Polar bears may have to be fed

EDMONTON — Several top polar bear scientists are considering what might once have seemed unthinkable: please feed the bears.

As sea ice disappears and habitat deteriorates in some polar bear ranges, a newly published paper by 12 of the world’s foremost experts suggests it’s time to consider how to manage increasingly troubled populations.

One idea? Setting out big piles of polar bear chow on the tundra.

“We just raise it as one of the options,” said co-author Andrew Derocher of the University of Alberta.

The study points to the bears around Hudson Bay, one of the most southerly populations and perhaps the most vulnerable to the loss of sea ice, which the animals use as a hunting platform.

A recent government of Nunavut aerial survey suggested bear numbers around the bay are stable, but other studies disagree. They suggest the bears’ condition is deteriorating and they aren’t producing anywhere near enough cubs. That makes them highly vulnerable to one bad year, says Derocher’s report.

How will wildlife managers and the public respond to images of dozens of dying polar bears in a world where Russian icebreakers detour to save whales? Derocher asks.

“A stranded sea lion ends up in a recovery facility, fed back up and put back out,” he said. “What is it about the Arctic? Is it just too far away for people to care? I don’t think so.”