Team Work to Help the World's Polar Bears
Page 7 of 11
Click the image to enlarge.
Wrangel Island
For more than a decade, PBI has provided funds to underwrite the work of Dr. Nikita Ovsyanikov on Russia's Wrangel Island, home to the world's largest polar bear denning site. Having a presence on the island has helped discourage poachers and has allowed Ovsyanikov to record the changes in ice coverage—and bear numbers—on the remote outpost. Over the past few years, Ovsyanikov has recorded changes in weather patterns and a significant decline in polar bear numbers.
Ovsyanikov suggests that at least three factors may be responsible for the population drop:
1. Increased hunting and poaching in the Chukotka region over the last decade.
2. Increased polar bear mortality due to climate change and reduced ice coverage.
3. Distribution changes in polar bear populations in response to dramatic changes in ice coverage. For example, he believes that some bears may have moved from the East Siberia sector, which has experienced a dramatic reduction in the sea ice, to the Canadian sector, which has more substantial ice coverage.
In addition to Ovsyanikov's spring and fall field observations, he urges population studies that utilize satellite telemetry tracking methods in order to obtain a solid data set. He also recommends:
The establishment of new protected territories in the Arctic.
Effective law enforcement to prevent poaching and quota overtakes.
Better management of polar bear-human encounters in order to avoid the shooting of bears in conflict encounters.
Increased international cooperation in polar bear research and conservation, as global environmental changes affect all populations of polar bears and may stimulate the redistribution of polar bears in the Arctic.
Ovsyanikov firmly believes that the bears can be saved, but that it will take focused efforts and fact-based management.
For more than a decade, PBI has provided funds to underwrite the work of Dr. Nikita Ovsyanikov on Russia's Wrangel Island, home to the world's largest polar bear denning site. Having a presence on the island has helped discourage poachers and has allowed Ovsyanikov to record the changes in ice coverage—and bear numbers—on the remote outpost. Over the past few years, Ovsyanikov has recorded changes in weather patterns and a significant decline in polar bear numbers.
Ovsyanikov suggests that at least three factors may be responsible for the population drop:
1. Increased hunting and poaching in the Chukotka region over the last decade.
2. Increased polar bear mortality due to climate change and reduced ice coverage.
3. Distribution changes in polar bear populations in response to dramatic changes in ice coverage. For example, he believes that some bears may have moved from the East Siberia sector, which has experienced a dramatic reduction in the sea ice, to the Canadian sector, which has more substantial ice coverage.
In addition to Ovsyanikov's spring and fall field observations, he urges population studies that utilize satellite telemetry tracking methods in order to obtain a solid data set. He also recommends:
The establishment of new protected territories in the Arctic.
Effective law enforcement to prevent poaching and quota overtakes.
Better management of polar bear-human encounters in order to avoid the shooting of bears in conflict encounters.
Increased international cooperation in polar bear research and conservation, as global environmental changes affect all populations of polar bears and may stimulate the redistribution of polar bears in the Arctic.
Ovsyanikov firmly believes that the bears can be saved, but that it will take focused efforts and fact-based management.