Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-pwrkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-05T23:22:50.415Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Polar Bear and its Protection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 September 2009

Alan G. Loughrey
Alan G. Loughrey
Affiliation:
Canadian Wildlife Service
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The polar bear, Thalarctos maritimus, (Phipps) enjoys such colloquial names as: “ice-bear,” “sea-bear,” “ice-tiger” and “ice-king.” In view of its large size and its supremacy over the other beasts of the ice-floes it well deserves these epithets. Primarily the polar bear is an animal of the broken arctic pack ice and is found in greatest numbers along the southern edge of the pack. It avoids large expanses of open water or frozen sea ice. The movements of the pack ice to a large degree determine its distribution and movements. Polar bears are carried southward with the pack ice in the spring and summer. In August and September when the ice begins to break up they generally come ashore and make their way north. At this time of year they may be found in considerable numbers along certain coasts where the sea ice has been brought by the winds, tides and currents. An Eskimo from Southampton Island, in northern Hudson Bay, informed me that in August, 1948, he and a companion counted over 180 of these bears along the east coast of that island.

Type
Research Article
Information
Oryx , Volume 3 , Issue 5 , August 1956 , pp. 233 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 1956

References

Brown, M., Cronk, B., deSinner, F., Green, J. E., Gibbons, J. E. and Kuitunen-Ekbaum, E.. A note on trichinosis in animals of the Canadian Northwest Territories. Can. J. Pub. Health 40: 20–21. 1949.Google ScholarPubMed
Burt, W. H. and Grossenheider, R. P.. A field guide to the mammals, pp. 1–200. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1952.Google Scholar
Cahalane, V. H.Mammals of North America, pp. 1–682. MacMillan Co., New York. 1947.Google Scholar
Miller, G. S. and Kellogg, R.. List of North American recent mammals. U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 205. 1955.Google Scholar
Nelson, E. W.The larger North American mammals. Nat. Geog. Mag. 30: 385–472. 1916.Google Scholar
Preble, E. A. A biological investigation of the Hudson Bay region. U.S. Dept. Agric. Div. of Biol. Surv. N.A. Fauna 22. 1902.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preble, E. A. A biological investigation of the Athabaska-MacKenzie region. U.S. Dept. Agric. Bur. of Bio. Surv. N.A. Fauna 27. 1908.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Remey, O. E.Sultana, polar bear queen. Nat. Mag. 40: 429–30, 442. 1947.Google Scholar
Rhode, C. J. and Barker, W.. Alaska's fish and wildlife. U.S. Dept. of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. Circ. 17. 1953.Google Scholar
Rodahl, K. and Moore, T.. The vitamin A content and toxicity of bear and seal liver, Biochem. J. 37: 166–168. 1943.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seton, E. T.Lives of Game Animals. 2: 1–367. Doubleday and Doran Co., Inc. Garden City, New York. 1929.Google Scholar
Soper, J. D.A faunal investigation of southern Baffin Island. Nat. Mus. of Can. Bull. 53. 1928.Google Scholar
Sutton, G. M. and Hamilton, W. J. Jr. The mammals of Southampton Island. Mem. Carnegie Mus. Vol. 12, Pt. 2, Sect. 1. 1932.Google Scholar