Polar Bears

Polar bears are listed as “vulnerable.” Why are governments allowing hunters to “harvest” polar bears, exactly?

Number of papers: 3

Assessment of global polar bear abundance and vulnerability — Zoological Society of London, 2018; Hamilton & Derocher

“Based on this relationship, we estimate the global population at 23,315 bears (range: 15,972–31,212).” — Note that adding insignificant digits like this to a confidence interval is amateur and a sign of poor statistical methods. Nevertheless, there are very few counts, so I have included it.

Changes in the Composition of the Harvest in Three Polar Bear Subpopulations in the Western Canadian Arctic after the US Listing of the Polar Bear as a Threatened Species — Arctic, 2023; Pearce et al.

“The 2008 United States (US) listing of the polar bear as a threatened species prohibits the importation of polar bear trophies into the US, significantly decreasing the number of Americans paying for guided polar bear hunts in Canada. We examined the numbers and composition of the harvest in three polar bear subpopulations—Northern Beaufort Sea, Southern Beaufort Sea, and Viscount Melville Sound—located in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the western Canadian Arctic in order to identify what happens when support for guided hunting is withdrawn. We find that there was no significant change in the number of polar bears harvested or in the sex composition of the harvest in the three subpopulations after the US listing. ... We conclude that while the US listing and rapid decline in guided hunts did not affect the number of polar bears harvested, it did disrupt the Inuit cultural economy.”

Polar Bear Harvest Patterns Across the Circumpolar Arctic — Frontiers in Conservation Science, 2022; Vongraven et al.

“We analyzed data from 39,049 harvested polar bears (annual mean 797 bears) collected from 1970 to 2018. Harvest varied across populations and times that reflect varying management objectives, episodic events, and changes based on new population estimates. More males than females were harvested with an overall M:F sex ratio of 1.84. Harvest varied by jurisdiction with 68.0% of bears harvested in Canada, 18.0% in Greenland, 11.8% in the USA, and 2.2% in Norway. Harvest rate was often near the 4.5% target rate.”