Grizzly Bears are Intruding into the Territory of Polar Bears

[sanjay]

Wapusk National Park is located at western side of the Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba. This place is popular for polar bear population and it is one of the largest known polar bear maternity denning areas in the world.

Until now grizzly and black bears never have been reported at Wapusk National Park.

Researchers from the University of Saskatchewan set up a camera in the park that captured all three species of bear. Cameras have captured pictures of more than 200 polar and grizzly bears on 3 occasions. The cameras, triggered by motion and heat, have also captured the park's other animals, including wolves, caribou, moose, wolverines and geese.

Researcher Doug Clark tweeted out photos of the three bears, last weak. Photos that researcher Doug Clark tweeted out Thursday show grizzlies, polar bears and black bears in the vicinity of one camera mounted on a fence post in the park, roughly 100 kilometres southeast of Churchill, Man., within seven months of each other.

Clark told CBC News, "Seeing all three species of bear in Canada and in North America, at one spot, 'unique' doesn't even begin to describe it. There are only a couple of places where you'd even have the potential for that in North America and Wapusk National Park is the only place where that amount of overlap has been documented."

Clark, an assistant professor from the University of Saskatchewan, said that his research in conjunction with Parks Canada, began in 2011 as a fact-finding mission to determine how bears, polar bears specifically, operated around the national park's fenced-in research camps.

Why are grizzly bears suddenly showing up in polar bear habitat? Changes in climate could be part of the answer, especially as they move increasingly northward. Churchill represents an interesting intersection of the three species: far south for polar bears, normal for black bears, and actually a bit south for barren ground grizzly which are known to occur northwest of the Western Hudson Bay region.

Wapusk National Park sits on the edge of a transition zone between tundra and boreal forest. It’s also near the transition from polar bear territory to black bear territory. Seeing more grizzlies where they historically have not been seen could be due in part to changing habitat as a result of climate change.

Polar Bears International Senior Director of Conservation Geoff York said, "While black bears have been seen around Churchill for a very long time, grizzly bears appear to be newcomers to this region. The extent of their presence, the drivers behind their dispersion, and the potential impacts of their occurrence here remain as of yet unknown"

For decades, the story of grizzlies in North America has been one of decline but this might be a turn around for the species.
These cameras also allow Clark to analyze the original subjects of the research, polar bears. The pictures allow him to look at the mammals' body condition, their numbers and when they are appearing compared with the years prior.

According to Clark - Body condition is]a very important measure because with concern about polar bears losing access to seal hunting habitat due to climate warming and loss of sea ice, being able to monitor body condition is increasingly important.

The data from this spring is of the most interest to Clark because from 2011-14 Hudson Bay's ice broke up in relatively consistent time periods. This spring, there was a significantly earlier ice melt which will change the bears' behaviours. Clark is interested to see how.
Wapusk National Park is the only place where you can study human-bear interactions safely, thanks to the fenced research camps set up in the park, Clark said.

The location of the park is also key, Clark said, because it is nestled at the edge of the forest and tundra ecosystems, on the coast of Hudson Bay.
"Ecologically things are changing very, very rapidly and grizzlies moving in are just one of the more visible signs of it," Clark said.
The data collected this spring also showed robins in the area for the first time since they began their research.

"Being able to observe changes right at the edges of two habitats, where things are going to start to move, they're going to be the most apparent and the most visible and probably the most dramatic. So it's a wonderful place to ask questions about change too."

Below is image of same place from camera and you can see Polar, Grizzly and Black bear also Note the timing on photo
Polar Bear

*This image is copyright of its original author

Black Bear

*This image is copyright of its original author

Grizzly bears

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

actually it gets even more diverse: brown-phase black bear in Wapusk National Park

*This image is copyright of its original author

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