Not a day for polar bear research. Waiting for weather on the shores of Hudson Bay. The nice thing about polar bear research is that we can only work on sunny days without drifting snow (or we can't follow their tracks).
Yesterday over the sea ice of Hudson Bay doing polar bear field research. Challenging conditions: little snow & highly fractured ice. Conditions will hopefully improve: it's snowing & cold today so that bodes well.
You have to love the headline - "Polar bears spotted off Black Tickle". I'd like to see 2 polar bears up here: we're waiting for weather on the shores of Hudson Bay to continue our research.
vocm.com/2026/04/13/p...
Western Hudson Bay polar bears are in their usual spring hunting area. I'm in Churchill now waiting to start field research & deploy eartag satellite radios but no helicopter (stuck in Igloolik in a white out) & the weather here is snowy. Hoping for a helicopter & sun.
Arctic wolf and polar bear at the sewage outflow of our CFS Alert study area (Nunavut, Canada). Interaction captured by an automatic camera on 5 April 2025.
Arctic wolves and polar bears are rarely seen together at our CFS Alert study area (Nunavut, Canada), as wolf packs usually displace bears. Here, a lone wolf appears dominated by a bear. This rare interaction was captured by an automatic camera on 5 April 2025. 🧪🌿🌎🦑🦊🐻❄️
Western Hudson Bay polar bears are getting back to the NE of Churchill area. This is a consistent hot spot for the bears in spring. The combination of ringed seals in stable ice & bearded seals / harbour seals in the more active nearshore ice make this a prime hunting area.
Western Hudson Bay polar bears seem lined up to the northeast: under the thin cloud layer, you can see an area of thin ice to the west of the red line. Polar bears have a sweet spot for sea ice: not too thick & not too thin.
Latest paper from @ualberta.bsky.social polar bear project with collaborators at Environment & Climate Change Canada and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. Paper examines polar bears as an umbrella species for identifying possible marine protected areas. Open access: cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/...
Most Hudson Bay polar bears are NE of Cape Churchill - a "normal" distribution. Our ear tag radios (purple dots) are slowly disappearing - it's usually antenna failure that's the problem. Prime feeding season about a month off but mating season is in full swing.
Simonne Tremblay provides a nice overview of mating-related injuries in polar bears. It's coming up to the peak of the breeding season now so the males will be searching for estrous females.
polarbearsinternational.org/news-media/a...
Open access paper here: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
🧪 New open access article in Ursus! 🐻
“High-resolution techniques reveal the palaeoecology of an exceptionally large Ursus arctos from the Late Pleistocene of East Siberia” by Prilepskaya et al. Read via BioOne: doi.org/10.2192/URSU...
#brownbear #americanblackbear #bears #EduSky #ScienceSky
Some Hudson Bay bears have shifted south but they're still rather spread out. The 5 bears lines up NE of Cape Churchill is a bit odd - maybe a large lead has opened up.
Hudson Bay polar bears are distributed widely but on the western side of the Bay. Fairly typical. 2 mothers, presumably with new cubs, came out of dens this week. They'll soon head out to the ice: it's a critical time for them as they need to rebuild fat reserves for summer.
Lots of Hudson Bay polar bears are towards the NW. Something good up there this year? Some bears are right along the shore lead - an area of open water & thin ice. There are more bearded seals & harbour seals in this area so possibly the attraction.
Today is International Polar Bear Day – a day to recognize polar bears and the urgent need to protect them. With climate change threatening their future, conservation efforts are more important than ever.
Support bear conservation by donating to IBA: bearbiology.app.neoncrm.com/forms/donate
Happy International Polar Bear Day!
Hudson Bay polar bears took a big jump to the northwest this week. Why? I'm guessing favourable winds that made hunting that direction more effective (but we don't know for sure & it's something we're investigating).
Hudson Bay are well spread out & doing different things. One female (K) has moved close to shore. Bear C has emerged from a den - it's a bit early if she's got new cubs but we'll see if she stays there or moves onto the ice.
Line graph time series of 2026's daily Arctic sea ice extent compared to decadal averages from the 1980s to the 2010s. The decadal averages are shown with different colored lines with purple for the 1980s, blue for the 1990s, green for the 2000s, and white for the 2010s. Thin white lines are also shown for each year from 2000 to 2025. 2026 is shown with a thick gold line. There is a long-term decreasing trend in ice extent for every day of the year shown on this graph between January and March by looking at the decadal average line positions.
Friday ice update - #Arctic sea ice extent is currently the 5th lowest on record (JAXA data)...
• about 130,000 km² below the 2010s mean
• about 810,000 km² below the 2000s mean
• about 1,350,000 km² below the 1990s mean
• about 1,690,000 km² below the 1980s mean
More: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-i...
Hudson Bay polar bears showing a rather typical pattern this winter. Our eartag radios (purple) are slowly disappearing (most likely antenna failure).
Latest paper from our Hudson Bay polar bear research. It's hard won data & explores a topic we know little about: predator / prey relationships. Lead author supported by @PolarBears post-doc.
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... [open access]
A few Hudson Bay polar bears are wandering far to the east. Many seem to have a happy place just east and south of Cape Churchill. It's still lean days for the bears & they won't start adding weight for a few months.
www.cbc.ca/news/climate...
Nice overview of the new paper in Scientific Reports.
www.nature.com/articles/s41... [open access paper]
New paper on Svalbard polar bears reveals the complexity of responses to sea ice loss across the Arctic. Svalbard bears are doing OK for now despite having the highest rate of sea ice loss of the 20 populations. A time-limited situation as ice declines.
www.nature.com/articles/s41... [open access]
Typical January distribution for polar bears in Hudson Bay but a bit more to the southeast this year. Some eartag radios (purple) are stopping transmission but at 8 months, that's pretty good. The bears have almost 8 hours of daylight now & days are getting longer fast.
Interesting new website: "Nanuk Narratives" is an Inuit-led docuseries of short videos that delves into the deep and enduring relationship among Inuit and polar bears (nanuk) in and around the Davis Strait.
www.nanuknarratives.com
Line graph time series of 2026's daily Arctic sea ice extent compared to decadal averages from the 1980s to the 2010s. The decadal averages are shown with different colored lines with purple for the 1980s, blue for the 1990s, green for the 2000s, and white for the 2010s. Thin white lines are also shown for each year from 2000 to 2025. 2026 is shown with a thick gold line. There is a long-term decreasing trend in ice extent for every day of the year shown on this graph between January and March by looking at the decadal average line positions.
Monday ice update - #Arctic sea ice extent is currently the *lowest* on record (JAXA data)...
• about 450,000 km² below the 2010s mean
• about 1,030,000 km² below the 2000s mean
• about 1,580,000 km² below the 1990s mean
• about 2,010,000 km² below the 1980s mean
More: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-i...
Hudson Bay polar bears continue their outward migration. Bear H near Cape Churchill was in the denning area last week but is now on the ice. Likely a failed litter. Bears leaving in January don't usually have cubs. Hard to say what happened.
Hudson Bay polar bears are well spread out. It's interesting to see bear E4 (adult male, northern most bear in centre of Bay) moving to the SW in the past week. It's a typical distribution for a time of year when hunting success is likely low (but we have little data on this).
