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24 images Created 4 Jun 2019

Polar Bears of Barter Island, Alaska

During the first week of October 2018, I spent a few days photographing polar bears on Barter Island near the town of Kaktovik, Alaska. Kaktovik is located on the shore of the Beaufort Sea and is in the coastal region of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This area has just been opened to oil exploration by the Trump administration. In the past, large numbers of polar bears came to the village in the fall to scavenge the remains of whales harvested by the natives. Tourists come to see and photograph the bears. There is conflict in the community over plans for oil exploration and tourism. As a result, in 2018 the whale remains were pushed into the sea where the polar bears couldn’t get to them. The bears came, but a food source that they had relied on in years past was not available to them. With the reduction of sea ice, due to global warming, these beautiful animals are finding it more difficult to make a living, and their numbers are predicted to decrease dramatically during the next few decades. I hope I’m wrong, but I feel as if I may be making a record of a species that is on its way to extinction. To see the text for each photo, view in full size.

“Polar bears everywhere face dire threats, but the polar bears of the southern Beaufort Sea in Alaska are the most threatened of all.” – Dr. Steven C. Amstrup
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  • “Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it's beauty.” <br />
― Albert Einstein
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  • In the past, this bear found a good supply of food in this bone pile.  But in 2018 the whale bones were pushed into the sea, so its food source was gone. The bear moved on.
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  • Sometimes the bears have disagreements and when that happens claws and teeth can do some damage.  Notice the cut on the neck of this bear.
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  • Seals are the main food of polar bears.  A bear will wait at a seal’s breathing hole for a long time.  When the seal comes up to breath, the bear drags it out of the hole and crushes its skull by biting it.  This bear’s mouth is not all the way open.
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  • The beaches around Barter Island are quite barren.  These two bears were roaming around waiting for the sea ice to form.  Then they will go onto the ice to hunt for seals.
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  • A sow polar bear and her cubs wander around the beach waiting for the freeze up.  One of the cubs stayed very close to its mother.  The other cub would explore further away from its mom.
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  • This family set down for a family portrait – very considerate of the photographers.  Or were they amusing themselves by watching the people?
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  • This bear was entering the water, making a splash as it walked.
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  • As the bear crossed the lake, it wandered onto thin ice and fell in.  In this photo, the bear is getting ready to crawl out of the water.
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  • After falling through the ice, this bear crawled back upon the thicker ice and walked away.  Backlighting caused a glow on the neck and left front leg.  Notice that the fur is matted and not fluffy.  The bear has an undercoat that helps protect it from the cold water.  But its most important protection from the cold is a layer of fat that can be as much as four and a half inches thick.
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  • A sow and her cubs are getting ready to go up on the beach.  They have just finished swimming across a bay that was freezing up.
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  • As the family leaves the water, one cub looks back at a bear that was behind them.  The temperature was in the mid 20’s F and there was a stiff wind blowing.  The bears showed no sign of being cold.
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  • When swimming through the slush, the bears will go under water.  When they come up, their heads are covered with ice.
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  • Watching polar bears swim through icy water I could not help but think that they are in their preferred environment.
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  • As the first rays of the sun cast a pink light, this bear shakes its to remove the ice and water from its head.
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  • This bear has just gotten out of the water.  We think of polar bears as being white, and sometimes they are.  But the fur can be discolored by accumulated dirt by being on land.  Oils accumulate in the hair and give the bears a yellow color.  And the lighting affects the color of the bear.  Early morning backlighting is causing this bear to glow.
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  • Always checking things out.  Who knows, there might be something to eat
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  • As polar bears swim, their paws often come above the surface of the water.  In this photo, you can get a sense of the size of a polar bear paw.
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  • Polar bears are excellent swimmers, and recent studies document that polar bears regularly swim over thirty miles.  But as sea ice recedes, the necessity for longer swims will increase.  Long swims require more energy expenditure.  And this happens at a time when it is more difficult to find food.
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  • In the Southern Beaufort Sea, “sea ice forms along the shore and then retreats, especially in summer. As the sea ice retreats farther and farther from shore in a warming Arctic, these polar bears are faced with a choice of coming ashore—and fasting until the ice returns in the fall—or swimming long, exhausting distances to reach the remaining pack ice.  However, because ice located far offshore lies over less productive waters, bears in these areas may successfully complete a marathon swim yet still not find any seals to hunt.” – Polar Bears International.
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  • Polar Bears are highly specialized apex predators.  It is highly unlikely that they will be able to adapt to eat other food sources in response to a warming environment.
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  • Polar bears that live in the Southern Beaufort Sea, which includes those around Barter Island, are at great risk from longer and longer swims, prolonged fasting periods, and encounters with humans on shore.
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