W/HABITAT MELTING, POLAR BEARS EAT CUBS

Hungry polar bears resorting to cannibalism; But Inuit leader disputes starvation is cause
December 3, 2009 (CBC News)

"The late formation of Arctic sea ice may be forcing some hungry and desperate polar bears in northern Manitoba to resort to cannibalism…Eight cases of mature male polar bears eating bear cubs have been reported this year…

"Four cases were reported to Manitoba Conservation and four to Environment Canada.
Some tourists on a tundra buggy tour of the Churchill wildlife management area on Nov. 20 were shaken and started crying after witnessing a male bear eating a cub…In recent years, Manitoba Conservation has received one to two reports each year about bear cannibalism."

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"Retired Environment Canada biologist Ian Stirling, who has studied bears all over the arctic, said evidence suggests the cubs are being killed for food, not just so the male can mate with the sow. The Hudson Bay sea ice, which the bears use to get at the seals they need to fatten up for winter, isn't appearing until weeks later than it used to…[Jose Kusugak, President, Kivalliq Inuit Association] in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut said the incidents are non-events and that it's wrong to connect the bear's behaviour with starvation…[though] Kusugak admitted some communities are having polar bear problems because warmer than average temperatures means sea ice hasn't yet formed properly…[He does not think polar bear] numbers are dwindling or that polar bears are in other danger because of climate change.

"Infanticide occurs among all species of bears but can become accentuated among polar bears when they run low on fat reserves and become hungry enough to resort to cannibalism, according to Polar Bears International, a non-profit organization dedicated to the worldwide conservation of polar bears and their Arctic habitat."

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"Scientists predict that with later formation of ice in the fall and earlier breakup in the spring because of climate warming, polar bears in places like western Hudson Bay will have to survive on land for longer on their diminishing fat reserves instead of hunting seals… The average date of breakup of the sea ice in western Hudson Bay is about three weeks earlier than it was 30 years ago, although there is a lot of variation between years…In 2008, the breakup was later, in early August, so the bears came ashore in better condition than in most recent years…But that advantage has been lost due to the current delay in freeze-up…This year may be an even longer wait for the bears to return to the sea ice to hunt as the current long range forecast calls for above average temperatures in the region until the second week of December…Twenty years ago, the average date the bears returned to the ice was Nov. 8…"

[Stirling, biologist and 35-year Hudson Bay polar bear researcger, Environment Canada:] "At this time of year, polar bears are hungry because they have been surviving on their stored fat reserves since the ice cover of Hudson Bay broke up a few months ago. Thus, days they spend waiting for the sea ice to return, they are losing weight and eventually get quite hungry…During the summer and autumn, polar bears lose up to 30 per cent of their body mass because they burn up to one kilogram of stored body fat every day while they are waiting for the ice to freeze…We have observed that the average body condition of the western Hudson Bay polar bears has been declining for almost 30 years. By mid-to-late November, if they can't get on the sea ice to feed on seals, males may seek out alternate food sources."