Answered by Dr. Steven C. Amstrup, chief scientist at Polar Bears International and USGS polar bear project leader in Alaska for 30 years.
Q. With polar bears in trouble because of melting ice, could we help malnourished polar bears by giving them seals or other food?
A. Feeding wildlife is always a complicated issue. There are places where winter supplemental feeding has helped deer and elk herds through the winter and avoided damage that those animals may otherwise have caused to fruit trees and other crops. Such animals, however, often become dependent on the supplemental food and may even alter their natural movement patterns to take advantage of food that otherwise was not there. Then, if the feeding stops, these animals are in trouble. Just like providing a feeder for birds, if you start the autumn feeding, you had better feed throughout the winter or you are likely to contribute to large scale die-offs.
In the case of polar bears it is even more complicated. The risks of concentrating bears where they otherwise would not be concentrated and the risks of bears associating food with people must be considered. More importantly, the expense of doing anything at the scale that would provide population level assistance to bears also cannot be overlooked. This is especially important when you consider the large greenhouse gas footprint that would result from any artificial feeding strategy that would benefit bears at the population level. It is, after all, the human emissions of GHGs that is causing the current plight of polar bears. To generate tons more CO2 in efforts to distribute food might offer short-term relief but exacerbate the long-term problem. Ultimately, to save polar bears we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to save their sea ice habitat, and it would be more beneficial to put our efforts into minimizing our GHG emissions. It's up to each of us to do our part to lower our carbon footprint and to let corporations and government officials know that we support action.
Greenhouse gas mitigation, along with the best possible wildlife management by local management authorities, rather than feeding, is the best way to assure future survival of polar bears. At PBI, we have formed a Sustainability Alliance involving experts from a variety of research and management organizations to develop the best possible ways to deal with and learn from compromised bears.
These are challenging times for polar bears and we all must do all we can to ensure that they survive for future generations.
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