Worth the dip? Polar bear predation on swimming flightless greater snow geese and estimation of energetic efficiency
As sea-ice cover is shrinking, polar bears ( Ursus maritimus, Phipps, 1774) face decreased access to seals, their primary prey, resulting in a greater dependence on terrestrial food sources. Whether polar bears can benefit from these terrestrial food sources, however, depends on their ability to fin...
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Language: | English |
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Canadian Science Publishing
2023
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/as-2023-0036 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/as-2023-0036 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/as-2023-0036 |
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crcansciencepubl:10.1139/as-2023-0036 2024-03-03T08:39:34+00:00 Worth the dip? Polar bear predation on swimming flightless greater snow geese and estimation of energetic efficiency Weiss-Blais, Matthieu Bolduc, David Corbeil-Robitaille, Madeleine-Zoé Dulude-de Broin, Frédéric Grandmont, Thierry LeTourneux, Frédéric Poirier, Mathilde Sarrazin, Denis Legagneux, Pierre 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/as-2023-0036 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/as-2023-0036 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/as-2023-0036 en eng Canadian Science Publishing https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_GB Arctic Science ISSN 2368-7460 General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Environmental Science journal-article 2023 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2023-0036 2024-02-07T10:53:43Z As sea-ice cover is shrinking, polar bears ( Ursus maritimus, Phipps, 1774) face decreased access to seals, their primary prey, resulting in a greater dependence on terrestrial food sources. Whether polar bears can benefit from these terrestrial food sources, however, depends on their ability to find and capture prey items without expending more energy than is acquired. Here, we report one of the northernmost observations of polar bear predation on adult birds. The bear used a dive-hunting technique, which consisted of submerging itself, approaching underwater, and catching flightless greater snow geese ( Anser caerulescens caerulescens (Linnaeus, 1758)) from beneath the surface of a tundra pond. After evaluating energy expenditures during swimming and energy intakes from consuming geese, we estimated that this rarely documented dive-hunting technique could be energetically profitable for a certain range of pursuit durations. This observation highlights the behavioral plasticity that polar bears can deploy to punctually exploit land-based food sources. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Sea ice Tundra Ursus maritimus Canadian Science Publishing Arctic Science |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Canadian Science Publishing |
op_collection_id |
crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Environmental Science |
spellingShingle |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Environmental Science Weiss-Blais, Matthieu Bolduc, David Corbeil-Robitaille, Madeleine-Zoé Dulude-de Broin, Frédéric Grandmont, Thierry LeTourneux, Frédéric Poirier, Mathilde Sarrazin, Denis Legagneux, Pierre Worth the dip? Polar bear predation on swimming flightless greater snow geese and estimation of energetic efficiency |
topic_facet |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Environmental Science |
description |
As sea-ice cover is shrinking, polar bears ( Ursus maritimus, Phipps, 1774) face decreased access to seals, their primary prey, resulting in a greater dependence on terrestrial food sources. Whether polar bears can benefit from these terrestrial food sources, however, depends on their ability to find and capture prey items without expending more energy than is acquired. Here, we report one of the northernmost observations of polar bear predation on adult birds. The bear used a dive-hunting technique, which consisted of submerging itself, approaching underwater, and catching flightless greater snow geese ( Anser caerulescens caerulescens (Linnaeus, 1758)) from beneath the surface of a tundra pond. After evaluating energy expenditures during swimming and energy intakes from consuming geese, we estimated that this rarely documented dive-hunting technique could be energetically profitable for a certain range of pursuit durations. This observation highlights the behavioral plasticity that polar bears can deploy to punctually exploit land-based food sources. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Weiss-Blais, Matthieu Bolduc, David Corbeil-Robitaille, Madeleine-Zoé Dulude-de Broin, Frédéric Grandmont, Thierry LeTourneux, Frédéric Poirier, Mathilde Sarrazin, Denis Legagneux, Pierre |
author_facet |
Weiss-Blais, Matthieu Bolduc, David Corbeil-Robitaille, Madeleine-Zoé Dulude-de Broin, Frédéric Grandmont, Thierry LeTourneux, Frédéric Poirier, Mathilde Sarrazin, Denis Legagneux, Pierre |
author_sort |
Weiss-Blais, Matthieu |
title |
Worth the dip? Polar bear predation on swimming flightless greater snow geese and estimation of energetic efficiency |
title_short |
Worth the dip? Polar bear predation on swimming flightless greater snow geese and estimation of energetic efficiency |
title_full |
Worth the dip? Polar bear predation on swimming flightless greater snow geese and estimation of energetic efficiency |
title_fullStr |
Worth the dip? Polar bear predation on swimming flightless greater snow geese and estimation of energetic efficiency |
title_full_unstemmed |
Worth the dip? Polar bear predation on swimming flightless greater snow geese and estimation of energetic efficiency |
title_sort |
worth the dip? polar bear predation on swimming flightless greater snow geese and estimation of energetic efficiency |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/as-2023-0036 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/as-2023-0036 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/as-2023-0036 |
genre |
Arctic Sea ice Tundra Ursus maritimus |
genre_facet |
Arctic Sea ice Tundra Ursus maritimus |
op_source |
Arctic Science ISSN 2368-7460 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_GB |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2023-0036 |
container_title |
Arctic Science |
_version_ |
1792495160951570432 |