Polar Bear Population Numbers

From EnvironmentWiki

Conservation Status of Polar Bears

Polar bears are marine mammals, with their principle habitat is sea-ice and their main prey is other marine mammals.^[1] Polar Bears primarily eat ringed seals, with “naive post-weaned juvenile ringed seals” forming “a high proportion of the annual energy intake of polar bears.”^[2]

The distribution of polar bears appears to change with seasonal changes in the extent of sea-ice cover, since sea-ice cover provides access to ringed seals.^[3]

The distribution of polar bears also suggests an “apparent preferences for the more productive waters near shorelines, floe edge areas, and areas of persistent open water”, although, “polar bears occur throughout the polar basin, occasionally at latitudes >88◦N”.^[4]

Polar bears are currently abundant and not threatened with extinction because of the implementation of the International Agreement for the Conservation of Polar Bears and their Habitat and the development of co-ordinated research and management programmes.^[5] Scientists generally agree that improved conservation measures, primarily controls on harvests, have lead to an increase in polar bear numbers over the last 30 years.^[6]

“The assertion that polar bears as a species are in imminent danger of extinction or even threatened with extinction in the foreseeable future is both unproven and unlikely.”^[7]

References

1. Dr Mitchell Taylor and Dr Martha Dowsley, Demographic and Ecological Perspectives on the Status of Polar Bears, Science & Public Policy Institute, p 6.

2. Dr Mitchell Taylor and Dr Martha Dowsley, Demographic and Ecological Perspectives on the Status of Polar Bears, Science & Public Policy Institute, p 8.

3. Dr Mitchell Taylor and Dr Martha Dowsley, Demographic and Ecological Perspectives on the Status of Polar Bears, Science & Public Policy Institute, p 6.

4. Dr Mitchell Taylor and Dr Martha Dowsley, Demographic and Ecological Perspectives on the Status of Polar Bears, Science & Public Policy Institute, p 6.

5. Dr Mitchell Taylor and Dr Martha Dowsley, Demographic and Ecological Perspectives on the Status of Polar Bears, Science & Public Policy Institute, p 5.

6. Dr Mitchell Taylor and Dr Martha Dowsley, Demographic and Ecological Perspectives on the Status of Polar Bears, Science & Public Policy Institute, p 5.

7. Dr Mitchell Taylor and Dr Martha Dowsley, Demographic and Ecological Perspectives on the Status of Polar Bears, Science & Public Policy Institute, p 5.