Polar bears “well fed and in great shape” this year

Churchill_Polar_Bear_2004-11-15 Wikipedia

Reports from Seal River, just north of Churchill at Churchillwild, at July 26 were crowing about seeing lots of bears onshore, with a veritable beehive of activity the weekend of 16/17 July:

“This has without a doubt been Churchill Wild’s most spectacular start to the summer polar bear watching season. …Bear numbers are up spectacularly this year and all are looking very fat and healthy, perhaps much to the chagrin of climate change “experts.” Our best day for the seductive white carnivores over the past week featured 21 polar bears sighted between the Lodge and our whale swim spot!

The ice pack, which was still visible a week ago [i.e, 17 July or so], has finally dissipated and pushed a large number of bears on to our coastline here at Seal River, with the end result being many very happy cameras!” [my bold]

And in Churchill proper, the Polar Bear Alert program has issued three reports so far this season (courtesy the Town of Churchill), which confirm that bears in the Polar Bear Capital of the World are also in great shape.

For the week of July 11-17, 2016:

“Bears are off the sea ice and on land. They are looking well fed and in great shape.”

See all three PBA reports below, compared to one from last year at this time (as well as a map and some ice charts).

More fat, healthy bears than last year, enough to keep the Polar Bear Alert folks hopping and tourists in the north happy. Sure doesn’t sound like a suffering population to me.

Map (courtesy Churchillwild):

Seal River Lodge location

 

WEEK 1, 2016

2016 July 11_17_bears off the ice

WEEK 2, 2016

2016 July 18_24_week 2

WEEK 3, 2016

2016 July 25_31_week 3

EARLY JULY, 2015 (FOR COMPARISON), NO MENTION OF CONDITION:

2015 July 5_12

LATE JULY 2015:

2015 July 20_26

 

SEA ICE COMPARISON GRAPH FOR THE WEEK OF 9 JULY, 1971-2016:

Hudson Bay same week 9 July 1971-2016

SEA ICE MAP FOR 17 JULY 2016:

Sea ice extent Canada 2016 July 17_CIS

Read more at polarbearscience.com

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