Polar Bear Sightings In Cities Increasing Over the Past Four Decades

As winter and temperatures drop lower, more heavy snow will happen, and the city will be covered in a white coat. Wild animals, like polar bears, wolves, and foxes, won’t differentiate between the forest and the city anymore.

In Shamattawa First Nation, a polar bear has been roaming around the area for a few days. The citizens were quite shocked and took a video of what they encountered. The community living in that area was quite concerned because bears don’t usually come to cities that are filled with buildings and individuals.

“Polar bears at this time of year, in particular, are quite food motivated, they’ve been in a lab now for several months, and some individuals are starting to lose body condition.” commented polar bear researcher and University of Alberta Professor Andrew Derocher.

Polar bear researchers from different universities are quite surprised by the increased numbers of polar bears in the cities. This increase in encounters has been mentioned in the new research in the academic journal the Arctic that was published recently about the increase of bear sightings in the past decades. “Seeing them frequently is new because the old records were extremely sparse. They were historically present in the province, but really rare, ” said the University of Saskatchewan associate professor.

The bear problem isn’t a problem for Manitoba alone. Most provinces are facing a similar problem, and hopefully, no downfalls occur to the bears and the citizens.

Sources:

• https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/polar-bear-roaming-manitoba-first-nation-for-days-captured-1.6114230
• https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/more-than-we-expected-grizzly-bear-sightings-have-spiked-in-manitoba-since-1980-report-1.5829930

– Halla Alhamed, U Multicultural

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of U Multicultural.