that time of year. Families also hang around the heads of fiords later in the spring as breakup approaches and and open water takes over but I don't think this would conflict with any of your activities. One thing I did see a couple of times on SE Baffin was tracks of single bears going from one fiord system to another via mountain passes exiting and entering the fiords respectively, part of the way inland from the mouth.