Life on the melting Artic is hard and unforgiving for all animals that rely on the annual ice change to obtain their food source or as a habitat. Increased ice melting rate and degrading habitat from global warming has altered polar bear life expectancy in the West Hudson Bay. Counterclockwise marine currents in the Hudson Bay “behaves essentially as a closed ocean body in that the duration of the ice thickness and ice cover is essentially controlled by air temperature and variations” (Gagnon and Gough, 372). Simple changes within the atmosphere can have a detrimental effect on the duration of ice thickness and covers and will affect the polar bear survival success rate. Thinner ice will be melted during the summer and lower the available hunting …show more content…
time for adult bears. The lack of hunt would decrease reproductive success for female bears. Studies have estimated that maximum longevity for polar bears is between 20-25 years where the mortality of adult males and females are estimated to be between 8-16 % annually and the sub-adult mortality to be 3-16% annually (DeMaster and Stirling, 4). A 10 year study in Western Hudson Bay concluded that that survival probability for juvenile, sub adult and senescent adult polar bear decrease “by 2-5% for each week earlier than average that the sea ice broke up” (Regehr et al 2677). These marine mammals’ main habitats is near pack ice. Seals use annual ice as breathing holes and polar bears stalks these holes to hunt. Lack of seasonal ice can also have a negative effect on polar bear food resources in West Hudson Bay. Seasonal shifts in sea ice further affects female polar bear’s health by decreasing food source and altering denning conditions within the Arctic Circle.
Annual ice buildup in additional to a healthy seal population is vital for polar bears to mate and maintain a healthy population within the Hudson Bay. The rise in global temperature in the past decade has led to a decline of lone (likely pregnant) adult female polar bears in the Western Hudson Bay from 1980 to 2004 (see figures above) (Stirling and Parkinson, 274). The average female between 6- 18 years old has “an average litter size of 1.7, a sex ratio at birth of 1:1, and an average reproductive interval of 3.1 years” shows the average female can give birth up to 4 bears in their life time (DeMaster and Stirling, 3). The decrease in average monthly ice extends correlates with the mean body mass of lone female polar bears in the West Hudson Bay region. The earlier breaking-up of arctic ice likely shortened polar bear’s seal hunting time in Hudson Bay because less time to hunt directly affects the size and weight of female bears. Cubs are also likely to receive less nutrition from malnourished mothers and decrease survival rate. The hunting period before summer are responsible for nearly 70% or more of the energy bears needed to survive throughout the year. The early break up is causing adult polar bears, especially, females have less body mass. Data of sea ice breakup has shown that the “average date of break-up” is …show more content…
already three weeks earlier than the past 30 years and will likely continue as Global Warming and the Greenhouse effect increase (Stirling and Parkinson, 294-306). Polar bears rely on sea ice as a platform for hunting, migrating, and mating, but are forced to move to land in regions where sea ice does not seasonally persist [11–14]. (Pg. 1, Hamilton et al). Furthermore, inadequate resources has forced the bears to search new locations to forage food. Bears are gradually encroaching onto human habitats. Lack of hunting habitats forces bear to scavenge in human settlements and strain human and bear relationships. It was estimated that the Weston Hudson Bay has approximately to between 700 and 1200 bears of these populations around “about 15–30% of the population were captured and recaptured” from run ins with the human habituate (Dyck et al, 2). Constant contact with humans are dangerous to both species. Malnourished bears are known to prey on human livestock and pets. Polar bears will come into more conflict with humans as bear habitat continues to shrink. Humans will be forced to hunt and kill bears to protect the community. Frequent contacts with humans has made the bears unafraid of humans. Polar bears seeking food are known to frequent human dump sites. Frequent years due to lack of food as drawn an increase of sub adult males and females with cubs into dump sites (Stirling and Guravich, 181). These bears who visit dump sites are usually thinner than the bears in the past. Furthermore, sub adult males desperate for food would wander into the towns and are often shot and killed (Stirling and Guracich, 181). These alterations are the direct result of the earlier sea ice breakup, raising the temperature and global warming. Polar bears would come to human habituate after being stranded onshore from. Often times, capturing polar bears create undue stress upon the females, causing them to lose body mass. Consequently, bear cubs are affected in their survival rates “(Dyck et al, 2). Polar bears are also a huge tourist attraction in Hudson Bay. The viewing period from October to November draws in 6,000 tourists and 15 large tundra vehicle which sometimes results in Baiting, harassment and chasing of bears “(Dyck et al, 2). Since about 1980, polar bear viewing from large customized vehicles has been practiced near the town of Churchill. Polar bears leave the ice during June/July and slowly migrate north to the shores of Hudson Bay (approximately 35 km east of Churchill) where they congregate and wait for the early freeze-up of the Bay, usually during November. Tour companies transport visitors into the congregation area (Dyck et al, 2). Furthermore, global warming has decreased food arability for polar bears. Bears are forced to scavenge into towns hoping for food and enter certain zones where bears are then either be deterred, captured, handled, or destroyed. Handling the bear causes undue stress and on average “of 48 bears per year (a total of 1547 bears) have been handled” since the zones creation in 2000 (Dyck et al, 2). Fasting or leaving their dens and are already energetically stressed and handling would stress bears further and decrease production rate and survivability for cubs. The future of the polar bears is bleak. Scientists forecast that there is a “possible 9-21 % of adult male starvation, and 55-100 % reproductive failure by the year 2100 ... throughout the [Canadian] Archipelago” with conditions outside the Archipelago to be worse (Monney, 2014). Polar bears could see more than 47% decline of Seasonal Ice by 2100 within the polar basin (Amstrup, Marcot, and Douglas, 24). Polar bears will breach human territory in search of food and refuse. Bear and human clashes will be more common as bears could rummage through trash cans and attack human pets in search of food. Altercation between humans and bears are detrimental to both species. The total bear carrying capability in the Seasonal Ice Ecoreginal is expected to decline by 7-10% in 30 years, and by 22-32% by the year 2100 (Amstrup, Marcot, and Douglas, 24). Furthermore, sea Ice loss will increase 45% in the future will destroy the arctic ecological system in Western Hudson Bay (Amstrup, Marcot, and Douglas, 31). Polar bears will soon transform from threatened to critically endangered in the near future and become part of the Holocene extinction. Polar bears population are being threatened by global warming.
The shift in seasonal ice pack in the West Hudson Bay has changed polar bear behavior, reduced prey availability, lowered birth rate, and a positive effect on polar bear and human conflict. Polar bears require seals and other high fat animals for their survival in the arctic region. The decrease in ice packs also reduces prey abundance and increased bear mortality. Seasonal break up rate has increased and reduced seal availability within the Arctic region. The Lack of food has decreased female polar bear sexual reproductively as well as body weight. Finally, polar bears are encroaching onto human territory. Human safety is being threatened as bears go on land, instead of their usual habitat, to forage for food. Humans are forced to kill bears to protect themselves. Lastly, polar bear’s future is grim. Studies have predicted bears will lose a third of their habitat by 2100. Soon these polar bears will become extinct in the 6th global mass extinction. Humans must reevaluate their population output and seek ways to preserve the polar bears for future generations to
come.
To begin with, the melting of polar ice caps has caused polar bears to swim long distances. According to Bryan Walsh of TIME Magazine the melting of the ice caps have caused polar bears especially the young cubs to swim longer distances which has caused a “ forty-five percent mortality rate” (Walsh). In the article Walsh, writes about a study that showed that younger cubs because of low fat and strength were more likely to die due to the long di...
Scientists believe that the ice in Glacier bay during the first ice age could have been nearly 1000 feet thick! And as the original glacier has diminished in size from that time, it has left 20 separate glaciers, of which two are tidewater glaciers that calve into the bay. And as recently as 200 years ago, in almost all of Glacier Bay, a fjord was covered by the Grand Pacific Glacier; since then the ice has been retreating and Glacier Bay, now 65 miles long, has taken it’s present form. When Captain Lester A. Berdslee of the U.S. Navy was in it in 1980, its beauty took him away. He gave it the name “Glacier Bay” because of it’s striking locality. This was also the same year when it was declared an national park and preserve. Though years earlier it was proclaimed a national monument in 1925. And then in 1992 it was designed a UNESCO World Heritage site. Today, the park’s headquarters are at Gustavuas, near the mouth of the bay. The bay, which is studded with many largely treeless islands that are used a rookeries by thousands of seabirds, has fjord like inlets that terminate at ice cliffs or sheer faces of the glaciers. It contains at 16 active glaciers that descend from the St. Elias Mountains to the east and Fair-weather Rage to the west. The park and reserve cover an area of 5,129 square miles and includes Glacier Bay itself, the northern, southern, and western slopes of Mount Fairweather, and the U.S. portion of the Alsek
Climate and weather are similar, describing how the atmosphere behaves, the difference being the timescale (Conway, 2010). Weather is a short-term scale of temperature and precipitation, usually considering weeks or less (ibid). Climate, however, is a long term description of months or longer, describing different seasons and trends of temperature and precipitation. Climate of Vancouver is typically mild during the spring and summer and damp during the autumn and winter, and unlike other mountainous areas of British Columbia, it is not excessively cold or snowy (“Hello BC”, n.d.).
The characteristics of the grizzly bear as a top predator also make it highly vulnerable to threats. Although it is an omnivore, because it relies heavily on salmon to make it through the winter, it is vulnerable to anything that impacts on salmon runs. It needs wide-ranging habitat and is slow to reproduce. As such, grizzly bears are considered not just a key species but also an ‘umbrella species’ because the protection of their habitats will result in an ‘umbrella of protection’ for a wide range of other species. The protected areas that have been set aside in the Great Bear Rainforest are not enough to sustain healthy populations of grizzly bear so it requires additional habitat set aside from logging. Trophy hunting of grizzly bears also continues to place their population at
...ls, it does not only affect the size of seal population but also it affects the Inuit people because it decreases the amount of seal oil and seal pelts being produced, and it also causes species that depend on baby seals to have a loss in their diet too. The seal population may not seem like it is diminishing however at this rate, the baby seals are faced with the possibility of becoming extinct. If the seal hunt was to continue at this frequency and with global warming also playing a major role into the death of seals as ice glaciers are melting, the population of seals can become extinct within the next few decades. Each year, there are hundreds of thousands of baby seals killed by the Canadian government and even though, the government is making profit from this industry, they failed to consider how is poses a significant long-term threat to their whole specie.
Out of an Ice Age emerged one of our most majestic creatures in the world, the polar bear. From its brown bear ancestry, the predator evolved to be a master of a harsh and unwelcoming ice kingdom. Intelligent, adaptable and fierce, the polar bear learned how to survive in a place that offers few comforts to any creature. But now that very environment is in flux. And so is the polar bear’s fate (Nature).
animals such as the polar bear, to mate and to prepare for the once again
Canadians no longer have the option of choosing between mitigation and adaptation; the International Report on Climate Change have already confirmed that Canadians must finally awake to the nation-wide impact of warming temperatures. A report compiled by the United Nations consisting of 310 scientists and 73 countries including Canada say that “the worst is yet to come. No one on the Earth will go untouched by climate change. Political and financial situations are dire.” As a result, food, land and water are becoming scarcer, increasing the prices for produce, and even insurance. Canada will experience extremer weather such as drought more frequently; evidence of such events are the recently passed cold winter, the floods last summer in Ontario and Calgary, and the sudden change in temperature last year decimating Ontario’s apple crop. As if this wasn’t enough, other nations are eyeing Canada’s abundance of fresh water; a commodity of great value if carbon emissions are not reduced. "Rather than doing its part to fight climate change, the government's track record is clear: take credit for provincial actions, mock all proposals to make polluters pay, cut Environment Canada's climate change and clean-air budget massively, heckle from across the aisle and cheat future Canadians of their right to climate security,” said Liberal MP Joyce Murray, challenging Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. Canada needs to take action; the longer we take, the harder it is to make an impact.
Until now, there is not a certain answer to how many grizzly bears are left in British Columbia. With approximation ranging from as low as 6,000 by individual biologists to as high as 15,000 by the B.C government, grizzly bear populations are therefore controversial. The reason why official estimates cannot be trusted is that the method used is suspicious since the government only applies a predictive model based on ground surveys conducted in only a limited number of areas. One of the independent scientists, Kyle Artelle, suggests that “more bears were being killed than government quotas allowed.” (thenarwhal) Serious situations, such as extinction, could occur on this species if trophy hunt in addition to other dire scenarios such as declining stocks of salmon along coasts and danger of road and railway accidents proceeds. Even though it is nearly impossible to eliminate all harmful causes of the depopulation for grizzly bear, the prohibition of trophy hunt can be easily taken into action to mitigate the negative trend. Additionally, grizzly bears are being an integral part of the ecosystem where they live. In case the grizzly bears die out, the ecosystem will become chaos. (pacificwild) For example, the speed of seed dispersal of many plants and berries will be reduced, the ocean-derived nutrients will cease to be transferred into inland to make
The one way to keep bears and humans safe and living in the same environment is learning to understand them and being able to tolerate them. If people don’t do these things theses beautiful animals will begin to decrease in numbers. While there are a lot of black bears in Alaska, an estimated 100,000, hunters believe that you can just hunt and hunt and the population will decrease to average, but the plans of some hunters seems just over the top of making these bears go on to the endangered species list. But with the help of people and cooperation the Black Bears will continue to live in Alaska.
Canada’s arctic has evidently suffered from substantial climate change, resulting in devastating impacts on all systems in the north. Many climate models indicate that these significant changes will only progress in the future. The monitoring of temperatures in the Arctic have demonstrated that, over roughly the past 50 years, there has been a warming of about 2 to 3°C as of 2009. The average temperature in the arctic has increased almost twice as fast than the rest of the world. In 2020, the projected increase is up to 4°C as well as 8°C by 2050. A numbers of studies have shown that, based on previous climate records, there has been issues of rising sea levels, alterations in sea-ice dynamics, and permafrost degradation. Though there have been multiple strategies posed and adopted, the government of Canada needs to develop an arctic strategy that is more proactive and systemic than previous actions. This strategy needs to be global in its goals for mitigation while still monitoring social, cultural, and economic aspects
The Arctic region is home to a variety of valuable animals and plants, including polar bear, seal, and so on. The ecosystem of the Arctic region is fragile because these animals are evolved to live in extreme conditions. With the climate change, many animals are endangered. Ice is the habitat of polar animals because they have to rely on sea ices for resting, food, and reproduction. With the climate change and the decrease of sea ice, the number of polar animals is decreasing and their health is threatened. For example, the average weight of female polar bears in 1980 was about 650 pounds, but the number reduced to about 500 pounds in 2004 (Djoghlaf 15). The earlier breakup and later condensation of sea ice shortens the hunting season of polar bears. Polar bears mainly feed on seals that indwell icy land. The melting ice reduces the number of seals and food intake of polar bears. In addition, polar bears are used to living in ice caves. The rising temperature causes the collapse of ice caves, which can kill baby bears. The climate change is negatively affecting the biodiversity in the region and will definitely harm the ecosystem
Just a couple weeks ago, we were complaining how winter was so cold and how it would never end in Canada; but imagine living in the glacial period, where there was a time when glaciers, large masses of ice, covered a huge portion of the Earth’s surface. Studies show that the polar ice caps, as we know them today used to cover approximately 30% of the Earth during our last Ice Age. The Earth remained in this state for thousands and thousands of years. Cold, right? According to geologists, there have been an approximate total of 5 major ice ages. They began appearing roughly 2, 300, 000 years ago, up until the most recent one, approximately 10,000 years ago; it was the ice age period/glacial period, and that’s was exactly what happened. Ice Ages are points in time when the temperatures around the world, including the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth, were cold consistently for a span of over multiple thousand years. Unlike the average temperature of 220C we have now, the ice ages were much colder, having an average of approximately 50C.
The content from Tom Metcalfe furnished us with an inside and out depiction about how environmental change has influenced the Ice Shelf in the world's polar area, where their work occurred The dispatch of 9 specialists educated the group of onlookers on how the atmosphere has crumbled the Antarctic ice retire because of warmth permitting the infiltration of light. By recognizing the expansion in light introduction in the sea, the specialists which pigeon to watch changes saw an increment in biodiversity which in the Arctic locale is intensely constituted by marine life. They could reason that more species have been invited by the environmental change because of the light creating green growth drawing in marine life which thus influences the
The polar regions are most affected and vulnerable to the warming temperatures because the poles are covered in ice. The world’s ice sheets are melting faster than ever and temperatures in the Arctic region are rising twice as fast as anywhere else on Earth according to the NRDC. This will have a serious impact on people, wildlife and plants in that region. The National Climate Assessment has said that “By the year 2100, it 's estimated our oceans will be one to four feet higher, threatening coastal systems and low-lying areas, including entire island nations and the world 's largest cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and Miami as well as Mumbai, Sydney, and Rio de Janeiro”. Polar bears are in great threat as the ice sheets melt because they use the ice to travel across the land and hunt. As the sea-ice platforms move further apart, the swimming conditions become more dangerous. The U.S Geological Survey done by the National Wildlife Federation predicts that by the year 2050, two thirds of all polar bears will disappear. Researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the Adelie penguins in Antarctica and reported the numbers have fallen from 32,000 to only 11,000 over the last 30