Not written by me:
"Yet Inuit are the world’s foremost experts on polar bears. Hunters across Baffin Island have been monitoring polar bear populations since long before environmental groups turned the animal into a cause. “There’s too many bears in our area,” says Ootoovak, who’s hunted all his life. The animals are becoming more and more plentiful, almost to the point of being a nuisance. “My grandmother used to tell me stories from when they lived in sod houses and they would never see polar bears. When there was finally a bear, people all over spoke about it. Today, it’s impossible to camp without having a bear watch.”
Ootoovak says when bears—males, mothers, cubs—are spotted around town, they’re generally healthy. And shrinking sea ice won’t hurt them. “Polar bears are much happier hunting in water,” he says. “They can’t really hunt on the ice. The ice is in the way, right? Polar bears hunt all day in the water, for days at a time. They have less success when there’s too much ice.”
No one asked the Inuit to comment, but now they have. Didn't know that polar bears do not usually hunt from the ice. So the pictures of polar bears starving on ice floes are somewhat misconstrued. The ones who are depicted that way, are usually ill.
Read the rest here: The Problem with Polar Bear Propaganda
"Yet Inuit are the world’s foremost experts on polar bears. Hunters across Baffin Island have been monitoring polar bear populations since long before environmental groups turned the animal into a cause. “There’s too many bears in our area,” says Ootoovak, who’s hunted all his life. The animals are becoming more and more plentiful, almost to the point of being a nuisance. “My grandmother used to tell me stories from when they lived in sod houses and they would never see polar bears. When there was finally a bear, people all over spoke about it. Today, it’s impossible to camp without having a bear watch.”
Ootoovak says when bears—males, mothers, cubs—are spotted around town, they’re generally healthy. And shrinking sea ice won’t hurt them. “Polar bears are much happier hunting in water,” he says. “They can’t really hunt on the ice. The ice is in the way, right? Polar bears hunt all day in the water, for days at a time. They have less success when there’s too much ice.”
No one asked the Inuit to comment, but now they have. Didn't know that polar bears do not usually hunt from the ice. So the pictures of polar bears starving on ice floes are somewhat misconstrued. The ones who are depicted that way, are usually ill.
Read the rest here: The Problem with Polar Bear Propaganda
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