Data from: Increased land use by Chukchi Sea polar bears in relation to changing sea ice conditions ...

• Main Authors: Rode, Karyn D., Wilson, Ryan R., Regehr, Eric V., St. Martin, Michelle, Douglas, David C., Olson, Jay
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2016
• Subjects: Sea ice loss; polar bear; Denning; Terrestrial Habitats; Ursus maritimus; Chukchi Sea; Chukchi; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n5509; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.n5509

Recent observations suggest that polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are increasingly using land habitats in some parts of their range, where they have minimal access to their preferred prey, likely in response to loss of their sea ice habitat associated with climatic warming. We used location data from female polar bears fit with satellite radio collars to compare land use patterns in the Chukchi Sea between two periods (1986–1995 and 2008–2013) when substantial summer sea-ice loss occurred. In both time periods, polar bears predominantly occupied sea-ice, although land was used during the summer sea-ice retreat and during the winter for maternal denning. However, the proportion of bears on land for > 7 days between August and October increased between the two periods from 20.0% to 38.9%, and the average duration on land increased by 30 days. The majority of bears that used land in the summer and for denning came to Wrangel and Herald Islands (Russia), highlighting the importance of these northernmost land ... : Chukchi Sea Polar Bear Locations (2008-2013)These data are the locations (latitude and longitude) of polar bears in the Chukchi Sea that were used in the analysis by Rode et al. The data include the date and time of the location, the unique identifier of the bear the locations are from, and the accuracy classification of the location. Location accuracy is based on Argos error classes (3,2,1,0,A,B). If a location was obtained from GPS, its accuracy is labeled as 'GPS'.CS_Data2008-2013.csv ...