The Davis Strait polar bear population is much more numerous than originally expected, says a preliminary report conducted by Government of Nunavut biologists.
There are some 2,100 polar bears in the Davis Strait population, says the report, which is part of a three-year study currently underway. That’s a big jump from an estimate of about 850 Davis Strait polar bears made by the Canadian Wildlife Service during the early 1980s.
Mitch Taylor, the GN’s polar bear boss, says the latest findings confirm what Inuit hunters have said for a long time: polar bears who live along the southeast coast of Baffin Island, Ungava Bay in northern Quebec, and the northern coast of Labrador are healthy, and growing in numbers.
Inuit hunters revised the Davis Strait population estimates one decade ago to 1,400, then up to 1,650 in 2004, based on the number of bears they encountered on the land.
“The Inuit were right. There aren’t just a few more bears. There are a hell of a lot more bears,” Taylor said during an interview on Tuesday this week.
“Scientific knowledge has demonstrated that Inuit knowledge was right.”
That hasn’t always been the case. In western Hudson Bay, which covers the southern Kivalliq and northern Manitoba, Inuit, backed by the GN, claim the bear population has risen from about 1,200 animals to 1,400.
But scientists such as Ian Stirling of the Canadian Wildlife Service claim that between 1987 and 2004, the western Hudson Bay population dropped from about 1,200 animals to 935, a 22 per cent decline.
That’s led some, including Stirling, to argue that growing numbers of polar bear sightings doesn’t necessarily mean there are more bears – in some cases, polar bears may be hungry, and venturing closer to communities in search of food.
That could be due to shrinking sea ice levels, which force polar bears to spend more time on dry land, without easy access to food, making them weaker and less healthy. Stirling and his collaborators say fewer cubs and young bears now survive the lean times of a lengthening summer.
But Taylor says experienced Inuit hunters should be given more credit for their observations, and dismisses the theory that polar bears may simply be more visible, rather than more abundant, as a view that sees these hunters as “so simple, and so childish, they could be fooled.”
“I find it difficult to even respond, and be calm about it.”
And in the case of Davis Strait, the polar bears are increasingly seen on the land and sea ice, not necessarily near communities.
Meanwhile, most polar bear scientists also believe Nunavut’s Baffin Bay and Kane Basin bear populations may be in decline.
Stirling’s estimates of polar bear declines in western Hudson Bay have been seized on by environmental groups, eager to use the polar bear as a poster child for climate change, to argue the animal is on the brink of extinction.
But Taylor says he hopes the Davis Strait study will draw attention to how not all polar bear populations fit this generalization.
Ironically, the growth in Davis Strait polar bear numbers may be due to animal-rights activists.
Efforts to ban seal hunting during the late 1970s and early 1980s hurt Inuit by destroying the market for seal skins. But this likely helped Davis Strait polar bears, because with less human competition, more harp seals were available for bears to eat.
This growing food supply could have helped the Davis Strait polar bears multiply, Taylor says.
The anti-seal hunt campaign also chased Norwegian vessels from Canadian waters. At one time, Norwegian sealers had their own polar bear quota, which they used when hunting harp seals.
Taylor also suspects the old Davis Strait study done by the Canadian Wildlife Service underestimated the number of polar bears in the area. He explains the study took place during the spring, when polar bears spend their time out on pack ice.
This makes the bears difficult to spot by surveyors inside a helicopter, as the bears spend much time in the water.
It’s also difficult to safely land a helicopter on pack ice, and a crew that tries to tranquilize a swimming bear risks letting the animal drown.
These are all reasons why the current GN study underway is being conducted during the summer, when the bears are on dry land.
For the last two summers the study has been underway, GN biologists, with help from their Nunavik and Labrador counterparts, have spotted record numbers of bears in the Davis Strait range.
Taylor says during a good survey, field biologists will manage to spot and capture between 160 and 180 bears. In the summer of 2005, when the current study began, researchers found 635 bears. The next summer, they found 842.
The Nunavut communities of Pangnirtung, Iqaluit and Kimmirut hunt the Davis Strait population. These communities share 46 tags annually.
Labrador hunters take about six Davis Strait bears a year. Nunavik hunters can take as many Davis Strait bears as they want.
Birth and death rates of the Davis Strait polar bears won’t be known until the final report is prepared, in 2009.
With temperatures increasing over the last 20 years in the Arctic, shrinking the amount of sea ice, Taylor says it only makes sense to increase monitoring of polar bear populations.
But he says the Davis Strait population also demonstrates the importance of listening to what Inuit hunters say.
“Maybe that’s the beacon for the future.
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