Battle of the ice bears! Arctic grizzlies are taking on hungry polar bears feeding on whale carcasses in Alaska... and winning
- Researchers studies interactions at bowhead whale carcasses in Alaska
- They found grizzlies came out on top in 124 out of 137 confrontations
- This is the despite the grizzilies being almost half the size of polar bears
Retreating sea ice is forcing some polar bear populations to increasingly forage for food on land during summer and autumn.
While washed-up bowhead whale carcasses make a good meal for the hungry bears, they are also proving a battleground between two species.
Biologists have witnessed polar bears fleeing the rich source of nutrients after being chased away by smaller Arctic grizzly bears, which can be almost half the size of their polar cousins.
Biologists have witnessed polar bears fleeing wash-up bowhead whale carcass feeding sites in Alaska, which are dominated by grizzly bears. A stock image of a confrontation is shown
There are concerns the aggressive behaviour could put polar bear populations under even more stress at a time when there are concerns about global warming harming their habitat.
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Each autumn, both species are attracted to Kaktovik in Alaska, to dine on whale carcasses, which are discarded by local hunts from communities living along the Alaskan portion of the Beaufort Sea coast.
'Relatively large numbers of polar bears and some grizzly bears use these resources, creating a competitive environment among species and social classes,' the study says.
Biologists from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Marine Mammals Management in Alaska recorded the interactions between the apex predators between 2005 and 2007.
They found the smaller grizzly bears regularly come out on top.
While polar bears are often seen as solitary hunters, as many as 20 have been recorded harmoniously sharing a carcass.
But when the grizzlies arrive, the scene can get ugly.
The aggressive bears are sometimes twice as small as the large polar bears, but this doesn't stop them chasing the larger predators away.
Out of 137 interactions between the two species, polar bears fled a bone pile 124 times.
Each autumn, both species are attracted to Kaktovik in Alaska (shown), to dine on whale carcasses, which are discarded from local hunts among communities living along the Alaskan portion of the Beaufort Sea coast
'Relatively large numbers of polar bears and some grizzly bears use these resources, creating a competitive environment among species and social classes,' the study says. A family of foraging grizzlies are shown left and a family of polar bears in Alaska, right - both are stock images
Sometimes, they did not return for another snack.
The researchers said: 'Interspecific interactions [those between different species] were less frequently aggressive than intraspecific interactions [those between bears of the same species], but polar bears were more likely to be displaced from the feeding site by grizzly bears than by conspecifics [a member of the same species'.
The experts also observed different bears at the feeding site at different times of day. For example, polar bear families tended to dine at dawn and dusk, while lone adult polar bears and Arctic grizzly bears chose to feed at night.
Grizzlies (one pictured scavenging a bowhead whale carcass) chased polar bears from carcasses 124 our of 137 times during observations
They study says female bears with cubs were the most likely to act aggressively to other polar bears as well as grizzlies.
The team hopes their study, published in the Journal of Mammalogy, will shed light on the plight of bears forced further onto land.
POLAR BEARS SEEN EATING DOLPHINS FOR FIRST TIME
In July, Norweigian scinetists documented pola bears eating dolphins in the Arctic.
They believe global warming may be behind the strange behaviour.
Usually, dolphins only go up north during the summer, but warmer warmers have caused them to arrive in spring, only for some to be devoured by hungry polar bears.
Polar bears feed mainly on seals so Jon Aars at the Norwegian Polar Institute was shocked to see dolphins being eaten by a bear.
In July Norwegian scientists saw polar bears eating dolphins in the Arctic (pictured) – and they say global warming is to blame. 'It is likely that new species are appearing in the diet of polar bears due to climate change because new species are finding their way north,' said Jon Aars at the Norwegian Polar Institute
'It is likely that new species are appearing in the diet of polar bears due to climate change because new species are finding their way north,' he said.
The first incident he documented was in April 2014 when his team came across a polar feeding on the carcasses of two white-beaked dolphins.
Although dolphins are regularly seen in the Norwegian Arctic in the summer months when the ice has melted, they have never been observed during winter or spring when the sea is usually still covered in sheets of ice.
But Norwegian scientists have reported a strong retreat of ice and two nearly ice-free winters in recent years which they said could have attracted the dolphins further north.
They say they probably became trapped by the sudden arrival of dense ice blown into a fjord by strong northerly winds.
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