Survey finds two High Arctic polar bear populations stable

Polar bears in two High Arctic populations seem to be doing better than scientists had thought.

The first major study of the Baffin Bay and Kane Basin populations in about 20 years has found more bears than population models predicted.

But the three-year study, done for the Canada-Greenland Joint Commission on Polar Bear, warned that the body condition of the animals in the larger Baffin Bay group is deteriorating as sea ice shrinks.

It also found female bears are spending less time in maternity dens and the survival of newborn cubs is dropping. “Body condition in the Baffin Bay polar bears declined in close association with the duration of the ice-free period,” the report says.

The Kane Basin population, however, may actually be increasing.