Polar Bears: Outstanding Survivors of Climate Change

By Susan J. Crockford

This short, full-color volume explains why polar bears are thriving despite the recent decline of Arctic sea ice. It contains the critical information readers need to understand polar bear ecology and conservation issues without drowning in detail: the most up-to-date information available in an easy to digest format that is fully referenced. Here is the rational science reference book about polar bears readers around the world have been requesting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan J. Crockford
• Release date: Dec 31, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370624300

Susan J. Crockford

Being from a storytelling family pays off: if you hear stories often enough, you find you can tell them too. Susan J. Crockford is a professional zoologist who has studied polar bear ecology and evolution for more than 20 years and has a special interest in the history of human-polar bear interactions. She has a Ph.D. and writes a blog about polar bears called PolarBearScience. After years of writing scientific papers and books and blogging about polar bears for non-scientists, Susan wrote her first novel in 2015—for readers who prefer their science “lite” and love a good story. For 2017, Susan has produced two short polar bear science books: one detailed volume for adults and high-school students and another suitable for children aged 7 and up. These books take a sensible, big-picture approach that many readers will appreciate and are based on the most up-to-date information available.

Book preview

Polar Bears

Outstanding

Survivors of

Climate Change

SUSAN J. CROCKFORD

Copyright © 2017 Susan J. Crockford

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Published in 2017 by Spotted Cow Presentations Inc.

EPUB ISBN 9781370624300

Table of Contents

About me

About this book

Acknowledgements

1. Polar bear & sea ice basics

2. Feasting/fasting life of polar bears

3. Evolution & climate change

4. Conservation & protection

5. Failure of the polar bear predictions

6. Biggest threat to polar bears

7. Summary

8. Conclusions

References by chapter & topic

Photo & figure credits

Glossary

About Me

I am an active professional zoologist with specialties in the identification of ancient animal remains and animal ecology, as well as species evolution and adaptation.

For more than 25 years, I have been investigating the ecology and evolution of polar bears, in addition to other vertebrate species (dogs, wolves, bluefin tuna, shorttailed albatross, mountain goats, northern fur seals, Steller sea lions, and Arctic ringed seals) – see http//:www.pacificid.com for a complete list.

My scientific background includes a solid foundation in the mechanisms of evolution, the fossil and archaeological records, the geological history of Arctic sea ice, and the ecological and genetic evidence of living species necessary for understanding their history.

Over the years, I have written a number of scientific papers on a wide range of topics, including human colonization of the Arctic – see http//:www.pacificid.com for this list.

My Ph.D. dissertation (2004) examined the origin of domestic dogs as well as polar bears and showed how evolution actually works; my book Rhythms of Life: Thyroid Hormone and the Origin of Species is a version of that work for general readers.

This broad spectrum science background gives me a big picture perspective on contemporary polar bear issues that researchers specialized in data collection and modeling survival are lacking.

Since August 2012, I have been writing a popular science blog called Polar Bear Science (https//:www.polarbearscience.com). The blog’s focus is on polar bear ecology of the past and present – without spin, advocacy, or politics. I am a scientist – I leave prognostications about the future to fortune-tellers except when I am writing fiction, in which case I identify it as such (e.g., EATEN: A novel).

My author website is https//:www.susancrockford.com

My other polar bear books

Polar Bear Facts and Myths: A Science Summary for All Age [2017: non-fiction, for ages 7 and up]

EATEN: A novel [2015: a science-based polar bear attack thriller for adults]

Rhythms of Life: Thyroid Hormone and the Origin of Species [2007: a science book for non-scientists about speciation, including the origin of polar bears]

About This Book

This concise digest is styled after a popular lecture I have presented since 2009 through the University of Victoria’s Speakers Bureau (updated over the years, of course) which has always been well received. The opinions expressed in those lectures, and in this book, are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Victoria or any other agencies that have supported my research.

I have purposely kept the book short so that full-color images could be included because they speak volumes. The information provided here is based on peer-reviewed literature (except where noted otherwise)’ however, to keep the format simple, references are not cited in the text but are listed at the end of the book by page number (and sometimes, within the page, by topic).

I hope you will find the diverse background and broad perspective I bring to the field of polar bear science to be a refreshing addition. Here, I have endeavored to lay out, as simply as possible, the relevant science necessary for understanding polar bear ecology and population health, in the context of long term conservation concerns. This has meant addressing inconvenient topics, including reconciling doomsday predictions against recent observations.

It is not my intension to criticize the valuable effort that field researchers have contributed to polar bear science, but I do take issue with those who insist that being a collector of polar bear data makes their opinion the final word regarding its interpretation and significance.

Further detail on topics mentioned here can be found at www.polarbearscience.com where you will also find a contact-me form. I will gladly pass along additional information on request.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Hilary Ostrov for copy editing and to the many lecture audiences in Victoria who provided the inspiration for this book. This work is based on several published and unpublished peer-reviewed papers, as well as blog posts I have written over the years that have garnered feedback from experts in various fields. While I have endeavored to be as accurate as possible, a few typos may have slipped through, for which I take full responsibility.

Chapter 1 Polar Bear & Sea Ice Basics

Where polar bears live

The area of polar bear habitat equals the approximate extent of Arctic sea ice in March (the yearly maximum), with three important exceptions. Three areas have sea ice in winter but no polar bears: Okhotsk Sea (OS), Baltic Sea (BS), and the Gulf of St. Lawrence (GSL). If all three were filled with ice, together they would represent 2.4 mkm² of the total Arctic extent total (Fig. 1). If we remove these areas of sea ice from the Arctic extent totals for the satellite record (1979-2016), total polar bear habitat at the end of March has been virtually constant at about 14.0 mkm² per year.

Figure 1. Global polar bear habitat is the approximate extent of sea ice in winter (2016) with three important exceptions: the Baltic Sea (BS),