Polar
bears 'thriving as the Arctic warms up'
By Fred
Langan in Toronto and Tom Leonard
Pictures of
a polar bear floating precariously on a tiny iceberg have become the defining
image of global warming but may be misleading, according to a new study.
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Polar bear experts said that
numbers had increased due to the efforts of conservationists |
A survey of
the animals' numbers in Canada's eastern Arctic has revealed that they are
thriving, not declining, because of mankind's interference in the environment.
In the Davis
Strait area, a 140,000-square kilometre region, the polar bear population has
grown from 850 in the mid-1980s to 2,100 today.
"There
aren't just a few more bears. There are a hell of a lot more bears," said
Mitch Taylor, a polar bear biologist who has spent 20 years studying the
animals.
His findings
back the claims of Inuit hunters who have long claimed that they were seeing
more bears.
"Scientific
knowledge has demonstrated that Inuit knowledge was right," said Mr
Taylor.
While fellow
scientists have accepted Mr Taylor's findings, critics point out that his study
was commissioned by the Inuit-dominated government of Nunavit.
Critics claim
the government has an agenda to encourage polar bear hunting and keep the
animals off the endangered species list.
In small
Inuit communities, hunters kill bears that wander too close to human
settlements and, in this particular region, they are licensed to kill six polar
bears a year.
Polar bear
experts said that numbers had increased not because of climate change but due
to the efforts of conservationists.
The battle
to ban the hunting of Harp seal pups has meant the seal population has soared -
boosting the bears' food supply.
At the same
time, fewer seal hunters are around to hunt bears.
"I
don't think there is any question polar bears are in danger from global
warming," said Andrew Derocher of the World Conservation Union, and a
professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
"People who deny that have a clear interest in hunting bears."
Bear numbers
on the west coast of Hudson's Bay had shrunk by 22 per cent over the past
decade, he said.
"They
are declining due to global warming and changes in when the ice freezes and
melts in Hudson's Bay," he added. He and other scientists in his group are
concerned that the retreating ice in the Arctic may pose a danger to future
generations of polar bears because of 'habitat loss'. "The critical
problem is the sea ice is changing. "We're looking ahead three
generations, 30 to 50 years.
"To say
that bear populations are growing in one area now is irrelevant."
However,
Prof Derocher conceded that some polar bear-related evidence of the damaging
effect of global warming was misplaced.
Contrary to
concern over a celebrated photograph of a bear and its cub floating on a tiny
iceberg, the animals often travel in that way, he said.
"Bears
will often hang out on glacier ice or large pieces of multi-year ice," he
said.
The state of
Alaska yesterday questioned the scientific justification for proposals to add
polar bears to the US endangered species list.
Tina
Cunnings, a biologist attached to the Alaskan government, questioned whether
they needed sea ice to survive, saying they could adapt to hunt on land and
find alternative food sources to seals.
Prof
Derocher said the theory was "absolutely fanciful".