San Diego Zoo Holds Press Conference Addressing Polar Bear Population Crisis

December 13, 2006
The San Diego Zoo hosted a press conference on Wednesday to address wild polar bear population decline and issues affecting their future survival. The press conference was held as a public announcement of the Zoo's commitment with the government of Manitoba, Canada and the non-profit organization Polar Bears International (PBI) to work together to address the population crisis facing polar bears as an indicator species for the growing global challenge of climate change.

As part of the conference, Steven Amstrup, Ph.D., a polar bear expert with the U.S. Geological Survey, announced results from joint American and Canadian studies indicating a quantitative correlation between earlier sea ice melt and lowered polar bear survival in western Hudson Bay, Manitoba, Canada, and confirmed that the bear population is declining. Similarly, the loss of sea ice due to global warming appears to be driving declines in body size and survival rate of polar bear cubs in the southern Beaufort Sea region of northern Alaska and northwestern Canada. Polar bears use the sea ice as a platform for hunting and depend on it entirely for survival. Nearly 20 percent of the sea ice in the Far North has been lost in the last 20 years.

According to Dr. Amstrup, it is imperative to document how bears in the 16 other populations are responding to Arctic climate change so that conservation and management strategies can be developed around the world. He announced the launch of a new research initiative called the Tri-P (Polar Population Project). The Tri-P represents concepts developed by eminent polar bear scientists and is being spearheaded by PBI with help from the San Diego Zoo.

Currently, much of what is known about polar bears is due to long-term studies in the southern Beaufort Sea and western Hudson Bay regions. Those programs must continue to maintain their data baselines into the changing future. Dr. Amstrup emphasized the high priority of using the detailed knowledge available in western Hudson Bay because of the long-term monitoring there to calibrate modern aerial survey methods. When calibrated, these surveys could provide a fast and relatively inexpensive way to help determine the status of at least five other populations that, like bears in western Hudson Bay, are trapped on land in summer.

Dr. Amstrup also emphasized the need to develop appropriate monitoring methods for the world's bear populations that stay on the sea ice all summer. According to Dr. Amstrup, a combination of census and monitoring methods, which may vary in order to fit different geographic regions where polar bears occur, is essential to understand population trends and develop conservation strategies.

Concern over the status of polar bears was also expressed by the premier of Manitoba, Gary Doer, as he announced his government's commitment to addressing climate change. Mr. Doer's government introduced the Polar Bear Protection Act in 2002 and he was recently named by Business Week as one of the world's top 20 leaders in clean energy development. In his address, Premier Doer spoke about his vision for clean energy, including the further development of Manitoba's extensive hydroelectric resources, enhanced energy efficiency, and the development of new power sources such as wind, ethanol, and geothermal sources.

Also speaking at the conference, Robert Buchanan, president of PBI, emphasized the education components of the Tri-P initiative to conserve bears and announced numerous plans underway to expand educational opportunities, including utilizing videoconferencing technology to broadcast interviews with researchers from the tundra to classrooms around the country. He also noted the success of the Polar Bear Science Leadership Camp in Churchill that is offered to a dozen teenagers worldwide each year.

The San Diego Zoo works closely with PBI on educational opportunities, including the opportunity for a San Diego high school student to travel to the Arctic to participate in the Science Leadership Camp. Additionally, the San Diego Zoo recently launched a groundbreaking study on polar bear hearing sensitivity. It is hoped that the study will determine how sensitive polar bears are to various tones and frequencies, a fundamental aspect of the bear's biology that is currently undocumented.