Background Articles

The Haines Borough Assembly’s Commerce Committee began chipping away at a plan to address the borough’s bear problem at a meeting Tuesday. Proposals ranged from stronger enforcement of bear-attractant laws, to the development of education and grant programs to help people secure their attractants, to a complete overhaul of the community’s solid waste management system.

This year has seen a dramatic increase in bear activity with bear-related calls up by 600%, according to police chief Heath Scott. As many as 22 bears have been shot in defense of property this year.

Some biologists think the trend is related to the reduced hunting pressure from Outside hunters this year.

The number of deaths was more than 13,000

Changes are coming to the Arctic so fast that scientists haven't even had a chance to understand what's there

According to Haines Borough Police Chief Heath Scott, the department received 182 bear-related calls in 2019. That is more than double the number of bear-related calls they received the previous year. Said Fish and Game bear biologist Anthony Crupi, “With really low returns of pink salmon and coho salmon this year, bears are really searching out any opportunities they can find” .

BRUNY ISLAND, TASMANIA (WASHINGTON POST) - Even before the ocean caught fever and reached temperatures no one had ever seen, Australia's ancient giant kelp was cooked.. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Chukotka officials propose to classify polar bear sightings in populated areas as emergencies to mobilize resources for managing these situations.

Climate change is making life difficult for the indigenous people - and wildlife - of the Sami region.

Two separate pods of pilot whales have gotten beached on Icelandic shores this summer, RÚV reports, leading experts to apprise locals of how best they can respond to such situations. Marine biologist Edda Elísabet Magnúsdóttir says that such beachings are becoming a yearly occurrence – an indirect result of warming ocean temperatures – and likely […]

As Arctic sea ice melts, polar bears are spending more time near the Alaska North Slope village of Kaktovik. Now, federal prosecutors have charging a whaling captain there with killing one in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

A researcher says her team couldn't believe the distance travelled.

A rare whale skull discovered by an Inuit hunter in Greenland has been confirmed by a Canadian scientist to be the hybrid calf of a beluga father and a narwhal mother — otherwise known as a narluga.

Researchers have determined that, when ground ice is thicker, reindeer make for the coast. They don't eat kelp when they don't have to.

Rabies reported in three towns in eastern Essex County

Seals and whales in the Arctic are shifting their feeding patterns as climate change alters their habitats, and the way they do so may determine whether they survive, a new study has found.

Climate change is ravaging the natural laboratory that inspired Darwin. The creatures here are on the brink of crisis.

With their habitat shrinking, brown bears in Baile Tusnad, Romania, have turned to scavenging. Residents sit and gawk, environmentalists want to protect the animals, but hunters just want to hunt.

Killer whales go to extraordinary depths to pilfer a meal.

A team of researchers has found that black-browed albatrosses living on the Falkland Islands see rising divorce rates during times when the sea surface temperatures rise. They point out that hunger could lead to one or the other partner abandoning an egg or hatchling—events that could lead to one of the birds ditching the other.