Polar bear hunting

For the form of assault, see Knockout game.

Polar bears have been hunted, both by indigenous peoples of the Arctic and Europeans, for their coats, meat and other items.

## Indigenous people[edit]

Skins of hunted bears

Polar bears have long provided important raw materials for Arctic peoples, including the Inuit, Yupik, Chukchi, Nenets, Russian Pomors and others. Hunters commonly used teams of dogs to distract the bear, allowing the hunter to spear the bear or shoot it with arrows at closer range.[1] Almost all parts of captured animals had a use.[2] The fur was used in particular to make trousers and, by the Nenets, to make galoshes-like outer footwear called tobok; the meat is edible, despite some risk of trichinosis; the fat was used in food and as a fuel for lighting homes, alongside seal and whale blubber; sinews were used as thread for sewing clothes; the gallbladder and sometimes heart were dried and powdered for medicinal purposes; the large canine teeth were highly valued as talismans.[3] Only the liver was not used, as its high concentration of vitamin A is poisonous. As a carnivore, which feeds largely upon fish-eating carnivores, the polar bear ingests large amounts of vitamin A that is stored in their livers. The resulting high concentrations cause hypervitaminosis A,[4] Hunters make sure to either toss the liver into the sea or bury it to prevent their dogs from being poisoned.[3] Traditional subsistence hunting was on a small enough scale to not significantly affect polar bear populations, mostly because of the sparseness of the human population in polar bear habitat.[2]

## History of commercial harvest[edit]

In Russia, polar bear furs were already being commercially traded in the 14th century, though it was of low value compared to Arctic fox or even reindeer fur.[3] The growth of the human population in the Eurasian Arctic in the 16th and 17th century, together with the advent of firearms and increasing trade, dramatically increased the harvest of polar bears.[5][6] However, since polar bear fur has always played a marginal commercial role, data on the historical harvest is fragmentary. It is known, for example, that already in the winter of 1784/1785 Russian Pomors on Spitsbergen harvested 150 polar bears in Magdalenefjorden. In the early 20th century, Norwegian hunters were harvesting 300 bears per year at the same location. Estimates of total historical harvest suggest that from the beginning of the 18th century, roughly 400 to 500 animals were being harvested annually in northern Eurasia, reaching a peak of 1,300 to 1,500 animals in the early 20th century, and falling off as the numbers began dwindling.[3]

In the first half of the 20th century, mechanized and overpoweringly efficient methods of hunting and trapping came into use in North America as well. Polar bears were chased from snowmobiles, icebreakers, and airplanes, the latter practice described in a 1965 New York Times editorial as being "about as sporting as machine gunning a cow."[7] Norwegians used "self-killing guns", comprising a loaded rifle in a baited box that was placed at the level of a bear's head, and which fired when the string attached to the bait was pulled.[8] The numbers taken grew rapidly in the 1960s, peaking around 1968 with a global total of 1,250 bears that year.[9]

## Contemporary regulations[edit]

Road sign warning about the presence of bears. The Norwegian text translates into "Applies to all of Svalbard".

Concerns over the future survival of the species led to the development of national regulations on polar bear hunting, beginning in the mid-1950s. The Soviet Union banned all hunting in 1956. Canada began imposing hunting quotas in 1968. Norway passed a series of increasingly strict regulations from 1965 to 1973, and has completely banned hunting since then. The United States began regulating hunting in 1971 and adopted the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972. In 1973, the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears was signed by all five nations whose territory is inhabited by polar bears: Canada, Denmark, Norway, the Soviet Union, and the United States. Member countries agreed to place restrictions on recreational and commercial hunting, ban hunting from aircraft and icebreakers, and conduct further research.[10] The treaty allows hunting "by local people using traditional methods". Norway is the only country of the five in which all harvest of polar bears is banned. The agreement was a rare case of international cooperation during the Cold War. Biologist Ian Stirling commented, "For many years, the conservation of polar bears was the only subject in the entire Arctic that nations from both sides of the Iron Curtain could agree upon sufficiently to sign an agreement. Such was the intensity of human fascination with this magnificent predator, the only marine bear."[11]

Agreements have been made between countries to co-manage their shared polar bear subpopulations. After several years of negotiations, Russia and the United States signed an agreement in October 2000 to jointly set quotas for indigenous subsistence hunting in Alaska and Chukotka.[12] The treaty was ratified in October 2007.[13] In September 2015, the polar bear range states agreed upon a "circumpolar action plan" describing their conservation strategy for polar bears.[14]

The species is listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meaning international trade, including in parts or derivatives, is controlled by the CITES system of permits and certificates.[15] The United States government has proposed that polar bears be transferred to Appendix I of CITES which would ban all commercial international trade in polar bear parts.[16] The decision to leave the species listed under Appendix II was endorsed by the IUCN and TRAFFIC, who determined that such an uplisting was unlikely to confer a conservation benefit.[17]

### Canada[edit]

Dogsleds are used for recreational hunting of polar bears in Canada

Polar bears were designated "Not at Risk" in April 1986 and uplisted to "Special Concern" in April 1991. This status was re-evaluated and confirmed in April 1999, November 2002, and April 2008. Polar bears continue to be listed as a species of special concern in Canada because of their sensitivity to overharvest and because of an expected range contraction caused by loss of Arctic sea ice.[18]

More than 600 bears are killed per year by humans across Canada,[19] a rate calculated by scientists to be unsustainable for some areas, notably Baffin Bay.[20][21] Canada has allowed sport hunters accompanied by local guides and dog-sled teams since 1970,[22] but the practice was not common until the 1980s.[23] The guiding of sport hunters provides meaningful employment and an important source of income for northern communities in which economic opportunities are few.[24] Sport hunting can bring CDN$20,000 to $35,000 per bear into northern communities, which until recently has been mostly from American hunters.[25]

The territory of Nunavut accounts for the location 80% of annual kills in Canada. In 2005, the government of Nunavut increased the quota from 400 to 518 bears,[25] despite protests from the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group.[26] In two areas where harvest levels have been increased based on increased sightings, science-based studies have indicated declining populations, and a third area is considered data-deficient.[27] While most of that quota is hunted by the indigenous Inuit, a growing share is sold to recreational hunters. (0.8% in the 1970s, 7.1% in the 1980s, and 14.6% in the 1990s)[23] Nunavut polar bear biologist, Mitchell Taylor, who was formerly responsible for polar bear conservation in the territory, has insisted that bear numbers are being sustained under current hunting limits.[28] In 2010, the 2005 increase was partially reversed. Government of Nunavut officials announced that the polar bear quota for the Baffin Bay region would be gradually reduced from 105 per year to 65 by 2013.[29] The Government of the Northwest Territories maintain their own quota of 72 to 103 bears within the Inuvialuit communities of which some are set aside for sports hunters.[citation needed] Environment Canada also banned the export from Canada of fur, claws, skulls and other products from polar bears harvested in Baffin Bay as of 1 January 2010.[29]

Because of the way polar bear hunting quotas are managed in Canada, attempts to discourage sport hunting would actually increase the number of bears killed in the short term. Canada allocates a certain number of permits each year to sport and subsistence hunting, and those that are not used for sport hunting are re-allocated to indigenous subsistence hunting. Whereas northern communities kill all the polar bears they are permitted to take each year, only half of sport hunters with permits actually manage to kill a polar bear. If a sport hunter does not kill a polar bear before his or her permit expires, the permit cannot be transferred to another hunter.[24]

In August 2011, Environment Canada published a national polar bear conservation strategy.[30]

### Greenland[edit]

In Greenland, hunting restrictions were first introduced in 1994 and expanded by executive order in 2005.[31] Until 2005 Greenland placed no limit on hunting by indigenous people. However, in 2006 it imposed a limit of 150, while also allowed recreational hunting for the first time.[32] Other provisions included year-round protection of cubs and mothers, restrictions on weapons used and various administrative requirements to catalogue kills.[31] or 22,000 and 31,000.[33] Despite the encouraging rebound of some populations, there is little evidence to suggest polar bears are thriving overall.[34]

### Norway[edit]

Polar bears were hunted heavily in Svalbard, Norway throughout the 19th century and to as recently as 1973, when the conservation treaty was signed. 900 bears a year were harvested in the 1920s and after World War II, there were as many as 400–500 harvested annually. Some regulations of hunting did exist. In 1927, poisoning was outlawed while in 1939, certain denning sights were declared off limits. The killing of females and cubs was made illegal in 1965. Killing of polar bears decreased somewhat 25–30 years before the treaty. Despite this, the polar bear population continued to decline and by 1973, only around 1000 bears were left in Svalbard. Only with the passage of the treaty did they begin to recover.[35]

### Russia[edit]

The Soviet Union banned the harvest of polar bears in 1956; however, poaching continued, and is estimated to pose a serious threat to the polar bear population.[31] In recent years, polar bears have approached coastal villages in Chukotka more frequently due to the shrinking of the sea ice, endangering humans and raising concerns that illegal hunting would become even more prevalent. In 2007, the Russian government made subsistence hunting legal for indigenous Chukotkan peoples only, a move supported by Russia's most prominent bear researchers and the World Wide Fund for Nature as a means to curb poaching.[36]

Polar bears are currently listed as "Rare", of "Uncertain Status", or "Rehabilitated and rehabilitating" in the Red Data Book of Russia, depending on population.[37] In 2010, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment published a strategy for polar bear conservation in Russia.[38]

### United States[edit]

The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 afforded polar bears some protection in the United States. It banned hunting (except by indigenous subsistence hunters), banned importing of polar bear parts (except polar bear pelts taken legally in Canada), and banned the harassment of polar bears. On 15 May 2008, the United States Department of the Interior listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, citing the melting of Arctic sea ice as the primary threat to the polar bear.[39] It banned all importing of polar bear trophies. Importing products made from polar bears had been prohibited from 1972 to 1994 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and restricted between 1994 and 2008. Under those restrictions, permits from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service were required to import sport-hunted polar bear trophies taken in hunting expeditions in Canada. The permit process required that the bear be taken from an area with quotas based on sound management principles.[40] Since 1994, hundreds of sport-hunted polar bear trophies have been imported into the U.S.[41] In 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a draft conservation management plan for polar bears to improve their status under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.[42]

## See also[edit]

* Bear hunting

## References[edit]

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2. ^ a b Lockwood, Sophie (2006). Polar Bears. Chanhassen, MN: The Child's World. pp. 6–9, 31–36. ISBN 978-1-59296-501-4.
3. ^ a b c d Uspensky, Savva Mikhailovich (1977). Белый Медведь (tr: Belyi Medved') — (in Russian). Moscow: Nauka.
4. ^ Rodahl, K.; Moore, T. (1943). "The vitamin A content and toxicity of bear and seal liver". The Biochemical Journal. 37 (2): 166–168. doi:10.1042/bj0370166. PMC 1257872. PMID 16747610.
5. ^ Stirling, Ian (1988). "Introduction". Polar Bears. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-10100-9.
6. ^ "Polar Bear Management". Government of the Northwest Territories. Archived from the original on 4 May 2008. Retrieved 14 March 2008.
7. ^ Bruemmer, pp. 93–111
8. ^ Derocher, Andrew E. (8 March 2012). Polar Bears: A Complete Guide to Their Biology and Behavior. JHU Press. ISBN 9781421403052 - via Google Books.
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10. ^ International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears, 15 November 1973, Oslo
11. ^ Stirling, Ian Foreword in Rosing, Norbert (1996). The World of the Polar Bear. Willowdale, ON: Firefly Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-55209-068-8.
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13. ^ "US-Russia Polar Bear Treaty Ratified". ScienceDaily. 18 October 2007. Retrieved 12 April 2008.
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15. ^ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
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28. ^ Taylor, Mitchell K. (6 April 2006). "Review of CBD Petition" (PDF). Letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 February 2007. Retrieved 8 September 2007.
29. ^ a b George, Jane (April 2010). "Nunavut hunters still enraged over bear quotas". Iqaluit. Archived from the original on 11 April 2010. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
30. ^ National Polar Bear Conservation Strategy for Canada Archived 1 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine
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33. ^ Wiig, Ø.; Amstrup, S.; Atwood, T.; Laidre, K.; Lunn, N.; Obbard, M.; Regehr, E.; Thiemann, G. (2015). "Ursus maritimus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2015: e.T22823A14871490. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-4.RLTS.T22823A14871490.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
34. ^ "How Many Polar Bears Are There?". Treehugger. Retrieved 2021-09-15.
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36. ^ Myers, Steven Lee (16 April 2007). "Russia tries to save polar bears with legal hunt". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 April 2008.
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