Assessing the Adaptive Capacity of an Arctic Seabird to Increasing Frequency in Predation Risk from Polar Bears Using Behavioural and Physiological Metrics

• Main Author: Geldart, Erica Anne
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Windsor 2021
• Subjects: AAntipredator behaviour; Arctic nesting seabird; Common Eider; Heart rate response; Polar Bear; Predation risk; Environmental Sciences; Arctic; Nunavut; Canada; Fid; East Bay; Arctic Fox; Climate change; Sea ice; Somateria mollissima; Ursus maritimus; Vulpes lagopus
• Online Access: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/8646; https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/context/etd/article/9651/viewcontent/Geldart_2021.pdf

Predator-prey dynamics in the Arctic are being altered with changing sea-ice phenology. The increasing frequency of predation on colonial nesting seabird eggs by a rare predator - the polar bear (Ursus maritimus), is a consequence of bears shifting to terrestrial food resources through a shortened s...