{"id":514316,"date":"2026-03-04T19:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/514316\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T19:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:09:08","slug":"polar-bears-arent-hunting-people-theyre-just-out-of-ice-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/514316\/","title":{"rendered":"Polar bears aren’t hunting people, they’re just out of ice: Scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

For years, people living in Canada\u2019s north have reported an increasing number of polar bears on shore, venturing into communities and encountering humans.<\/p>\n

Researchers theorized the bears were starving, forced onshore due to shrinking sea ice in search of something to eat, possibly people.<\/p>\n

When the bears were forced off the ice, they also lost access to their preferred food source, ringed seal cubs, which live and den on the ice.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But an 11-year-study by researchers at the University of Saskatchewan and University of Manitoba suggests that while shrinking sea ice plays a role, it\u2019s not what people thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we saw is, it wasn\u2019t the skinny bears coming around,\u201d said Douglas Clark, a professor in the School of Environment and Sustainability at the U of S.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we saw is the longer they were off the ice, the more likely all bears of all body condition, classes and all ages and sexes were to come around,\u201d Clark told CBC\u2019s The Morning Edition.<\/p>\n

\"AnPolar bears captured on trail cameras near Churchill, Manitoba. (Douglas Clark\/University of Saskatchewan)<\/p>\n

In other words, the bears were running into people more often because they were on shore more frequently.<\/p>\n

Clark first started monitoring the bears 15 years ago, installing trail cameras in several locations in Wapusk National Park on the edge of Hudson Bay, near Churchill, Man.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As ice floes shrink, more polar bears are encountering humans<\/p>\n

Researchers used to think that polar bears were coming into contact with humans more frequently because they were starving and searching for food. But new research suggests that’s not the case.<\/p>\n

Parks Canada had noticed the bears seemed to be attracted to some new field camps, and wanted to figure out what was going on and whether the bears were seeking people out for \u2014 or as \u2014 food.<\/p>\n

Clark, a polar bear scientist, was a former park warden with more than 30 years of experience working with and studying the polar bears from the Hudson Bay area.<\/p>\n

\"ATrail cam footage captures a polar bear walking near a fuel tank. (Douglas Clark\/University of Saskatchewan)<\/p>\n

He and fellow researchers eventually compiled 11 years of data, observing more than 500 polar bear visits, measuring sea ice and comparing that information to nearby human activity to get a sense of why the bears were having more encounters with people.<\/p>\n

Their observations, published recently in Arctic Science<\/a>,\u00a0revealed the bears didn\u2019t seem to care about people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They were simply around humans more often because climate change was shrinking sea ice, forcing them to shore for frequent and extended periods of time and into proximity of the people living and working there.<\/p>\n

While some bears were hungry, they didn\u2019t seem to be hunting humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen things go really bad it’s disproportionately really underweight, skinny adult males. Those are very dangerous bears,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo nutritional stress does play a role. It’s just that it doesn’t appear to be the role that we thought it was, just driving bears en masse desperately into communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Crawford, an assistant professor at the U of M’s department of environment and geography who worked on the research, said it\u2019s important to understand that polar bears haven\u2019t become more predatory toward humans because they aren\u2019t getting enough food.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the sea ice declines you\u2019re going to expect the polar bears to interact with humans more because they\u2019re going to spend more time on shore. That\u2019s still true. But it\u2019s not like the ones that are less healthy are going to be more likely to seek out humans,\u201d Crawford said.<\/p>\n

Like Clark, Crawford said a starving polar bear that happens upon a person is still extremely dangerous.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re more likely to either seek your food or seek you out as food if they\u2019re desperate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford said the research project will continue to compile information on polar bears to see if long-term changes to their habitat and food supply eventually change their behavior.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-514316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}