What to eat now? Shifts in polar bear diet during the ice-free season in western Hudson Bay
Under current climate trends, spring ice breakup in Hudson Bay is advancing rapidly, leaving polar bears (Ursus maritimus) less time to hunt seals during the spring when they accumulate the majority of their annual fat reserves. For this reason, foods that polar bears consume during the ice-free sea...
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ftcityunivny:oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:cc_pubs-1832 2023-05-15T15:08:12+02:00 What to eat now? Shifts in polar bear diet during the ice-free season in western Hudson Bay Gormezano, Linda J. Rockwell, Robert F. 2013-01-01T08:00:00Z application/pdf https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_pubs/755 https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1832&context=cc_pubs English eng CUNY Academic Works https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_pubs/755 https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1832&context=cc_pubs Publications and Research climate change diet feces polar bears scat terrestrial ursus maritimus western hudson bay Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Population Biology article 2013 ftcityunivny 2021-04-10T19:06:43Z Under current climate trends, spring ice breakup in Hudson Bay is advancing rapidly, leaving polar bears (Ursus maritimus) less time to hunt seals during the spring when they accumulate the majority of their annual fat reserves. For this reason, foods that polar bears consume during the ice-free season may become increasingly important in alleviating nutritional stress from lost seal hunting opportunities. Defining how the terrestrial diet might have changed since the onset of rapid climate change is an important step in understanding how polar bears may be reacting to climate change. We characterized the current terrestrial diet of polar bears in western Hudson Bay by evaluating the contents of passively sampled scat and comparing it to a similar study conducted 40 years ago. While the two terrestrial diets broadly overlap, polar bears currently appear to be exploiting increasingly abundant resources such as caribou (Rangifer tarandus) and snow geese (Chen caerulescens caerulescens) and newly available resources such as eggs. This opportunistic shift is similar to the diet mixing strategy common among other Arctic predators and bear species. We discuss whether the observed diet shift is solely a response to a nutritional stress or is an expression of plastic foraging behavior. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Hudson Bay Rangifer tarandus Ursus maritimus City University of New York: CUNY Academic Works Arctic Hudson Hudson Bay |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
City University of New York: CUNY Academic Works |
op_collection_id |
ftcityunivny |
language |
English |
topic |
climate change diet feces polar bears scat terrestrial ursus maritimus western hudson bay Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Population Biology |
spellingShingle |
climate change diet feces polar bears scat terrestrial ursus maritimus western hudson bay Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Population Biology Gormezano, Linda J. Rockwell, Robert F. What to eat now? Shifts in polar bear diet during the ice-free season in western Hudson Bay |
topic_facet |
climate change diet feces polar bears scat terrestrial ursus maritimus western hudson bay Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Population Biology |
description |
Under current climate trends, spring ice breakup in Hudson Bay is advancing rapidly, leaving polar bears (Ursus maritimus) less time to hunt seals during the spring when they accumulate the majority of their annual fat reserves. For this reason, foods that polar bears consume during the ice-free season may become increasingly important in alleviating nutritional stress from lost seal hunting opportunities. Defining how the terrestrial diet might have changed since the onset of rapid climate change is an important step in understanding how polar bears may be reacting to climate change. We characterized the current terrestrial diet of polar bears in western Hudson Bay by evaluating the contents of passively sampled scat and comparing it to a similar study conducted 40 years ago. While the two terrestrial diets broadly overlap, polar bears currently appear to be exploiting increasingly abundant resources such as caribou (Rangifer tarandus) and snow geese (Chen caerulescens caerulescens) and newly available resources such as eggs. This opportunistic shift is similar to the diet mixing strategy common among other Arctic predators and bear species. We discuss whether the observed diet shift is solely a response to a nutritional stress or is an expression of plastic foraging behavior. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gormezano, Linda J. Rockwell, Robert F. |
author_facet |
Gormezano, Linda J. Rockwell, Robert F. |
author_sort |
Gormezano, Linda J. |
title |
What to eat now? Shifts in polar bear diet during the ice-free season in western Hudson Bay |
title_short |
What to eat now? Shifts in polar bear diet during the ice-free season in western Hudson Bay |
title_full |
What to eat now? Shifts in polar bear diet during the ice-free season in western Hudson Bay |
title_fullStr |
What to eat now? Shifts in polar bear diet during the ice-free season in western Hudson Bay |
title_full_unstemmed |
What to eat now? Shifts in polar bear diet during the ice-free season in western Hudson Bay |
title_sort |
what to eat now? shifts in polar bear diet during the ice-free season in western hudson bay |
publisher |
CUNY Academic Works |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_pubs/755 https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1832&context=cc_pubs |
geographic |
Arctic Hudson Hudson Bay |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Hudson Hudson Bay |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Hudson Bay Rangifer tarandus Ursus maritimus |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Hudson Bay Rangifer tarandus Ursus maritimus |
op_source |
Publications and Research |
op_relation |
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_pubs/755 https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1832&context=cc_pubs |
_version_ |
1766339603036372992 |