PBI Annual Newsmagazine 2020

Polar Bears International Annual Newsmagazine

Fall 2020 Our Changing World Inside s you read this, wild polar bears have gathered on the shores of Hudson Bay to wait for the sea ice to return. World Ranger Day They have no idea that people around the globe are in Award 2020 the midst of a pandemic, with shutdowns altering daily A life in ways none of us could have imagined a year ago. The annual migration of polar bears in the fall, just like the burst of 3 daffodils in spring, is a poignant reminder of the ancient rhythms of nature—and the responsibility all of us have, as citizens of this How did polar bears survive planet, to keep wildlife wild and to respect ecosystems and nature. earlier warm periods? That respect lies at the heart of everything we do. At Polar Bears International, our sole focus is on polar bears. 4 We also work to inspire people to care about the Arctic and to understand that what happens in that fragile ecosystem ultimately impacts their own backyards. Charting a future for polar bears Our annual newsmagazine takes you to the front lines of polar bear research and conservation, immersing you in the polar bear’s world. Through stories and photos, we share insights on the 6 bears and take you on a visual journey through one of the most remarkable places on Earth. Polar bear hybrids This year, our magazine includes findings from an important new study that, for the first time, outlineswhen various polar bear populations will start to disappear unless we meet the goals of 8 the Paris Climate Agreement. The consequences of inaction are sobering, underscoring the importance of voting for leaders who Q&A with Dr. Thea will address the climate crisis while also doing all that we can to Bechshoft, staff support meaningful change in our own communities. scientist The current pandemic has proven that bold, swift changes led by the government are not easy, but can be done. With global societies facing the task of rebuilding and restructuring, we have an 10 opportunity to rethink existing systems and embrace the positive change we need. This includes ending our reliance on fossil fuels Safer co-existence through a swift transition to renewable energy—a choice that will save sea ice, ensure the polar bear’s future, help rebuild our stricken economies, and leave a healthier planet for us all. 12 Sincerely, The polar bear’s dilemma

Krista Wright 14 Executive Director Editor: Barbara Nielsen; Art Director: Polar Bears International’s mission is to conserve polar bears and the sea Emily Ringer; Designer: Amy Hoitsma ice they depend on. We also work to inspire people to care about the Arctic and its connection to our global climate. © Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com By Geoff York

s our helicopter landed on the only visible part of fog-shrouded Wrangel Island in the fall of 2019, we counted four polar bears on a short stretch of shore, including one that poked its head from an old shack near a little-used cabin. LandingA in the midst of polar bears on a remote Russian island was a bit unsettling for our small research team, led by Dr. Eric Regehr of the University of Washington, but thanks to the excellent track record of the nature reserve’s rangers, we held our concerns in check. Russia’s Wrangel Island Nature Reserve is home to one of the largest gatherings of polar bears in the world. The rangers who work in this remote and challenging environment follow a unique program to keep polar bears and people safe, one that involves a deep understanding of polar bear behavior—and not a single gun. World This year, in recognition of the staff’s extraordinary achievements in preventing conflict between polar bears and people, we honored the team with our ranger day annual World Ranger Day Award, presented each year on July 31st. Wrangel Island is critically important to the Chukchi AWARD 2020 Sea polar bears, a population shared by the U.S. and Russia. Most adult females in this population den on the island and polar bears of all types use the protected area as a refuge during the expanding ice- free season in summer and fall. The reserve has created a highly successful program for managing a variety of interactions with polar bears, one that includes adapting methods from the Chukchi people along with more modern tools and techniques developed by staff. Rangers here carry no firearms. Instead they are trained to interpret polar bear behavior and to use an escalating set of responses depending on the situation—from simple aggressive body posture and noisemaking to the careful use of a long pole or staff and marine rescue flare pistols. We are proud to recognize the team with this year’s award. The honor comes with a plaque and an assortment of gear from Canada Goose. Geoff York is Polar Bears International’s senior director of conservation. Past recipients of our World Ranger Day Award include the late Vladelin Kavry of Russia’s Umky Patrollers; Churchill, Canada’s Polar Bear Alert team; Wildlife Officer Erling Madsen of Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland; and the North Slope Borough’s Polar Bear Patrols in Alaska. © Babiy Ulyana Vladimirovna POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL 3 How Did Polar Bears Survive Past Warm Interglacial Periods?

By Dr. Ian Stirling and Dr. Kristin Laidre

Figure 1. Some of the more than 180 “Polar bears It is well known bears recorded feeding on a single that polar bears need to use sea bowhead whale carcass on Wrangel Island, have evolved ice as a platform from which to Chukotka, Russia, in September 2017 hunt seals because they can’t (© O. Belonovich/Heritage Expeditions). over a long catch them in the open water. However, as the climate continues before they start to den, are to warm the Arctic, the sea ice is producing fewer cubs, and those period of breaking up earlier in the spring cubs are not surviving as well as in and freezing later in the fall. This the past. time to means that the most important Now, because of continued climate seal-hunting period of the year for warming, a lack of sea ice in summer the bears (late spring and early live on fat- throughout the Arctic has been summer) is getting progressively predicted to occur within the next shorter. The consequence of that rich diets few decades. Not surprisingly, for the bears, especially in areas concerns are being expressed for with seasonal sea ice cover such as the long-term survival of polar bears and cannot the western coast of Hudson Bay, in the wild because, if the bears is that they are now having to fast survive by for progressively longer periods on lose much or all of the sea ice on a smaller stored fat reserves while year-round basis, they will be forced eating plants they wait on shore for the ice to ashore for increasingly long periods, freeze again so they can return to where they cannot simply adapt to hunting. As the open water period terrestrial food sources. like brown or has become longer over time, Polar bears have evolved over a pregnant adult females have also long period of time to live on fat-rich black bears.” been in poorer body condition diets and cannot survive by eating

4 POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL NEWSMAGAZINE | 2020 plants like brown or black bears. that die of natural causes and feeding on large bowhead and However, because polar bears wash up on beaches in different gray whale carcasses. In 2017, evolved from brown (grizzly) parts of the Arctic are well known more than 180 bears were bears about 500,000 years to attract large numbers of seen scavenging on a single ago, it is clear that they must bears to feed on them, often for dead bowhead whale washed have survived at least three or durations of a year or more. In ashore on Wrangel Island in four warm and largely ice-free past warm interglacial periods, Russia (Figure 1, left). Moreover, interglacial periods in the past, long before the slaughters of individual bears may return to including the most well-known the commercial whaling period, the remains of the same carcass and warmest interglacial period, the numbers of large whales of for a year or more, as illustrated the Eemian (130–115 thousand several species living in the open by bears feeding on a fin whale years ago!). Not surprisingly and biologically productive polar carcass in a small bay on the then, the big question people oceans would have numbered in western coast of Svalbard, quite reasonably keep asking the hundreds of thousands, or Norway a few years ago (Figure is: How did polar bears survive possibly even millions, compared 2 a-c, below). When you consider with little or no sea ice in the with just a few tens of thousands that each polar bear in a past, and could they do so again, at the most today. Most whales, population may require about until humans are able to slow of course, die at sea and their 43 ringed seals, or ringed seal and possibly reverse climate carcasses sink, where they would equivalents, every year (more for warming? be inaccessible to polar bears on big bears, fewer for small bears) Clues on today’s land. However, roughly 10% of then the importance of just one shores naturally dying whales become large bowhead whale carcass buoyant as a result of gas in the to hungry polar bears is huge n obvious starting point is body cavity generated by the (Figure 3, page 16). to consider is: Are there A decomposition of body tissues any possible alternative food while they are drifting at sea. sources that are very rich in Different story today Some of these carcasses would fat that might be available to have washed up on beaches in he presence of polar bear polar bears stuck on land for the Arctic where they could have T populations throughout the long periods? When you stop been fed upon by any bears in circumpolar Arctic today makes to think about it, the hints the area. it clear that polar bears persisted about a possible answer to that successfully through several question are already visible on Several times in recent years, previous low-ice interglacial Arctic shorelines every year. The substantial numbers of polar carcasses of large baleen whales bears have been observed continued on page 16

Figure 2. Polar bears may scavenge on large whale carcasses for over a year, as shown in this series of images taken in Svalbard. (a) Four males stand on the floating carcass of a fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) (© Daniel J. Cox/Arctic Documentary Project); (b) Two months later, the same carcass being fed on by six males and an unknown total number of bears throughout the following winter (© Norbert Rosing); (c) One year later, most of the carcass had been consumed but the remains, despite being largely submerged, were still being used by several bears, including this adult female and cub (© Ian Stirling).

2a 2b 2c

polarbearsinternational.org | POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL 5 n 2010, I led a study that predicted that polar bears could all but disappear across the Arctic by the end of the century unless we Itake action to greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But there are 19 populations of polar bears across the Arctic, living in four different sea ice ecoregions, and the critical question has always been: When will each population begin to disappear? When will they vanish from Alaska? From Churchill? From Svalbard? Is a world without polar bears an inevitable tragedy–or do we still have time to act? Thanks to a brainstorm on a Tundra Buggy during the polar bear migration, followed by five years of hard work, we finally have answers to these vital questions. Polar bears can only reliably catch their seal prey from the surface of the sea ice. They cannot outswim seals, and there are no consistent food sources on land that Charting a future can match the energy content of fat-rich seals. By 2010, we knew there was a fundamental link between for polar bears polar bear welfare and sea ice availability, and we could say

By Dr. Steven C. Amstrup with confidence that as sea ice

disappeared, there would be

ever fewer polar bears. “ I’ve devoted most of my adult life to polar But quantifying reproduction bears and feel a profound sense of loss at and survival responses to “ sea ice loss for 19 polar bear the thought of a world without them. populations was a difficult challenge. Even in areas where we have sufficient data to obtain these estimates, we don’t know what those vital parameters will be in future ice conditions.

6 POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL NEWSMAGAZINE | 2020 © Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com While most polar bear researchers were ardently focused on developing better estimates for these parameters, Dr. Peter Molnar, now at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, was pioneering a physiological approach. His idea was to determine how many days polar bears can fast before reproduction and survival begin to fail. I immediately recognized that © Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com Peter’s approach provided Without action to reduce emissions, longer fasting periods will ultimately a breakthrough solution to impact cub survival rates and the polar bear’s ability to reproduce. the dearth of reproduction and survival data. If we could combine fasting limits for tundra, I called Peter with this global community to embrace polar bears with estimates of news, and he was keen to finish climate solutions. the future numbers of ice- developing his model with an eye She was happy to join the effort, free days in different regions, toward this when question. and so the project was born. we could predict when After speaking to Peter, I called For this study, Peter looked at individual populations would Marika. Alas, she was too busy data from across the Arctic to begin to fail. The problem to work on the project, which estimate how fat and how thin was that, at that time, climate we knew would be difficult polar bears can be when they models produced values only and time-consuming. But I enter their summer fast. He for ice-free months, not days. was pleased indeed when calculated their energy use and she recommended I ask Dr. then modeled the threshold Networking, Cecilia Bitz at the University number of days that polar tundra-style of Washington. I knew Cecilia bears can fast before cub and/ well. She previously had joined can still remember bumping or adult survival rates begin to us in Churchill and was key to along on the tundra near decline. Intersecting these with I the study mentioned above, Churchill on a snowy, blustery Cecilia’s sea ice projections, we which was published in Nature a day, stopping to watch a polar were able to create timelines decade ago. That paper not only bear mom and cub wrapped of risk for when reproductive around each other in a predicted that polar bears would success and survival would snow bed outside our buggy all but disappear without action begin to fail—the first time this window. I’ve studied polar on climate but also showed that had ever been done. bears for nearly 40 years and there is no “tipping point” for am still endlessly moved by Arctic sea ice—and that, instead, We released our findings in their amazing adaptations to there is a linear relationship a paper published in Nature their icy Arctic home. between sea ice extent and Climate Change in July of this global mean temperature. With me on the buggy was year, with Peter as the lead Dr. Marika Holland, a sea ice Cecilia and I talked about the author. expert at the National Center challenge of creating timelines for Atmospheric Research. for when each of the 19 polar The choice is ours Marika told me that NCAR’s bear populations might start to n the study, we explored two latest model directly produced disappear, answering the critical alternative futures for polar estimates of ice-free days. when question for managers and I When I returned from the policy makers—and inspiring the continued on page 18

n the 20 years that I have for four to six weeks, depending The been studying polar bears in on weather. Our jumping off point “ the Arctic, I have learned a was a small cabin on the north lot about their ecology and end of Victoria Island in a place silence have been very fortunate to called Wyniatt Bay. On April 23, Ispend many amazing days out the thermometer sat at a brisk on the sea ice. Through all of that -25°C and the winds were calm was time, if there is one thing that I as the sun crested the horizon. I have learned it is to expect the rolled out of my bunk, put on my broken unexpected. parka, and grabbed our Honda In April 2012, I was part of a generator. I gave a couple pulls, research team that was headed and the Honda fired up. (I had by a call to Viscount Melville Sound, an kept it inside the cabin to help with area at the very western edge the morning ritual of warming up of the Northwest Passage. the helicopter’s engine. It is one over the Viscount Melville Sound is home thing to try to cold start your 1981 to one of the world’s 19 polar Pontiac Grand Prix in Winnipeg, bear populations, a place that quite another to cold start a radio: is infrequently visited due to its million-dollar helicopter in the remote nature. The last research middle of nowhere!) team to check up on the polar This was our first of three years in What is bears in this area was there in Viscount Melville Sound, and we the mid-1990s. It was time for set off to get a feel for where the another check-up on how the bear activity was. Polar bears are that ? bears were doing. usually not uniformly distributed; ” Our research team would make they’re drawn to areas with greater use of three small cabins and seal densities and better hunting two remote tent camps that we opportunities. We got geared up would have to establish. In total, and headed east across Wyniatt we planned on being in the field Bay to work our way through a

8 POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL NEWSMAGAZINE | 2020 © Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com Bear Hybrids stern Canadian Arctic

number of small inlets that run of the Canadian Arctic, and this be very fatiguing. We decided like fingers into the rocky shore. little bear fit the bill. The brown it was time to take a break and These areas of consolidated sea bear was standing at the base landed the helicopter close to a ice attract ringed seals as they of the rocky slope, and the large iceberg. After a quick cup make for good pupping habitat small bear continued to climb. of coffee, we climbed up on the and often attract bears. It was evident from the steam iceberg to have a look around. We flew through several inlets, coming from both of them that At the top, we could see to seeing nothing but old tracks and the chase had been going on the horizon in every direction, no bears. As we turned into the for a while. With both bears looking out over the vast areas too warm to safely handle, mouth of one of the larger inlets, of sea ice that are so critical to we snapped a couple of quick the silence was broken by a call the polar bear’s existence. photos and marked the GPS over the radio: “What is that?” As we soaked it all in, formulating location, hoping that we would I peered from the back seat of our plan on where to go next, find them another day. the helicopter and saw a dark a familiar phrase was uttered shape moving quickly across again: “What is that?” A quick the sea ice. As we approached, Second chances glance revealed a dark-colored it was evident that it was a he next day we returned object moving across the sea ice. large brown bear, chasing what T to the area, but there was A wolverine? A muskox? Another appeared to be a smaller polar no sign of either bear. The brown bear? We quickly slid bear. We swung in for a closer following day we were flying down the snow-covered iceberg look. The smaller bear began over the sea ice north of Wyniatt and fired up the helicopter to go running up a steep rocky slope. Bay in Viscount Melville Sound. take a closer look. As we closed As we got closer, we could see Tracking conditions were the gap, there was no mistaking that it was no regular polar bear. difficult, and we were not having that it was a brown bear walking It had a brown streak down its much luck finding bears. We had on the ice in front of us, likely back, brown circles around its been flying for almost two hours the same one from two days eyes (almost like spectacles) and and had only seen a handful of before. With ideal conditions longer claws. It was a hybrid! old windblown tracks. and a well-experienced pilot, Hybrids had been previously Scouring the ice for tracks and the capture went smoothly and observed by Inuit in this part bears for hours at a time can continued on page 20

polarbearsinternational.org | POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL 9 Around the World with Polar Bears A chat with Dr. Thea Bechshoft, staff scientist By Barbara Nielsen

10 POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL NEWSMAGAZINE | 2020 © Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com he first time analyzing asymmetries in the skulls to assess the Dr. Thea influence of chemical pollution. Bechshoft It turned out to be a fascinating project. There stood on were these little hand-written field notes attached the sea ice to the skulls, many in old-fashioned handwriting. next to a sedated They had been collected over decades; some T were over 100 years old. Each time I held a skull polar bear, she felt in my hand, I would think about that particular incredibly nervous, polar bear and its story—where it lived, where it keenly aware of the roamed, why it had a broken tooth, and so on. fact that she was in the middle of From there, you went on to study polar nowhere—and if anything happened, too bad. Q: bears in Greenland while working on your “I didn’t know how to judge if the bear was really doctorate in Denmark. What was the focus of your out or not,” she recalls. “But Dr. Andrew Derocher, research? who was leading our research team, looked Greenland’s polar bears are some of the most comfortable, so I gradually moved closer for a polluted in the world because of wind and ocean quick touch. Then I overcame my fear and buried currents that carry many contaminants to this my face in its fur for a good whiff.” region in particular. I was part of a project to study the effects of those pollutants on polar bears. So, what did the bear smell like? Fresh, clean air Our field work took place in East Greenland in is the closest Thea can come to—like a walk on a Uunarteq, a tiny abandoned settlement about beach on a windy day. seven kilometers outside of Ittoqqortoormiit—all located at the mouth of the Scoresby Sound, one of Curiosity and a passion for research and science the largest and longest fjord systems in the world. are driving forces for Thea, who began volunteering The project was led in part by my PhD supervisor, Dr. Christian Sonne of Aarhus University, and I with Polar Bears International eight years ago and spearheaded most of the logistics—months of joined our staff in 2018. We caught up with her at hard work, but really enjoyable and well worth her home in Denmark, chatting via Skype about her all the experience it has given me with planning life and career. field work in the High Arctic. Our team took tissue samples from hunter-harvested bears, which were sent to a unique polar bear tissue bank outside Tell us about your background. How did of Copenhagen. These were legal hunts by local Q: you end up studying polar bears? indigenous hunters in Greenland, based on a limited quota system. Even when I was in high school, I knew I wanted to work with animals. I studied biology at the University of Copenhagen and, while there, What was it like working in Greenland? almost made a choice to study ants in South Q: Near Uunarteq there is a permanently America. But instead I became intrigued with open area in the sea ice that polar bears often the Arctic after seeing a brochure about the visit to hunt seals. We were always under time University Center in Svalbard, Norway. I applied constraints: We took several hundred samples for a semester but loved Arctic field work so from each bear, each processed and stored in its much I stayed 1½ years. Afterwards, I worked on own finicky way—all while keeping an eye out for my master’s under Dr. Øystein Wiig, a well-known approaching bears. polar bear scientist with the University of Oslo. He had a collection of 700 polar bear skulls and I remember once there was an eight-year-old boy was looking for a student interested in doing a from town who was so curious. I was sitting on master’s project on them. The key focus involved continued on page 17

polarbearsinternational.org | POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL 11 he Canadian town of Churchill, Manitoba, is working to establish the world’s first polar bear safe community. It is the next step in a drive to minimize Safer encounters between people and polar Tbears so both can thrive. More encounters are likely as retreating sea ice is forcing nutritionally Co-exn iste ce stressed bears to spend more time on shore. Churchill knows a thing or two about polar bears. It sits on the western shore of Hudson Bay and is for Polar visited by hundreds of bears each year. They leave the melting ice east of the town in spring and make their way overland, joining the new ice as the bay Bears and re-freezes in late fall. Churchill is en route, which has made it a nature tourism hotspot and earned it People the nickname Polar Bear Capital of the World. The bears are a major economic asset for the town and locals want them around—they just don’t want By Matt Brace to bump into them on a downtown street corner.

12 POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL NEWSMAGAZINE | 2020 Better and smarter istorically, the community has focused on removing food sources that H attract bears, educating people about bear safety, and keeping people and bears apart. It has also pioneered such initiatives as the year-round Polar Bear Alert Program, a 24-hour hotline with professional responders to whom people can report bear sightings that could pose a risk. In addition, it has introduced a polar bear holding facility, where bears who come into town are temporarily (but humanely) held before being relocated. Churchill’s mayor, Mike Spence, said the town is now building on those successful initiatives to “up their game.” “We’ve definitely played a role in co-existence, but we can do a lot more,” he said. “Our polar bears are such a valuable resource, and we need our nature tourism industry to flourish. “We all have a responsibility to our community and the bears, so we have to do things better and smarter. We have to make the most of economic opportunities for local people while improving safety.” To this end, the town of Churchill, with support from Polar Bears International, has used their strong local partnerships to set up a working group with representatives from across the community. The working group engaged the whole town, from local authorities to tourism operators and the chamber of commerce. It also included Indigenous and community representation, along with a delegate from Manitoba Province. A federal government representative joined the second meeting.

What is a polar bear safe community? s with any co-existence between humans A and wild animals, safety can never be 100% guaranteed. A polar bear safe community, however, can make its area significantly safer for both people and bears. On the ground in Churchill, this means fewer bears in town and fewer bears that have to be locked up or relocated. People will still be advised to exercise caution, especially when bears are gathering along the shore and waiting for the ice to form. “We are trying to lead by example,” said Mayor Spence. “We want to show the world that communities like Churchill can come together and make a difference. We want other communities to see us as an example of somewhere that has made some big changes which have improved how we safely co-exist with polar bears. We hope this will inspire more and more communities to follow our lead, so they become polar bear safe too.” continued on page 22

All photos © Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com polarbearsinternational.org | POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL 13 The Polar Bear’s Dilemma: Shrinking Sea Ice

We wanted to find out whether polar bears that followed the “ “ retreating sea ice were burning more calories than bears that moved to land in the summer.

14 POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL NEWSMAGAZINE | 2020 By Dr. Anthony Pagano

ntil recent decades, polar bears in from May to October, to evaluate the energetic the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and cost of this new divergent movement strategy. To northwestern Canada remained on our knowledge, this was the longest collection of the sea ice throughout the year where continuous accelerometer data in a wild animal, they fed on seals in biologically rich which gave us new insight into the seasonal Unear-shore areas. However, as a consequence of changes in energy expenditure of this remote climate change, summer sea ice in the Beaufort apex predator as it navigates its melting ice habitat Sea now retreats hundreds of miles from shore. through the spring and summer. This increase in open water has driven a divergent movement pattern in this population, where about We wanted to find out whether polar bears that followed the Ecological trap a quarter of the bears now come on land, while the remainder move hundreds of miles to follow urprisingly, we found that bears who moved retreating sea ice were burning more calories than bears that the shrinking summer sea ice platform. S to land expended 7% more energy on average over this five-month period than bears that In a recently published paper in the journal remained on the receding sea ice. This higher moved to land in the summer. Ecology, my colleagues, Drs. Todd Atwood and energetic cost to move to land was driven by a George Durner with the U.S. Geological Survey and Dr. Terrie Williams with the University of higher frequency of swimming as bears swam to California, Santa Cruz and I sought to evaluate the land from the melting sea ice. This meant that implications of this divergent movement pattern bears that moved to land spent 22% more energy on polar bear energy expenditure. Specifically, we to get to land than bears spent to follow the wanted to find out whether bears that followed receding summer pack ice—even though bears the retreating sea ice were burning more calories are having to move much greater distances to than bears that moved to land in the summer. follow the retreating sea ice than they would have historically. This helps explain why the majority of the bears in this population continue to remain Innovative approach on the sea ice throughout the summer despite the ackling this question led us to some new significant decline in summer sea ice. T technologies that have become popular with human athletes. We attached accelerometers, the However, prior research has shown that bears same devices used in Fitbits®, to polar bear GPS on land in this region have access to whale collars to link polar bear locations and habitat carcasses harvested by indigenous residents in use with their energy expenditure. In the same the summer, while bears on the sea ice appear to way that a Fitbit provides an estimate of energy be fasting. This suggests that the decision by each expenditure (calories) and behavior for humans, bear to stay on the ice, over areas with limited we used these devices to estimate polar bear food, is creating an ecological trap. These bears energy expenditure and behavior. are selecting a habitat that requires less energy expenditure in the short-term, but that appears Of course, Fitbit and other activity-tracking devices to be more energetically costly overall once prey have been calibrated for humans. To calibrate accessibility is accounted for. This ecological trap our devices for polar bears, we worked with polar from following the retreating sea ice is likely a bears at the San Diego Zoo and the Oregon Zoo, contributing factor in the population declines where they were trained to voluntarily walk on a that have been documented in this population. metabolic treadmill, which allowed us to link the data from the accelerometer with the cost of their movement by measuring the amount of oxygen in Dr. Anthony Pagano is currently conducting the air they were breathing. a postdoctoral fellowship at San Diego Zoo From these calibrations, we were able to measure Global, collaboratively supported by Polar Bears the energy expenditure and behaviors of wild International, San Diego Zoo Global, and the U.S. polar bears in the Beaufort Sea for five months, Geological Survey in Alaska.

© Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com polarbearsinternational.org | POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL 15 WARMING PERIODS cont. from page 5 periods that resulted from naturally occurring climate cycles. The most likely explanation available to date seems to be that polar bears likely survived primarily by scavenging on whale (or other marine mammal) carcasses which, considering the large populations that must have been abundant in the Arctic before the arrival of humans, may have occurred relatively frequently in areas where prevailing winds or sea currents brought them to the coast. The polar bears in areas where whale carcasses washed up probably ate and stored large amounts of fat from them in order to survive Figure 3: Calculation of the value of the blubber and muscle mass periods when hunting seals was not of an adult bowhead whale carcass to polar bears, as measured in an option. ringed seal equivalents (© Uko Gorter). However, when we look at the present situation in the Arctic marine western and northern coasts of Svalbard, after being ecosystem, with respect to possible alternative food transported there from the North Atlantic via the sources for polar bears if they were largely unable Gulf Stream. to hunt seals, it’s a very different picture. Whale The diet of resident polar bears may be augmented carcasses may still be important in a few areas by these carcasses but, because carcass numbers but, quite simply, the potential overall availability are low and the locations where they are deposited of carcasses to scavenge on is substantially less are less predictable, their potential value to than was likely the case before commercial whalers supporting a polar bear population at present is arrived in the Arctic, devastated many of the whale fairly low. Thus, even though whale carcasses will populations, and, later, developed large-scale always be important for scavenging polar bears offshore industrial and shipping activities. wherever they wash ashore, they are not expected to Of equal overall importance though, the potential be able to replace seals as the nutritional resources ability of whale carcasses to help polar bears survive for the circumpolar population of polar bears as we in a future relatively ice-free Arctic will not only move towards an ice-free Arctic. In most regions, the depend on a supply of carcasses over time but also environmental changes are too large and the whale that they recur reliably in predictable locations. For carcasses too few. In summary then, although it example, the present-day healthy populations of appears that whale carcasses may have helped polar gray and bowhead whale populations offshore from bears persist through previous warm periods, the the coasts of Chukotka (Russia) and Alaska produced only real solution for the conservation of polar bears an average of about 11 large whale carcasses throughout the circumpolar Arctic remains to slow between June and November each year from 1963- and ultimately stop climate warming. 1993. Clearly, the predictable amounts and locations of whale carcasses, potentially augmented by lesser Dr. Ian Stirling is a research scientist emeritus with amounts of dead walruses and other seals, still has Environment and Climate Change Canada and an the potential to significantly augment the diet of adjunct professor with the Department of Biological polar bears in the area for some time. In contrast, Sciences, University of Alberta. Dr. Kristin Laidre is a in recent years, variable but small numbers of research scientist at the Polar Science Center, Applied whale carcasses are periodically stranded on the Physics Lab, University of Washington.

16 POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL NEWSMAGAZINE | 2020 so much—about the health help answer questions that we Q&A cont. from page 11 of the bears, their diets, the can’t study in wild bears. A lot load of pollutants. I’ve become of scientists don’t know what the ice for at least two hours, keenly interested in developing the zoos can do, especially in working on a bear that had just minimally invasive ways of Europe. So, part of what I’m come in, and he asked questions studying polar bears. doing is raising awareness and about everything I was doing. His connecting people to facilitate mom later told me, “That was so research. When I talk to zoo amazing for him. He wants to be While living in Canada, people, they are so eager to a biologist when he grows up.” Q: you started volunteering contribute. My work with zoos with Polar Bears International During the down time, we also includes serving an advisor and later joined our staff. How to the European Association of prepared for the next bear. We did that come about? had to make sure everything was Zoos and Aquaria’s Endangered stored just right—and labeled All thanks to Dr. Derocher. He Species Program, in particular just right—so when it was time to wants his students to have the new Polar Bear Research go, we were ready. When it came the opportunity to see polar and Welfare Working Group. time to write my dissertation, bears in the wild. He serves In addition, I do a lot of outreach I focused mostly on what we as a scientific advisor to Polar for PBI, from media interviews can learn from polar bear hair Bears International, and he to live broadcasts and blog samples, which was a new arranged for me to volunteer posts. I really like live Q&As approach at the time. Dr. Andrew as a Tundra Connections where I don’t know what the Derocher of the University panelist in 2013. I found PBI to next question will be. In fact, of Alberta was one of the be an amazing group of people after my first trip to Churchill, I opponents at my PhD defense, whose values I recognize in was so motivated and inspired which is how I ended up doing a myself. PBI invited me back that I came home and started postdoc in Canada for 3½ years. for additional broadcasts, and a “Polar Bear Questions” page I also volunteered as a field on Facebook, a series that is ambassador. I returned every fall also featured on PBI’s website. What was the focus of before joining the staff in 2018. People ask such unexpected and your research in Canada? Q: interesting questions, and quite often I learn new things myself, Two-thirds of the world’s As a staff scientist which I love. polar bears live in Canada, but Q: for Polar Bears compared to East Greenland, International, based in Denmark, Doing the outreach motivates little work had been done what is your role? me. It makes me feel that I’m on how contaminants were not alone in caring. It’s clear that affecting them. I started working I do a lot of research and people care about polar bears with Dr. Derocher on a study also spend time connecting and want to know how they can on the impacts of pollutants researchers who work with make a difference—and that’s like mercury on the polar bears wild polar bears to staff who incredibly important to me. of western Hudson Bay. I also work with polar bears in zoos further developed earlier work and aquariums. Zoo bears play I had done with polar bear hair an essential role in developing Barbara Nielsen is Polar Bears samples. These can be collected and validating less-invasive International’s communications non-invasively and can tell us research methods and can director.

© Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com polarbearsinternational.org | POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL 17 CHARTING A FUTURE cont. from page 7 bears based on different levels more polar bear populations profound sense of loss at the of greenhouse gas emissions. may persist to the latter part of thought of a world without The first scenario models what this century. them. The urgent need to will happen to polar bears Although moderate mitigation motivate action is why I if people take no action on is better for polar bears in retired as Polar Bear Project climate change and continue to the short-term, the long-term Leader for the U.S. Geological maximize the use of fossil fuels temperatures would still Survey to take on the role of chief scientist for Polar Bears with business-as-usual carbon continue to rise beyond 2100, International, where I can focus emissions. In this scenario, and the polar bear’s long-term my efforts on communicating the average end-of-century future would still not be assured. the looming threats to polar temperature will be 4.3 degrees Ideally, we would follow a bears and their sea ice home. Celsius above pre-industrial different scenario, not modeled levels. This would mean that in our study, where people Polar bears have long been a few populations of polar come together and take considered messengers of the bears may survive in the most swift, bold action as a global climate change symptoms that northern parts of their current community to meet the goals will impact all life on Earth, range, but most would collapse set during the Paris Agreement including us. We know that by the end of the century—only of 2015—which will keep global floods, droughts, and wildfires 80 years from now. temperature rise below 2 are becoming more frequent degrees. This is still an option, and severe as the world The second scenario models and doing so could preserve continues to warm and that what will happen if people polar bears over much of their these impacts will intensify as make moderate reductions current range indefinitely. global temperatures rise. to carbon emissions, with an average end-of-century The coronavirus pandemic temperature increase of 2.4 My life’s work shows how vital it is for our degrees Celsius above pre- ’ve devoted most of my adult governments to embrace industrial levels. In this case, Ilife to polar bears and feel a continued on page 19

18 POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL NEWSMAGAZINE | 2020 © Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com RiskR iskof Rofeproductive Reproductive Collapse Collapse in in Polar Polar Bears Bears if Greenhouseif Green Gasho Eusmissions.e Gas Em issi. . ons…

Continue As Usual 2080

Now 2020

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needed solutions, even when worst of future problems faced and leave a better world for the timeline of the threat by us all. The trajectory we’re generations to come. feels uncertain. Showing how on now is not a good one, but imminent the threat is for if society gets its act together, Dr. Steven C. Amstrup is Polar different polar bear populations we still have time to save Bears International’s chief is another reminder that we polar bears. And if we do, we’ll scientist. He has researched polar must act now to head off the benefit the rest of life on Earth bears for nearly 40 years.

polarbearsinternational.org | POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL 19 HYBRID BEARS cont. from page 9 before we knew it, we were standing on the sea ice with a brown bear in the middle of the Canadian High Arctic. What was this bear doing out on the sea ice? How was he making a living? There wouldn’t be any vegetation on the surrounding islands for months, and there were no caribou or muskoxen to chase out on the sea ice. However, if this was indeed the same bear that we saw in Wyniatt Bay, he likely wasn’t looking for food—he was here to mate. Although polar bear-brown bear hybrids are rare, they do happen. The Love is blind mix of traits makes these bears poorly adapted to both sea ice and land. © Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com. oth brown bears and polar B bears mate in the spring, female polar bears. Polar bears out at the sight of a cream- with females coming into estrus and brown bears are very closely colored bear (with a brown stripe as the days lengthen. One of the related species, and it has been and circles around her eyes) interesting aspects of brown bear known for some time that they trailed by three little chocolate- sightings in the Canadian Arctic can hybridize. Why this particular brown cubs. Hybrids! This time Islands is that they are almost male left his den early to pursue the conditions were ideal for exclusively male. Many large potential mates is anyone’s taking a closer look, and before I mammals have male-biased guess, but a small tissue sample knew it, we were standing on the dispersal, with males dispersing from him would prove to be very ice with four brown bear–polar to outlying areas to establish informative. bear hybrids. home ranges away from their Last chance From all appearances, the close relatives, including mothers female bear appeared to be the and sisters. This is likely partially ast forward two years later, same bear we had last observed driven by territoriality as well as F and we were back in Wyniatt scrambling up the rock slope to avoid inbreeding. Regardless, Bay for the final year of our almost two years to the day this male-biased dispersal means research program. It was April previously. Even more shocking that when the spring mating 14, 2014, and we were working were her three little cubs, which season begins, and big males the same series of inlets on the looked like brown bears from like the one we had captured east side of Wyniatt Bay in which all appearances. The only logical are ready to breed, there are we had observed the brown answer was that the female likely very few or no female bear and suspected hybrid. As hybrid in question had bred with brown bears in the area to breed we worked our way down the a brown bear and that her cubs with. From an evolutionary very same inlet where we had were second-generation hybrid perspective, surviving and spotted the male brown bear backcrosses. This would make reproducing are the two biggest and suspected hybrid two years her offspring 75% brown bear drives in an animal’s life. In the before, we spotted four animals and 25% polar bear. Subsequent absence of female brown bears, moving across the sea ice. If I genetic analysis revealed this to the only other option for these hadn’t been harnessed into my be true. In addition, the big male male brown bears is to look for seat, I think I would have fallen brown bear we had captured

20 POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL NEWSMAGAZINE | 2020 Every fall, Polar Bears International, Frontiers North Polar Bear Cam Adventures, explore.org, and Parks Canada team up to stream the annual gathering of polar bears from the shores of Hudson Bay to people around the world. Watch the live cam at explore.org/polarbears or polarbearsinternational.org/#polar-bear-cam.

© Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com in 2012 was, in fact, her father. Baranof, and Chichagof Islands from brown bears to occupy a Further genetic analysis in Alaska contain up to 8.8% specific niche, and, if anything, revealed that another unknown polar bear ancestry. Similar as the climate continues to male brown bear in the area instances of hybridization warm and the ice-free season had fathered her three young between these two species lengthens, it is likely that brown cubs as well as two other first- have been documented as far bears will continue to expand generation hybrids reported by away as Ireland. their range northward. With Inuit hunters. greater overlap between these People often ask if “grolars” or two species, the opportunity “pizzlies” will be better adapted Evidence from the past for more “grolars/pizzlies” may o how common are brown to the changing Arctic? The increase. However, for the time S bear–polar bear hybrids? most likely answer is no. In being the last hybrids were In the Canadian Arctic only general, hybrids likely make seen in Wyniatt Bay on April four first-generation hybrids for pretty poor brown bears 14, 2014. It is anyone’s guess and four second-generation and pretty poor polar bears. whether they will be seen again hybrids have been observed Their mix of physiology, coat or if more hybrids will result over a brief period from 2006- color, dentition, and behavior from the expansion of brown 2014. However, genetic studies is likely not well suited to bears into the Arctic Islands. have shown that hybridization either a terrestrial or marine The only thing that is for certain between brown bears and polar existence. Indeed, the genetic is that you should always bears is not new and has likely work I mentioned shows that expect the unexpected! occurred in several places in the hybridization can and has past. For example, genetic work occurred in the past, but that Dr. Evan Richardson is a polar bear on brown bears demonstrated hybrids don’t persist over the research biologist with Environment that brown bears on Admiralty, long term. Polar bears evolved and Climate Change Canada.

polarbearsinternational.org | POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL 21 polar bear maternity denning areas in the world. safer co-existence cont. from page 13 If this can be done in line with improved garbage handling, the working group believes it will reduce A united front the incentive for the bears to come into the townsite. he biggest cause of conflict between polar Instead, they’ll remain safely within the park, T bears and people is food. As a first step, the providing more viewing opportunities for tourists working group is considering what can be done to but staying away from communities. It’s a potential enhance Churchill’s efforts to reduce food sources win for everybody—and every bear—if the working in town. It’s important not just to secure waste so group can convince the governments of its merits. bears can’t get to it but also to reduce food smells, Other working group priorities include stationing a which attract them in the first place. provincial wildlife biologist in town, improving bear This is one action that the town is getting on awareness materials and strategies for visitors and with. Some other actions, however, must be locals, and supporting efforts to test and adopt im- approved by the Manitoba Province or the proved bear tracking systems. federal government. A major reason for setting up the working group was to show these NEXT STEPS governments that the polar bear safe initiative he working group has been delayed slightly by is being promoted not just by Churchill and its T COVID-19, but it is making progress. Delegates tourism operators, but by a broader, united group held a second meeting in June. At that gathering, representing a wide range of sectors of society wildlife biologists from Manitoba Province and and with considerable combined expertise. the Canadian Government presented updates. Several follow-up meetings are scheduled for Relocation re-think later in the year. ne of those higher-level government decisions These may sound like small steps, but they are O is where to relocate bears who come into essential in the design and long-term effectiveness town. The working group is floating the idea of of the world’s first polar bear safe community. relocating them within Wapusk Park, instead of farther up the Hudson Bay coast, which has Matt Brace is an award-winning writer and editor. previously been done. He is a former reporter and foreign correspondent Wapusk covers 11,475 square kilometers (4,420 for The Independent and The Observer national square miles) and already protects one of the largest newspapers in the UK.

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