Polar bears are disappearing quickly from the western part of Hudson Bay, on the southern tip of the Canadian Arctic, according to a new government survey.
Researchers have flown over the region, which includes the town of Churchill, a tourist destination touted as the “polar bear capital of the world”, every five years to count the number of bears and extrapolate population trends.
During the last survey in late August and early September 2021, the results of which were released earlier this month, they spotted 194 bears and, based on that count, estimated a total population of 618 bears, down from 842 five years earlier.
The bears’ sea-ice habitat has been disappearing at an alarming rate, with the far north warming up to four times faster than the rest of the world. The sea ice has become less thick and is breaking up earlier in the spring, as well as freezing later in the fall. The bears rely on the ice for foraging for seals, movement and reproduction.
In 2006, the International Union for Conservation of Nature declared the polar bear as a “vulnerable species”. In 2008, the mammal was listed as threatened by the United States government, partly because of the effect of global warming, which continues to reduce their habitat.
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