Posted on 04/10/2008 12:31:25 PM PDT by PeterFinn
Polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea are starving as they struggle to adapt to a warming Arctic climate, according to the latest research by a Canadian polar bear expert.
Changing spring sea ice is making it more difficult for the bears to hunt their primary prey, the ringed seal, said Ian Stirling of the Canadian Wildlife Service.
Residents and RCMP in Deline, N.W.T., described the three polar bears that wandered into their community April 2 as being thin and hungry. (Photo courtesy Les Baton) In an article published in the March issue of Arctic, the journal of the Arctic Institute of North America, Stirling documents finding three bears starving to death on the Beaufort Sea ice.
He told CBC News that he also found bears resorting to extreme measures to stay alive.
"We found four different incidents where the bear had been killed by an adult male to eat in other words, cannibalism," Stirling said Wednesday.
"I thought that was very unusual. I've never seen it, anywhere."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...
"I thought that was very unusual. I've never seen it, anywhere."
But in his 1999 book, "Polar Bears" he cites EXACTLY this kind of behavior as typical polar bear behavior.
http://books.google.com/books?id=DevvkxWZxWsC&pg=PA137&lpg=PA137&dq=%22ian+stirling%22+polar+bear+cubs+cannibalism&source=web&ots=X7qrOxyS-F&sig=T9B_lMYHXcdr4fflFcCnmkkx93w&hl=en
So he is LYING and has, indeed, seen this behavior before when he wrote about it in 1999!
“So he is LYING and has,”
How else to get the grant money?
Ian is a high-ranking member of the AlGore Manmade Global Warming cult - gross exaggerations and outright lies are what they DO.
polar bears should be on a diet of liberals. might give em gas though.
As well as I imagine it’s likely that bears being thinner this time of year is typical of the cyclic cycle of the availability of food. This occurs with all species in all locations. Our local deer, and thus the local mountain lions, have more to eat in the spring and summer months, while the fall and winter are leaner times. It has nothing to do with ‘glocal warming’.
Those new hiding places have meant that the bears must claw through thick layers of ice to get to the seals
Bears starve clawing through thick ice while seals hide in thin ice. Somehow this makes sense to somebody.
Great find, you should send an email over to the article publisher and show them exactly what kind of hypocrite he is with his own words.
Since they probably agree completely with the “spirit” of the article they will undoubtedly pull a “fake but accurate” attitude over it like Rather did.
Aren’t Environmentalists wackos ( I add wackos because we are all Environmentalists) also Evolutionists? What ever happened to The Survival of the Fittest?
Oh my gosh! The connection is so very clear. The trace amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased because of evil man. This has caused measured temperature to go up, sort of, when carefully measured as an average over the whole Earth (not necessarily in any one place, mind you, which could be colder). This average global temperature statistic, that has little to do with any particular area, has caused some ice to form. This has caused hungry animals, probably for the first time ever...
Could intentional satire be any more ridiculous?
Thank you! And CBC (amazingly) posted my reply in the comments section below the article.
So he is LYING and has, indeed, seen this behavior before when he wrote about it in 1999!
Great find Peter!
He sure is lying now, or he was lying then.
I went through that excerpt and he reports many instances including mothers eating their own cubs and males killing and eating females which he reported seeing first hand! And he reported that happened over 30 years ago.
Just another damn hustler out after PC grants.
Thanks for this Peter. I have placed it in my archives for when the article is used as “Proof” in the future...after all the man IS and “EXPERT”, therefore will be cited as a resource of proof by some Leftist Globalarmist.
Several higher mammals will kill the offspring of females within their range to bring them into heat so that they can breed them. Other bears do this, why not Polar Bears?
Looks like Ted Turner was right afterall, first the bears, then the holess, then....
The folks up in Fort Yuk killed a polar baer out at the dump couple of weeks ago. 250 South of where polar bears ‘are supposed’ to be.
Shot with an AR15 no less.
see
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/ap_alaska/story/359798.html
Any liberal volunteers to help them out?
As is often said follow the money.
I hope I have more integrity than this man/women when times are tough
polar bears should be on a diet of liberals. might give em gas though.
If one eats “Ted the swimmer” it’s going to have one heck of a hangover!
Saw your post at CBC but and then read through about 5 pages of posts. Does not look like anyone bothered to go to the link.
I knew before reading the debunking that bears will kill and eat younger rival males, definitely cubs not their own. Also, his seeing three “starving” looking bears is evidence of nothing. I also suspect that early in the year the bears are thin before food becomes more abundant.
I especially like to one guy who concluded that thicker, more extensive sea ice was further proof of global warming.
No, but I will. Thanks for his email addy.
I've read a number of articles quoting locals who say these "scientists" are constantly observing behavior that is routine, and reporting it to the world as something unusual.
And this so called “Zoologist” has never heard of bears “resorting to cannibalism”, should go to Alaska, anywhere to see this happen almost daily, especially among the coastal Brown Bear population. Some very well fed (Salmon) bears still prefer their own flesh, especially male cubs or females killed trying to defend their cubs from the males.
The ignorance and lies flow so freely from these Liberal scum.

I sending this to PETA!
Good find.
A little more research shows that this information is rather old (23 years old):
LUNN, N.J., and STENHOUSE, G.B. 1985. An observation of
possible cannibalism by polar bears (Ursus maritimus). Canadian Journal of Zoology 63:15161517.
TAYLOR, M., LARSEN, T., and SCHWEINSBURG, R.E. 1985.
Observations of intraspecific aggression and cannibalism in
polar bears (Ursus maritimus). Arctic 38:303 309.
The IPCC was not established until 1988.
To catch a Polar Bear....
Cut a hole in the ice...surround the hole with peas...
When the Polar Bear comes over to take a pea....
Kick him in the ice hole....
I thought all the polar bears have already drowned just like in the cartoon in Al Gore’s movie.
In the 1950s the polar bear population up north was estimated at 5,000. Today it's 20- to 25,000, a number that has either held steady over the last 20 years or has risen slightly. In Canada, the manager of wildlife resources for the Nunavut territory of Canada has found that the population there has increased by 25 percent."
Here's another alarmist report from the USGS through the AP.
“Shot with an AR15 no less”
Whoa! Brave dude. I trust it had a 30 round clip. I’d want a whole bunch of those wee little 55 grain bullets right handy. I suspect the first 2 or 3 rounds would just p*ss him off.
You've gotta be kidding me. Polar bears are carnivores. They're predators. They kill and eat things smaller than they are. I don't think it would be much of a stretch to include other polar bears in that category.
I also didn't think it was that uncommon for male carnivorous predators to kill and eat the young of their own species, which is why females with young tend to be just a wee bit protective of their young and irritable with the males of the species.
Shot at the bear “from the hip”
8 rounds -
And to think my wife inisists we carry a 12ga while camping....
Thank you for the citations!
This is part of the plan to have the polar bear declared endangered. Once that happens, they can sue to close down all oil producing operations in Alaska (produces CO2).
How big of a set of cajones would it take to bow hunt polar bears?
Criminy. I don’t think I’ve even DREAMED of having a pair that big...

Michele and Jim Leqve at the Whisker Bisquit arrow rests booth. Michele is the (sic) Last year Michele became the first woman to bag a polar bear with bow and arrow.
YIKES!!!
10 shots with an AR-15 from the hip.
That would make a purdy rug..
The bear was first sighted about ten yards off and charging. The bear stopped about ten feet from the trapper. Ten shots in 20 feet and charging means as fast as the AR-15 would fire.

Crafty seals outfox starving polar bears
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