Polar Bear News

Scientist who saw drowned polar bears reprimanded

An Alaska scientist whose observations of drowned polar bears helped galvanize the global warming movement has been reprimanded for improper release of government documents.

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Archive by category ''Polar Bear News

ALASKA NEWSREADER

Kaktovik whale hunt remains draw record polar bear numbers

Polar bears have long gathered near Kaktovik, on Alaska's North Slope, to dine on the remains of whale carcasses left over from village hunts. But an unusually large congregation of bears early this month -- as many as 80 counted in a single day, reports Alaska Dispatch -- has scientists wondering...
ANCHORAGE

Polar bear and wolf vie to be 'president' of Alaska Zoo

You think Barack and Mitt are fierce candidates? Try Ahpun the polar bear and Denali the wolf. The Alaska Zoo, in what it acknowledges is shameless promotion and fundraising ploy, is conducting an election between Ahpun and Denali for zoo "president."
ALASKA NEWSREADER

New DNA study pushes polar bear origins way back

New research focused on the full genomes of polar, brown and black bears has pushed back by almost tenfold the date of the development of the polar bear as a distinct species. The New York Times reports that besides dating back about 5 million years, the polar bear genome shows evidence of...
ALASKA NEWSREADER

Canada's Inuit roar in protest over move to shield polar bears

Conservation groups are pushing the U.S. to back an agreement that would ban most international trade with Canada in polar bear parts. Inuit leaders from Canada's far north are preparing to fight back.
POLAR BEAR NEWS

Polar bear researcher wins top conservation prize

Polar bear researcher Steven Amstrup, whose work is credited with helping lead to greater federal protections for the animals, was named Thursday as winner of the 2012 Indianapolis Prize for animal conservation.
ALASKA NEWSREADER

GPS reveals polar bears' long-distance swimming skills

Scientists are not drawing any conclusions about a relationship between global warming and their newly released findings that female polar bears and their cubs are routinely completing 100-mile swims through Arctic waters. U.S. Geological Survey biologists attached collars with GPS technology...
ALASKA NEWSREADER

More polar-grizzly hybrid bears killed in Canada

Residents of Ulukhaktok , Northwest Territories, a village on the Arctic island of Victoria, say a hunter there has killed a mother polar bear and its "grolar" cubs, a cross between a polar bear and grizzly, reports CBC News.
POLAR BEAR NEWS

Feds again omit greenhouse gas from policy on polar bears

Polar bear management policy proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will continue to omit regulation of greenhouse gases blamed for the climate warming that's reducing the animals' summer sea ice habitat.
POLAR BEAR NEWS

Fur loss, lesions reported in Beaufort Sea polar bears

Nine polar bears have been observed with alopecia -- loss of fur -- and other skin lesions in the southern Beaufort Sea region near Barrow, say federal biologists. The scientists have been collecting blood and tissue samples but do not yet know the cause or the significance of the outbreak.
ALASKA NEWSREADER

Alaska, Canada hope helicopter surveys reduce polar bear stress

Scientists in Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories are hoping that counting polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea by helicopter will be easier on them than trapping, drugging and tagging them, reports CBC News . The bears may already be stressed by declining sea ice.