Are Polar Bear Populations Increasing?
Question: I’m confused about polar bear numbers. Some news reports state that polar bears should not be listed as a threatened species—they state that, in fact, their numbers are actually increasing. For example, the following paragraph appeared on the Fox News Web site: “In the 1950s the polar bear population up north was estimated at 5,000. Today it’s 20- to 25,000, a number that has either held steady over the last 20 years or has risen slightly. In Canada, the manager of wildlife resources for the Nunavut territory of Canada has found that the population there has increased by 25 percent.” If this is true, then why are scientists worried about population declines? First, it’s important to note that scientists lack historical data on polar bear numbers—they only have rough estimates. What we do know, though, is that in the 1960s, polar bear populations dropped precipitously due to over-hunting. When restrictions on polar bear harvests were put in place in the early 1970s, population
