• Home
  • About Dan
  • Books by Daniel Botkin
    • Signed Books
  • Reflections & Opinions
    • Renegade Naturalist Radio
  • Research
  • Dan Botkin’s Newsletter
    • Manage Your Account
  • Speaking & Consulting

Daniel B. Botkin

Solving environmental problems by understanding how nature works

  • People & Nature
  • Climate, Energy & Biodiversity
  • Myths, Folklore & Science

Polar bears are still claimed to be endangered: Are they? Fact and fantasy

January 16, 2017 By Daniel Botkin Leave a Comment

Get ready for International Polar Bear Day. The N Y Times reported last December 20th that the conservation organization Polar Bears International, has so designated this February 27.

Polar Bears

The debate over whether polar bears are an endangered species continues since it was made into a major environmental issue in the United States by Al Gore's 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth. With so many real and serious environmental problems to deal with, many ignored, it is time to set the record straight about polar bears.

Globally, more than one third of the nineteen subpopulations of polar bears are increasing or stable, while the remaining third have insufficient data available; its status in the central Arctic Basin, the largest of the nineteen designated regions, is completely unknown.
The offshore sea ice that lies well north of the pack ice edge has not been surveyed in any comprehensive fashion for polar bears OR ringed seals, their primary prey: we simply do not know how many bears or seals live deep in the polar pack, although several studies suggest that the number of ringed seals living and breeding well offshore must be substantial

Virtually the only areas studied in any detail, for polar bears and ringed seals, are the nearshore areas of Hudson Bay (Canada), the Beaufort Sea (shared by the USA and Canada) and Svalbald (Norway).
Some studies have also been done in Canada’s Davis Strait/Baffin Bay and the Canadian High Arctic.

There is only about thirty years worth of data for even the most intensely studied populations.
Most of what we know about polar bear biology is based on the western Hudson Bay population but since this is an anomalous population, Hudson Bay bears are not a good proxy for ALL polar bears.
Among polar bear females, pelagic-dwelling bears live in drifting sea ice year round, while nearshore dwelling females inhabit shorefast ice year round. Both pelagic-dwelling and near shore dwelling individuals of both sexes are known in all subpopulations studied and each type behaves differently to reduced seasonal ice.

SHOULD POLAR BEARS BE LISTED AS A LEGALLY ENDANGERED SPECIES?

 

Polar bears evolved from brown (grizzly) bears some time between 200,000 and 100,000 years before present, so polar bears or their near-term ancestors survived the previous greatest warming approximately 100,000 years before the present.

 

“By 100,000 years ago they had evolved into something like the polar bear of today. Although polar and brown bears now look and act rather differently, their genetic closeness is demonstrated by matings in zoos that produce fertile offspring.”

 

Polar bears evolved from brown (grizzly) bears some time between 200,000 and 100,000 years before present, so polar bears or their near-term ancestors survived the previous greatest warming approximately 100,000 years before the present.

 

“By 100,000 years ago they had evolved into something like the polar bear of today. Although polar and brown bears now look and act rather differently, their genetic closeness is demonstrated by matings in zoos that produce fertile offspring.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share Button

Filed Under: Climate, Energy & Biodiversity, Featured

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

From Daniel B. Botkin, Ph.D

Daniel Botkin
I believe we are mostly on the wrong track in the way we try to deal with the environment. Everything I do, study, learn, and advise about the environment is different from the status quo. Throughout my career, I have tried to understand how nature works and use that understanding to figure out how we can solve our most pressing environmental problems.

My process over the past 45 years has been to look carefully at the facts, make simple calculations from them (sometimes simple computer models) and then tell people what I have learned. It’s surprising how rarely people bother to look at the facts. This has surprised me every time I’ve started a new ecology research project or work on an environmental issue.

In the course of my work and studies, I have learned many things and I want to tell you about them. That is the purpose of this website.

Follow @danielbotkin

Books by Dan Botkin

The Moon in the Nautilus Shell  Strange Encounters
Powering the Future  No Man's Garden
See all books by Dan Botkin

Jabowa III Forest Model


Jabowa Forest Model
Jabowa Forest Model for Windows 7.
This forest model, used around the world, was developed first in 1970 by Daniel B. Botkin, James F. Janak and James R. Wallis

JABOWA remains the most completely detailed and well validated forest growth model available, accounting for 95% or more of the variation in real forests where it has been tested.

The book Forest Dynamics: An Ecological Model (available as an eBook) provides a complete description of the model and the rationales behind its development.

Order Online

Sea Ice Study

The Bockstoce and Botkin Historical Sea Ice Data Study has a new home at the University of Alaska website. The data include more than 52,000 daily observations in an unbroken 65 year record from 1849 – 1914.

See related papers

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2006–2023 Daniel B. Botkin · Site by Webdancers · Log in