Researchers See Signs of Chronic Stress in Polar Bears’ Blood

[UngulateNerd92]

Abnormally long fasts linked to melting sea ice may be pushing polar bears to their limits.

Since the 1980s, scientists have routinely helicoptered to the western edge of Manitoba’s Hudson Bay to find, immobilize, measure, and collect blood from polar bears to keep an eye on how they’re doing. What scientists are finding is worrying; climate change has driven sea ice to thaw sooner in the spring and freeze later in the fall, reducing the period when polar bears can hunt for seals—forcing them to fast far longer than normal.

Rudy Boonstra, an ecophysiologist at the University of Toronto Scarborough in Ontario, wanted to find out if that large collection of blood could tell a deeper story about how the bears have been coping with the physiological stress of fasting.

Researchers See Signs of Chronic Stress in Polar Bears’ Blood | Hakai Magazine

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

A very interesting science paper underlining that what has been amiss with polar bears, their habitat and their dependence on good quality sea ice to hunt for seals and walrus and the effects of global warming putting them at risk, at increased risk of wildlife-human conflict (as opposed to human-wildlife conflict as us humans have altered their living spaces and available habitat to the extreme) and the unavailability of sufficient protein prey species (with reference to their dependence on seals and other pinnipeds for their protein). Not even to mention how and where pregnant females may go for cubbing and denning.

The above along with the precarious status - given even the years of protection for polar bears within the Arctic - underlines that a no breeding policy in captivity may be very much counter-productive and also pours fuel on the stance of animal welfarist over captivity and accommodation and truly happy wilderness status of polar bear. Is there not the rationale for a captive assurance population (that can and may breed).