Polar bear tracker update: Looking back on 2010 and forward to 2011

Follow three polar bear families as they navigate the Hudson Bay in search for food this winter.
For those polar bear families that made it through the long summer shore-fasting period, things are better now, at least until next year. It’s highly possible that a significant number of families did not make it, especially the less experienced lactating mothers and dependent cubs. Experts have estimated that the average number of ice-free days that bears can manage with based on fat reserves from the spring is around 120 days. But this year the Hudson Bay shore-time was closer to 160 days.
Next year, the Nunavut government in conjunction with Manitoba is planning to conduct updated surveys of the Western Hudson Bay polar bear population. We hope that these surveys shed new light on these troubling situations and trends, and that the findings are linked clearly to the source of the problem – accelerating climate change. Certainly, for those people who had been hoping to fly to family in Northwest Europe for this festive season, the importance of Arctic ecosystems and their role in regulating the world’s climate patterns have never been so visible and troubling, with major airports snowed-under and supplies of de-icer fluid already almost exhausted.
Have a safe holiday and we’ll see you in 2011.

(c) David Jenkins/WWF-Canada