Panic on the Web: 'Is Global Warming Driving Polar Bears to Cannibalism?'
A story prominently displayed on the Science News headlines at Yahoo! News on Friday came from LiveScience.com, which used this question as its headline: "Is Global Warming Driving Polar Bears to Cannibalism?" and later in the article, after asking the question "are polar bears more often resorting to cannibalism because of increased hunger and desperation, or are we simply more frequently observing a behavior that has always existed?" they proceeded to address the cannibalism side of the question without even considering the idea that this behavior might indeed be normal for polar bears.
After asking what was causing the polar bears' descent to cannibalism, the article proceeded to state that the answer to the question would "reveal whether or not the Svalbard polar bear population has started to feel the heat from climate change." In other words, the writer suggested the probability that young polar bear cubs being cannibalized by adult polar bears has been caused by people being unsafe with their car's emissions or overusing their barbecue pit.
This statement is followed by data which reportedly shows a drop in the Arctic polar ice and then the observation is made that this gives polar bears less time to hunt 'their preferred prey' - seals - on ice, which results in thinner bears. Polar bear biologist Eric Regehr is then quoted as saying "Lower food (i.e., seal) access has been shown to result in lower body condition (i.e., thinner bears)." What the article fails to give more then a passing mention to, is the fact that polar bears, though they prefer to hunt seals, also eat many other foods and hunt other prey. Polar bears have been known to also eat reindeer, musk ox, shellfish, berries, roots and many other foods. So though seals may be their preferred food, they are certainly not their only food as the statements seem to imply.
Finally, at the end of the article, the article quotes Regehr again as he clarifies that the study at this stage is inconclusive. "'In general, observations of cannibalism may be consistent with the idea that as bears become more nutritionally stressed due to sea ice loss — which there is evidence for in some parts of the Arctic — they will seek out alternative food sources,' Regehr said. 'However, the bears [in this study] were all in pretty good body condition. A fat bear wouldn't be very motivated to risk attacking another polar bear just for food. So, we should certainly be cautious in interpreting these observations and remain open to other explanations.'" What the article fails to do here, though it admits that the study is inconclusive, is to lay out what those other explanations might be and so further educate their readers. The reader is left to speculate about the evidence in favor of global warming's harmful effect on polar bears without clearly knowing what the evidence against this theory is.
The article by Natalie Wolchover unfolded as follows:
Is Global Warming Driving Polar Bears to Cannibalism?
Summer and fall are lean times for polar bears in the Arctic. In the colder months, they prey on seals, which sprawl on the sea ice that fringes the bears' terrain. But in the summer, much of this icy real estate melts away, and the seals take to the open seas or move north toward ice floes beyond the polar bears' reach. Left without their usual prey, the bears occasionally resort to a disturbing behavior: cannibalism.
A new article in the journal Arctic suggests that polar bear cannibalism — typically the predation of small bears or cubs by much larger adult males — is either much more commonplace than previously thought, or has lately become more common. In the paper, leading polar bear biologist Ian Stirling and nature photographer Jenny Ross detail three recent instances of the behavior among polar bears in Norway's Svalbard Archipelago, each of which was photographed from the decks of ecotourism and research boats anchored a few hundred yards away.
Ross' vivid photographs show young cubs drooping from the jaws of huge males, their bright blood dashed against the pristine snow. Stirling, a scientist emeritus with the Canadian Wildlife Service and adjunct professor at the University of Alberta, relied on his extensive knowledge of polar bear physiology and behavior to glean information from the photos.
"[T]he data we present suggest that in late summer when there is not much ice left and the seals are present but mostly in the water and inaccessible, a smaller bear represents a potential food source," Stirling told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience. "What I don't know is whether this has been going on for a long time and has only come to light as there are now lots of [ecotourism] ships going into the loose pack at the end of summer, or if it is something new."
The scientists are asking: are polar bears more often resorting to cannibalism because of increased hunger and desperation, or are we simply more frequently observing a behavior that has always existed? They say it's an important question to answer, because it will reveal whether or not the Svalbard polar bear population has started to feel the heat from climate change. [Is Cannibalism Becoming More Popular?]
Past research by Stirling and others, including Eric Regehr, a polar bear biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center, shows that global warming has caused Arctic sea ice to start melting earlier and earlier each summer, as well as causing more of it to melt. In a 2009 study, Regehr, Stirling and their co-authors reported that the minimum amount of sea ice present during the Arctic summer was falling by 8 to 9.5 percent per decade since 1979.
"As the sea ice declines, bears can spend less time on the sea ice hunting their preferred prey, seals," Regehr wrote in an email. "Lower food (i.e., seal) access has been shown to result in lower body condition (i.e., thinner bears)."
Regehr explained that in some parts of the Arctic, such as the western Hudson Bay and the southern Beaufort Sea, the diminishing sea ice has already caused polar bear populations to decline. In other areas, such as the northern Beaufort Sea, this has not yet started to happen. Commenting on Stirling's new study, Regehr said there are reasons to believe sea ice decline in Norway may be putting nutritional stress on the polar bears there, pushing them toward cannibalism, but there's also reason to think otherwise.
"In general, observations of cannibalism may be consistent with the idea that as bears become more nutritionally stressed due to sea ice loss — which there is evidence for in some parts of the Arctic — they will seek out alternative food sources," Regehr said. "However, the bears [in this study] were all in pretty good body condition. A fat bear wouldn't be very motivated to risk attacking another polar bear just for food. So, we should certainly be cautious in interpreting these observations and remain open to other explanations."
Stirling agreed. "We do not have the information to separate those two possibilities."
This story was provided by Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.
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Comments
Jeez...National Geographic reported on this back in the 70s.
Submitted by drsamherman on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 12:02am.
Polar bears have been known cannibals for a long time. Same with tigers and other solitary predatory cats, and with other ursine (bear) and according to a zoology professor I know, some of the mustelidae (weasels, martens, otters).
Is this yet another example of some ignorant liberal fool anthropomorphizing animals? Polar bears are not human, nor are tigers or lions or even higher order primates. Jane Goodall's research on chimps indicated a high amount of predation on lower primates like baboons and even other chimpanzee species. Knut the polar bear cub may have been cute in his day, but he was still a polar bear and still a wild animal even if he was in a cage until his death. Male lions are known to kill and potentially eat the cubs of other male lions to cull their competitor's bloodlines. Grizzly bear boars (yes - that is the accurate term for male bears) are known to predate on grizzly bear cubs, hence the protectiveness of Grizzly bear sows (yes - that is the accurate term for female bears). Nothing about this is a revelation except to the biologically ignorant or the average environmental reporter with the usual single-digit IQ of that ilk.
Of course, I don't expect any of the ignoranti of the press to know anything about science but how to misuse and abuse it.
Don't speak using such
Submitted by poseA on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 2:41am.
Don't speak using such explicit or accurate terminology on the Huffington Post or you'll be castigated by self-appointed experts on the matter.
Can you have kids, ...
Submitted by Newsbubba on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 8:25am.
... if they castigate you?
The Libs Really
Submitted by NC Boy on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 12:08am.
eat this stuff up!
No, but...
Submitted by stage9 on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 12:08am.
'Is Global Warming Driving Polar Bears to Cannibalism?'
...it's driving liberals to insanity...
"If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner." — Malcolm Muggeridge
That's not a "drive," Stage.
Submitted by Newsbubba on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 11:56am.
It's more like a really short putt.
The simple truth
Submitted by Fredy on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 12:16am.
What is missing from this story is the actual polar bear population. The FACT is that there has been a major increase in the number of polar bears over the last several decades. Of course, with more polar bears competing over the same food supply, there will be a shortage of food and they will eat each other!
The author of this story did not want to mention the fact that there has been a major increase in bear population as it would thwart the lie of global warming as a culprit of his fantasy!
What would happen if
Submitted by CO2Maker on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 12:51pm.
Polar bears ate snail darters and the spotted owl? Would cannibalism be an acceptable alternative lifestyle choice for the bears?
BTW, did Joe Camel have anything to do with turning polar bears into cannibals?
Polar Bear - Spy on the Ice (Animal Planet/BBC)
Submitted by eigafan on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 12:24am.
"Next the spycams team up and prepare to follow in the footsteps of polar bear mothers and cubs as they face their first summer in a world of shrinking ice. Each mother has a single goal, to guide her cubs to the rich hunting grounds of the sea ice. But on the way they must run the gauntlet of roaming males."
http://jdp.co.uk/programmes/polar-bear-spy-on-the-ice
The real nail in the coffin
Submitted by Reaver on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 12:27am.
The real nail in the coffin for polar bears and global warming is simple. Polar bears have been around as a distinct species for about four hundred thousand years the last interglacial period between ice ages, when the ice cap completely melts was about two hundred thousand years ago. Since polar bears are still with us it seems safe to assume that they can survive without a polar ice cap.
Hmmm
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 12:27am.
If the feds would allow drilling in ANWR, the polar bears would have tasty humans to hunt. Why are the environmentalists against polar bears??
Well, didn't the moose - or
Submitted by killa37 on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 1:27am.
Well, didn't the moose - or is that meese - population INCREASE when they built that pipeline across the fragile tundra??? So if they started to drill in ANWR, and did something similiar, then these polar bears would increase their population. Of course, I believe that their population allready is increasing, and we're just being fed the same lies that the libs and the environmental whackos continue to spew.
Now, I don't drink much soda..........but I absolutely stopped drinking any Pepsi product when they adopted Boy Barry's logo during the campaign. And now Coke has bought into this global-warming crap.....................I guess I'll just keep getting healthier and healthier!!!
Correctamundo
Submitted by CO2Maker on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 12:55pm.
They don't call it the f****** pipeline for nothing. They get warm, they get in the mood (but, you know, only twice a year!).
On the other hand, polar bears in ANWR would just eat the warm, tasty reindeer calves—when they weren't noshing on a plump human every now and then.
You mean my ex-wife was a
Submitted by killa37 on Wed, 12/21/2011 - 11:47am.
You mean my ex-wife was a moose????
I am so tired of these polar
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 1:01am.
I am so tired of these polar bears and their constant whining, they remind me of ghetto blacks, always wanting something for nothing and refusing to be repsonsible for their own actions.
Ban the GOP and everything will be hunkydory.
Submitted by gopcongress on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 1:04am.
Apparently, that's the ultimate end game for all these idiots. GOP=capitalism, etc.
"The news and truth are not the same thing." -Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
Polar Bears have always been Cannibals
Submitted by Avitar on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 2:07am.
'Is Global Warming Driving Polar Bears to Cannibalism?'
Is a really stupid question. The Great bears, the Grizzialy, Kodiak and the Polar bear have always been cannibals. They are also closely related.
It doesn't typically take
Submitted by poseA on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 2:36am.
It doesn't typically take much to inspire a beast to eat its own offspring.
If it is due to tailpipe emissions, it is the libs to blame
Submitted by TheHistorian on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 7:09am.
After all, ever watched all of those limousines in NYC sit and spew at 0 mpg?
Maybe the libs ought to set a standard by all getting electric roller skates to drive in NYC. Or better yet, take their Cadillac Escalade limo models and convert them to electricity. We can watch NYC go brown every night as they try to charge them off from the grid (which will grow a lot weaker with the coal-fired boilers being shut down by AEP).
I am looking forward to the day when NYC gets rationed on energy in the name of the polar bears. Couldn't happen to a more deserving set of people.
Dennis Prager
terror in the backyard
Submitted by MidAmerica on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 7:30am.
Anyone who has a house cat that is allowed outside with kittens knows that a male cat in the area is capable of attacking and killing the kittens.
These "scientists" are morons if they buy this crap.
Submitted by Newsbubba on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 8:34am.
There is a reason for the expression, "Meaner than a mama bear," or any other kind of mama for that matter.
Their offspring are constantly in danger from other bears, and mama has to fight like bitch (a sow in this case) to save them practically every day until they are able to protect themselves.
Humans are no different and it doesn't have shiite to do with global warming. Ask any mother trying to raise her kids in a ghetto. Of course, unlike bears, some of those momas will trade their kids for a whack of crack.
I'd say that the polar bear is a smarter critter than man.
I don't have the information on this
Submitted by Quasi-socialist on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 8:41am.
but the motorists acted stupidly.
Didn't studies...
Submitted by okiehawk44 on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 9:30am.
show that human infants look like their (biological) fathers in large part so that the papa therefore wouldn't be as willing to kill it and that this has its roots in human history going back thousands of years?
Animal behavior is not dependent upon car emissions.
Submitted by acaiguana on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 9:34am.
Only a nut job would conflate the two.
There I said it.
ACA
...
Quoted from: 'Acaiguana notes from the Underground' (Soon to be at theaters near you)
Agreed, either a nut job or
Submitted by wolfemanic on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 10:30am.
Agreed, either a nut job or someone with their head up their ice hole.
What is clear, is that polar
Submitted by Ruths husband Ben on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 9:36am.
What is clear, is that polar bears are tasty. Especially with some fava beans and a nice Chianti .
If you like polar bear, ...
Submitted by Newsbubba on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 11:59am.
... you're going to love manatee steak!
Why, does it taste like
Submitted by killa37 on Wed, 12/21/2011 - 11:48am.
Why, does it taste like chicken?? hahahahaha!!! Doesn't EVERYTHING taste like chicken??
Less Ice = More Bears
Submitted by CobraMan on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 11:53am.
This claim that a loss of Sea Ice leads to decreased Polar Bear populations is a complete farce.
Sea Lions, the bear's primary food source, needs land (or ice, but which would you prefer?) in which to raise their young and a place to sleep, let alone giving them access to the air they need to breath. As more and more ice is lost from the sea, more and more seals will use land, as opposed to ice, in which to raise their young, thus allowing giving the bears a much greater chance of finding a food source, especially during the winter. It's a lot easier to travel a few tens of miles along a coast to find your prey than hundreds of miles of barren ice.
As more and more open water is available to the Sea Lions, they can hunt their food sources in more and more areas with greater and greater efficiency. They are no longer restricted to staying around the few open water areas that they need and have access to more and more food sources, which will increase their populations. A more numerous, fatter, better fed Sea Lion population means that more, higher nutritious food is available to the Bears, along with being easier to locate and hunt, actually leads to bigger, stronger, Bears, better fed Bears, which increases their population.
An increase in open water: Good for the Sea Lions and good for the Bears.
Conversely, an increase in sea ice actually has a detrimental effect on Sea Lion populations, as it restrict the availability of open water which the Sea Lions need to access the sea, and find food. It also restricts the Sea Lion's ability to access air once they are in the sea. As the amount of sea ice increases, The availability to access open water is restricted, thus forcing the Sea Lion populations to group together more and more in the fewer and fewer open sea areas in and around the ice pack. The Bears now have to travel hundreds of miles in which to hunt smaller, widely dispersed groups of Sea Lions, as they didn't have to do when the ice pack was much smaller and the open sea areas much larger.
As the Sea Lions group together in smaller and smaller packs in fewer and fewer areas, this tends to negatively affect their food sources due to "over fishing" of small areas, thus leading to leaner and leaner Sea Lions, a far less nutritional food source for the Bears.
An increase in sea ice: Bad for the Sea Lions and bad for the Bears.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Get someone that knows Polar Bears
Submitted by John21 on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 1:05pm.
I grew up in the north, Polar bears have always attacked, killed and devoured each other. That is the nature of the animal. The male kill cubs whenever they can to bring the female into heat and mate. Polar bears will eat anything and everything that comes across their path and they can kill. I have seen this behavior for years, and this is nothing new.
Sound like one of the climate scam artist is running short on his government study money and needs to justify another million or two.
So female polar bears are even stupider than female human libs.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 1:16pm.
Didn't think that was possible.
So polar bears are
Submitted by killa37 on Wed, 12/21/2011 - 11:50am.
So polar bears are mooooooooooooooslems???
Yes, Killa, some are.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 12/21/2011 - 12:02pm.
Here is a photo from last month's CAIR-ALASKA board meeting.
Praise Allah - blessed be HIS
Submitted by killa37 on Wed, 12/21/2011 - 2:16pm.
Praise Allah - blessed be HIS name!!!
Hello its almost 2012. pushing for a steady diet of longpork
Submitted by upcountrywater on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 1:27pm.
In a 2009 study, Regehr, Stirling and their co-authors reported that the minimum amount of sea ice present during the Arctic summer was falling by 8 to 9.5 percent per decade since 1979.
More Ice now than in 2007
Longpork is available when the trucks can't make it to the supermarkets on time.
You Didn't Build That.
Here's a solution.
Submitted by tvhall on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 1:45pm.
Send liberals up there as polar bear fodder.