“Despite sea ice having declined since the 1970s, polar bear numbers in Davis Strait have not only increased to a greater density (bears per 1,000 km2) than other seasonal-ice subpopulations (like Western Hudson Bay), but may now have reached its carrying capacity.”
One thought on “Junk Science Week at the FP: Now we have too many polar bears?”
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Steve, thanks for flagging this article by Dr Susan Crockford, who has been doing proper science about polar bears for a long time.
What is it with greenies and poleys? They are always fretting about them – there are not enough, now there are too many. What is the official Goldilocks number for polar bears? These people seem to think that it is up to them to set and control the numbers for random critters that they choose to take an interest in.
Meanwhile, the bears, which have been around for a long time, continue to survive quite well as long as people are not culling them too much. It may well be that bear populations that are too close to human populations will need to be culled pretty soon. You don’t want them hanging around places where lots of people live – they are killers. Apart from that, why can’t they just leave them alone? After all, they eat seals, which are a real environmental pest if their numbers are unchecked.