"For tourists and wildlife
photographers, the main reason to come to Svalbard
is to see polar bears. And yes, usually we find them: beautiful bears,
photogenic bears, playfull or even at a kill. At first glance, everything is as
it has always been in one of the most easily accessible polar bear populations
of the world, strongly protected and doing good, so some scientists say.
But are they really doing good, the bears
up here? I am a critically minded person, and I observe. I see the summers
being so pleasant (and warm) as never before. I see the glaciers calving,
retreating dozens to hundreds of metres every year. I see the pack ice
disappearing in record speed. Yes, I have seen bears in good shape - but I have
also seen dead and starving polar bears. Bears walking on the shores, looking
for food, bears trying to hunt reindeer, eating bird's eggs, moss and seaweed.
And I realized that the fat bears are nearly exclusively males which stay on
the pack ice all year long. The females, on the other hand, which den on land
to give birth to their young, are often slim. With the pack ice retreating
further and further north every year, they tend to be stuck on land where
there's not much food. In the first year, they lose their first cub. In the
second year, they lose their second (and last) cub. Only once I have seen a
mother with a nearly independent cub. Only few times I have seen beautifully
fat mothers with beautifully fat young. Many times I have seen horribly thin
bears, and those were exclusively females - like this one here. A mere
skeleton, hurt on her front leg, possibly by a desperate attempt to hunt a
walrus while she was stuck on land.
Experts claim the Svalbard
population is stable, even rising. Well, here comes my question: how can a
population be stable if it consists of less and less females and cubs? How can
a population be doing good if most bear will score a body index of 2-3 out of
5? Only once I have seen a bear getting a big fat „5“, but several times I have
seen dead bears and bears like this one: a mere „1“ on the scale, doomed to
death. I do not have scientific data to proof my observations, but I have eyes
to see - and a brain to draw conclusions. Climate change is happening big deal
here in the Arctic . And it is our decision to
trying to change this. So: let's do something about the biggest threat of our
time. Maybe we cannot save this bear here. But every little action we do to
change our ways is a step in the right direction. We just have to get started
and keep on going!"
Kerstin Langenberger Photography
https://www.facebook.com/kerstin.langenberger.photography/photos/a.463697036975575.115901.429056113773001/1045109095501030/?type=1&theater
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