Polar Bears by Andrew E. Derocher

Author:Andrew E. Derocher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2012-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

A large black nose, some teeth, and a blur of white will be the last thing that thousands of seals see.

In the Canadian Arctic, polar bears explored up to 30% of the ringed seal subnivean structures found by dogs trained to find seal lairs. The bears killed seals in 10% to 24% of their attempts, with pups making up 75% to 100% of their prey. Polar bears killed up to 1.3 seals per square mile (0.51 seals/sq km), which translates into some serious seal carnage.

Seals sometimes build lairs under sea ice rather than in snow. Think of two playing cards pushed together and in the upside down V, the seal maintains a breathing hole and a lair. Polar bears do not normally bother hunting such lairs but if the hunting conditions are exceptionally poor or the bear is sufficiently desperate, it will dig through the ice. Such hunting has a fairly low rate of return since digging through 3 feet (1 m) of ice gives a seal plenty of time to get away. Though the technique sometimes works, I have seen the claws of bears that undertake such measures. It is clear that their claws cannot take too much of such work.

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