Another New Study Indicates Polar Bears Benefit From Sea Ice Loss Due To Enhanced Prey Accessibility

Polar bear populations are stable to increasing with improved body condition in the 21st century. 

The alarmist narrative that says polar bears are threatened by sea ice losses is strongly at odds with real-world observations.

A new study assesses the body condition of polar bears in the Gulf of Boothia – an immense 67,000 km² study region in Canada – has vastly improved in the last decades.

The recent thinning ice in this region seems to have “facilitated a short-term boost in hunting opportunities for bears,” and declining ice thickness and extent “may be partly responsible for the observed improvement in body condition of GB bears.”

The subpopulation of polar bears in this region is considered “stable to likely increasing.”

Image Source: Dyck et al., 2022

Well-funded scientists who do not directly experience the polar bears’ Arctic living conditions use modeling and assumptions to warn that polar bears are endangered due to declining sea ice extent or thickness.

Meanwhile, the native Inuit populations have been monitoring and hunting these bears for millennia and they actually observe the exact opposite of what we’ve been told by the scientists.

Wong (2021) used interviews with Inuit to access the ecological knowledge of these less-sophisticated polar bear experts. The local populations report polar bears readily adapt to their surroundings and climate, and thus they routinely catch seals in open waters. They do not require sea ice to access prey. Their best body condition (“fat”) is in summer, or when sea ice is thinnest.

The polar bear populations used to be “scarce” in the 1960s and 1970s. People living in the Gulf of Boothia region could go an entire year without seeing even one. Today polar bear populations are growing so rapidly in the Gulf of Boothia that Inuit report humans – especially unarmed children – are in danger. Bears can be seen “everywhere,” and safety has become a grave local concern. The Inuit cannot sleep without fear polar bears will enter their cabins and attack their families.

The Inuit “don’t have a concern” about polar bears handling changes in sea ice extent, or adapting to nearly any environment. They don’t believe the made-up claims about polar bears going extinct due to sea ice decline.

Scientists think they know better.

Image Source: Wong, 2021

7 responses to “Another New Study Indicates Polar Bears Benefit From Sea Ice Loss Due To Enhanced Prey Accessibility”

  1. Another New Study Indicates Polar Bears Benefit from Sea Ice Loss Due to Enhanced Prey Accessibility - Climate- Science.press

    […] Another New Study Indicates Polar Bears Benefit From Sea Ice Loss Due To Enhanced Prey Accessibility… […]

  2. John Hultquist

    If one has an interest in Polar Bears, see the postings by Susan Crockford at

    https://polarbearscience.com/

  3. RoHa

    Of course scientists in University offices know more about polar bears than the people who have been living with the bears for centuries! How could anyone doubt that?

  4. voza0db

    Maybe these Bears can teach modern moron slaves from europe how to be BRAVE!

    Rising Cost Of European Energy [due to obeying ORDERS from the USofT] Makes EV Battery Plants “Unfeasible”, VW Exec Says

    Go Go Ukrainistan!

  5. Senex

    Funny that many of the most fanatical adherents of “Net Zero”, “degrowth” and so on are also advocates of “respecting and incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing” – except when it contradicts them.

  6. Lies, Damned Lies And Arctic Graphs – Newsfeed Hasslefree Allsort

    […] Another New Study Indicates Polar Bears Benefit From Sea Ice Loss Due To Enhanced Prey Accessibility […]

  7. Richard Greene

    Although it’s hard to believe by looking at them, polar bears are great swimmers. They also like to eat seals. When the Arctic ice extent declines, more seals are accessible for lunch. So global warming, which affects the Arctic sea ice more than most other latitudes, should result in more food available for polar bears and a bigger polar bear population. I would personally prefer a bigger seal population and a smaller polar bear population. It’s hard to like any animal that would eat me for lunch!

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this. More information at our Data Privacy Policy

Close