Goose Eggs: Polar Bears' Salvation?

December 15, 2008

I've totally underestimated polar bears. For a couple of years now I've been saying that polar bears are doomed; that no matter what we do today, the titanic momentum of the global warming freight train is already sufficient to melt the Arctic sea ice and end the polar bear way of life. But happily, these bruins may be far more adaptable then I expected, according to a release today from the American Museum of Natural History about new research published journal Polar Biology.

Here's the gist: Earlier spring thaws in Hudson Bay are a boon to nesting snow geese, which in turn are producing loads of eggs. Polar bears are on a culinary collision course with this this earlier, land-based and increasing food supply -- which is ironically triggered in part by global warming. It's sure a wild and crazy planet! Here's more from the press release: 

When bears switch to the tundra in some areas, they may enter the nesting grounds of snow geese. Goose eggs and developing embryos are a highly nutritious source of food to opportunistic foragers. Although geese populations were in decline in the early 1900s, the population rebounded and expanded. There are now too many geese for the Arctic to support in the summer, mainly because their over-wintering habitat has increased to cover the northern plains, where they eat waste corn and forage in rice fields.

The bottom line is that it's about, which is controlled by climate.

Current trends indicate that the arrival of polar bears will overlap the mean hatching period in 3.6 years, and egg consumption could become a routine, reliable option. At this point, a bear would need to consume the eggs of 43 nests to replace the energy gained from the average day of hunting seals. But within a decade, because timing changes would put bears in contact with even more nests with younger embryos (younger embryos are more nutritious), a bear would only need to consume the eggs of 34 nests to get the same amount of energy....

...(Robert) Rockwell and his graduate student, Linda Gormezano, calculated that the rate of change in ice breakup is, on average, 0.72 days earlier each year, and that hatching time is also moving forward by 0.16 days each year. Current trends indicate that the arrival of polar bears will overlap the mean hatching period in 3.6 years, and egg consumption could become a routine, reliable option. At this point, a bear would need to consume the eggs of 43 nests to replace the energy gained from the average day of hunting seals. But within a decade, because timing changes would put bears in contact with even more nests with younger embryos (younger embryos are more nutritious), a bear would only need to consume the eggs of 34 nests to get the same amount of energy.

In fact, the bears are already at the eggs...

“Over 40 years, six subadult male bears were seen among snow goose nests, and four of them were sighted after the year 2000,” says Rockwell, a research associate in Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History and a Professor of Biology at City College at City University of New York. “I’ve seen a subadult male eat eider duck eggs whole or press its nose against the shell, break it, and eat the contents. This is similar to a different research group’s observations of polar bears eating Barnacle Goose eggs on Svalbard, an island near Norway.”

Image courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History.

Comments

[Morgan Mghee]

So, I guess we should expect more of this
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/bear-hybrid-photo.html
And this http://www.livescience.com/environment/050309_grizly_north.html

[Fred]

Life Finds away

[maggot]

Polar bears will eat eggs and survive or they won't - or they may find some other source of food. There is no way of predicting, there are thousands of variables. Animals come and go on this planet; it's always been that way and it always will be. One day humans will be gone as well. Humans like to think we control climate change, extinctions, etc., that is not the case and it's arrogant thinking. The Earth doesn't even know we are here and won't know when we're gone.

[justice]

wow that is so cool hoe they can make it

[Erin]

That is exciting. Polar bears may not go extinct after all.

[jazmin]

this is exiting that we can see this magnificent animal still alive. maybe soon one of us will see it up close in their natural habitat :)

[Casey]

HERAYYY!!!

[Robert]

Are we all doomed bu what the scam artist call global warming.Why does Al Gore call scientist that tell a differant story quacks and not debate them and prove it?Because he knows the earth is in a cooling cycle since 1995.In the 1980's they tried to say we were slipping into an ice age.They have tried to say we caused a hole in the ozone which is mother natures way of allowing gases to exscape.What scam will they think up next to bilk us out of our money?Be responsible for what you say and they will get thiers iin the end.

[katryna]

i love polar bears
there awesome ;-)
^_^

[ramblnrose]

Why don't write the news instead of creating senarios and then reporting it as news. This isn't News its someone's fantasy.

[Ya'el Pedroza]

I don't exactly know what to say to this new information but it is a good thing that the polar bears are opportunist and adaptable. Hopefully many more animals will find ways to adapt their habits to assist in their future survival.

[George W. Bush]

With nothing much left to do, I've been watching late night television.

Not only are people crying for money for the polar bears but also cats, dogs and little kids.

We can take care of all these problems at once by feeding the excess critters to the bears.

January 20th: Freedom!!

W

[griffinwood]

I guess there is still hope for the polar bears

[Aupak]

I have to fend off Polar Bears due to my basking of ambience. I've seen a lot of them, over decades. Polar Bears can eat their own kind, can eat sea mammals, and can eat terrestrial species. They also can migrate inland, hundreds of miles inland, and also offshore, hundreds of miles off shore. The only way you can touch a polar bear without being bitten is when they're swimming. You go on a boat, go behind them, but make sure that the water is not shallow. Must be very deep to prevent sudden change in velocity. Then you can pat them on their behinds! hehe. PS, I live north of Churchill, Manitoba, in a town what's called, Arviat, Nunavut.