Polar Bear News

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 to 52 bears over a five-year span in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska, reports Dot Earth blogger Andrew Revkin in The New York Times. They recorded 50 swims averaging 96 miles. One bear swam over 200 miles.

Polar bear's epic swim seen as harbinger of Arctic future (2/7/11)

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.

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.

NOAA to update recovery plans for 2 whale species

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.

Deaths of Alaska ringed seals trigger federal investigation

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.

Can zoos help polar bears survive loss of Arctic ice?

With polar bear populations projected to drop sharply in coming decades, a group of activists, zoo officials, lawmakers and scientists have come up with a radical proposal: Enlist zoos to help maintain the bears' genetic diversity.

Warming leaves some Hudson Bay polar bears starving

Canada's Hudson Bay was late freezing over this season, and scientists say the lack of ice, from which polar bears hunt seals, is pushing some bears to starvation, reports CBC News.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23

$400,000 apiece? Canadians try to put economic value on polar bears

Canadians are willing to shell out about $500 per household each year to save their polar bear population from a die-off caused by global warming, according to research commissioned by the Canadian government. Canada has about 15,000 polar bears, two-thirds of the world population. The bears are worth $6.3 billion to Canadians, or about $400,000 apiece, according to the estimate. Continued on jump

Alaska officials pan endangered species law

The endangered species law is being used to gain control over landscapes and seascapes rather than to protect species, according to the Alaska wildlife official who works on state responses to federal species listings.

US met obligations for polar bear protection, judge rules

A federal judge ruled Monday that the government did not breach its obligations under the Endangered Species Act by not considering greenhouse gas emissions in efforts to protect polar bears.

Numerous species reportedly shrinking in individual size

From the mighty polar bear to the tiny house sparrow, many of Earth's species appear to be shrinking in size, a new study reports. And the authors think it's probably due to global warming, a little like wool sweaters that shrink when washed in hot water.

Federal agency tries to write polar bear recovery plan

In a windowless Anchorage convention center more than a thousand miles from polar bears roaming on sea ice, marine mammal biologists gathered last week to work on a recovery plan for the Arctic Ocean's most famous fauna.

Alaska joins appeal of ruling on polar bear 'threatened' status

The Parnell administration on Friday joined a parade of parties appealing the June decision by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that the government correctly listed polar bears as a threatened species.

State seeks to quantify cost of endangered species restrictions

Federal agency lifts suspension of Arctic scientist

An Alaska scientist whose observations of drowned polar bears spurred national publicity on climate warming returned to work Friday at the federal agency that oversees offshore petroleum drilling.

State seeks to quantify cost of endangered species restrictions

The state of Alaska is soliciting proposals for a $350,000 analysis of the economic costs of Endangered Species Act listings. According to the solicitation, the economic impacts are "substantial," but the state wants a more accurate estimate.

Alaska polar bear cub gets playmate

The Louisville Zoo says it will soon have a second polar bear cub.

North Slope polar bear dies after hazing shot by guard

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement is investigating after a guard at BP's Endicott oil field apparently mortally wounded a polar bear by shooting it with a pyrotechnic shotgun shell in a hazing incident.

More polar bear news and photos

Suspended Arctic scientist's complaint to get federal review

The Interior Department says an inquiry is under way into the treatment of suspended Arctic scientist Charles Monnett. A watchdog group filed a complaint on Monnett's behalf, charging scientific and scholarly misconduct in his suspension.

Watchdog says merit of polar bear paper was the issue

The federal investigation into suspended wildlife biologist Charles Monnett has focused on the scientific merit of a 2006 article in which he and a colleague recorded their observations of apparently drowned polar bears in the Arctic, a watchdog group said Tuesday.

Polar bear kills teen camper, injures 4 others in Norway

A polar bear attacked a group of British students camping on a remote Arctic glacier, killing a 17-year-old boy and injuring four other young people before a trip member fatally shot the bear.

Polar bear scientist suspension is about project management

The government's suspension of an Arctic scientist was related to how a polar bear research project was awarded and managed, not to his earlier scientific work detailing drowned polar bears, a watchdog group said Monday.