Polar bears resort to cannibalism as Arctic ice shrinks

you have no idea what you are talking

I think the information in the article is from a 2006 scientific article titled "Recent observations of intraspecific predation and cannibalism among polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea". When I searched for "polar bear cannibalism" on the Center for Biological Diversity's website (that's CNN's source), there were 3 results, all of which cite this study as the source of their information. As usual, it appears the rather careful language of science has been replaced with the relatively careless language of journalism.

Here's the abstract:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/m518018263874231/

Here's the full paper, in pdf format (only 6 pages long):
http://www.umac.org/about/pubs/Polar_Bear_Predation_Polar_Biology.pdf

NOTE: I removed the citations from what I've quoted so it reads more easily. The citations are available in the .pdf.

The paper acknowledges other "[f]actors that motivate intraspecific predation in polar bears (Ursus maritimus), brown bears (U. arctos), and black bears (U. americanus)" such as "population regulation, dominance disputes or intraspecific aggression,and reproductive advantage"; it also notes that "[p]redation for the purposes of securing nutrition is another motivation for intraspecific killings, but the ecological factors mediating such events are poorly understood."

However: "During 24 prior years of Alaskan research and 34 prior years of Canadian research in the Beaufort Sea we have not seen other evidence of polar bears stalking, killing, and eating other polar bears. We hypothesize that these events may be related to nutritional stresses accompanying the longer ice-free seasons that have predominated in this region in recent years."

The report concludes: "In the cases we observed, the motivation for the attacks appears to have been nutritional. There are precedents that cannibalism in polar bears may accompany reduced access to food...

The underlying causes for our cannibalism observations are not known. They simply could be chance observations of previously unobserved rare events, or even a single rogue male bear that adopted a survival strategy including cannibalism. Because we have not observed such events previously, however, we cannot overlook the possibility they may be related to the generally poorer condition we recorded for polar bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea compared to bears in adjacent areas to the north and west. Because adult male polar bears feed little during the spring when they focus on breeding; they enter summer in poor condition. Therefore, adult males may be the first population segment to show adverse effects of the large ice retreats of recent years, and the potentially reduced foraging opportunities it presents. This possibility, and recent observations of adverse effects sea ice changes have had on the lower latitude Hudson Bay polar bear population, emphasizes the importance of continuing long-term studies of the Beaufort Sea ecosystem in relation to ongoing and predicted sea ice changes."

I hate it when "lounge chair scientists" think they know better than real scientists with actual field experience who know what they're talking about and have published peer-reviewed papers.

Whatever dude.

If you can't laugh while the planet is dying and humans are on the verge of extinction-- when *can* you laugh?

You sir are way to serious. You're gonna have a heart attack before you get anything done to save the world.

it's called outrage fatigue. I just can't be pissed off anymore. I'm emotionally exhausted.

Like Kurt Vonnegut Jr would say, "Life is tragic, and most of the time you have two options, crying or laughing. Laughing takes less time to clean up after."

Keeping knowledge away from the public eye, the same thing the Romans did with the Colosseum. The strategy worked then, and works now. I'm glad someone else sees beyond the surface.

I think we ought to feed The Rich to the polar bears.

Dick Cheney... mmm... they can floss with his defibrillator wires.

You are dead on....I am a retired biology/environmental science teacher and told my students that when they are as old as I am the world population will have gone to 9 -12 billion people.(maybe more if Palin is the new female role model) We have be smarter than bacteria on plated media that will grow exponentially until they poison themselves off with their own waste products or run out of food....unfortunately I don't think we are. It is great to see that there are still folks out there that "get it".

Have you eaten some funky shrooms or something?

Would you agree that it is selfish for a married couple to plan a pregnancy as opposed to adopting a young child in need of a family? This would be a productive and compassionate way to control population.

L O L I'm sorry if asking this poster if he agreed with a growing opinion, while also adding a line that showed that I see the benefits of this opinion, made it seem as if this was my own theory. The individual was obviously in favor of a decrease in reproduction, so I asked for an opinion. Now where the hell do you come up with the assumption that I must be gay?! Not at all my place to judge sexuality, but brotha believe you me, I get more (female) tail than you could dream about (exaggeration) but I'm as straight as they get. I go one way and in my humble little opinion, women are made for men and vice versa. No offense, but jumping to such far away conclusions at your age could aggravate those knees of yours.

You must be senile if you are still taking the post as my personal opinion. It is a widespread opinion of many and I asked another poster if he/she agreed with that. I don't know where you come off attacking me for asking someone if they agree with a concept or not. Why don't you wait for someone to say they agree with it, then feel free to attack them! You can't contradict a question. You can say I'm wrong for seeing some pros in the idea, though I see many cons as well just as you do. Your problem is that you're quick to pull the trigger at any opportunity to prove your intellectual prowess.

But about your suggestion for Wessagusset to volunteer to the bear-feeding, that was my first thought for this person. He/she can feed himself to the bears if this person thinks that will help. I'm not signing my family or friends up for that