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Bearly coexisting: Human-wildlife conflict in the polar regions
As human populations grow, we’re getting closer to natural habitats, leading to increased interactions with wildlife.
Conflict arises when wildlife presence poses real or perceived costs to human interests or needs, like loss of livestock, crop raiding or attacks on humans.
Human-wildlife conflict can have negative impacts on wildlife and can also affect community dynamics, commodity production, and sustainable development.
Conservation biologists are increasingly concerned about human-wildlife conflict in the polar regions – the Arctic in the Northern Hemisphere and Antarctic in the Southern Hemisphere.
Why is human-wildlife conflict increasing in the polar regions?
The polar regions are characterised by low temperatures, extreme seasonality, and the seasonal advance and retreat of sea ice. Both polar regions are home to numerous endemic species, but their survival is threatened by climate change, fishing, tourism, invasive species, and pollution.
These pressures often lead to more frequent encounters between people and wildlife, especially in the Arctic where around 4 million people live.
A recent study on protecting Antarctic biodiversity found that current conservation efforts are insufficient. It’s predicted that around 65% of land animals and land-associated seabirds could decline by 2100 if global greenhouse gas emissions continue on their >2°C trajectory. The study suggests several ways to boost conservation efforts, such as:
- Improving the quality of land that has been polluted or negatively impacted by human use
- Managing infrastructure
- Protecting areas
- Controlling non-native species and diseases
How does human-wildlife conflict appear in the polar regions?
Encounters between people and polar bears
Polar bears are an iconic Arctic species, distributed across 19 subpopulations within five countries: the United States, Canada, Greenland, Norway, and Russia. They rely on sea ice for hunting (primarily seals), breeding, and resting.
With climate change accelerating and sea ice diminishing, polar bears are forced to spend more time on land. Here finding natural food sources becomes challenging, so they often seek out human settlements for a predictable source of nutrition.
The town of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, is famously known as the ‘polar bear capital of the world’ due to the Western Hudson Bay population that pass through the town each summer and autumn.
Between the 1940s and 1980s, these bears regularly visited a waste disposal site, feeding on scraps that caused property damage, human injuries, and malnutrition for the bears. The food waste was often insufficient in fat and contaminated with plastics, metals, and wood.
Efforts to manage the problem included better waste management, relocating bears, temporarily housing them at a holding facility until Hudson Bay froze, or, in some cases, lethal removal.
The Government of Manitoba has since closed the dump site and established the Polar Bear Alert Program to minimise the need for lethal measures and reduce conflicts with bears.
As polar bear encounters become more frequent, the significance of this program is expected to grow.
How orcas and Arctic foxes hunting impact communities
Sometimes predators feed on animals of economic and ecological importance to people. These are depredation events (events that cause damage or destruction).
Mammals in the Arctic Ocean are increasingly observed preying on fish caught by commercial and recreational fishing boats. Longline fishing, which involves the use of baited hooks on a long line, is currently the most severely affected by depredation across both hemispheres, primarily by toothed whales, such as orcas and sperm whales.
These depredation events can result in financial losses for fishers who face difficulties due to reduced catch and often face costs for repairing damaged fishing gear. These interactions can also harm wildlife through injuries or fatalities caused by entanglement with fishing gear and responses from fishers.
Orcas, otherwise known as killer whales, are frequently involved in depredation events in polar regions. It’s been suggested that their group hunting behaviour enables orcas to effectively remove fish from longlines.
These animals are highly social and live in tightly knit family groups, known as pods. Research suggests that pods which overlap geographically can communicate and share information. It’s thought that this cultural transmission is causing depredation behaviour to spread throughout western Alaska.
Depredation on land is also a concern, particularly with Arctic foxes preying on reindeer calves
In the Yamal Peninsula, traditional reindeer herding practices are central to the lives of the indigenous Nenet people of Arctic Russia. However, reindeer mortality has increased due to factors such as pasture icing (explained later), disease outbreaks, and predation by Arctic foxes.
The population growth of arctic foxes has been fueled by the collapse of the fur trade in the 1990s, which reduced hunting pressure. Industrial expansion also provided waste for foxes to feed on, further supporting their population increase.
Climate change worsens the issue by causing abnormal weather conditions, such as freezing rain and rapid temperature fluctuations, which lead to pasture icing. This occurs when a thick layer of ice forms over grazing land, trapping vegetation and making it inaccessible to livestock and wildlife. As a result, weakened reindeer become easier prey for foxes, while more carcasses are left for scavenging.
Finding solutions for people and wildlife
Human-wildlife conflict in the polar regions presents challenges, especially with the added pressures of climate change and other stressors.
However, finding solutions that harmonise conservation goals with community needs can lead to positive outcomes for both people and wildlife. Check out our article on Balancing Conservation and Community in Polar Wildlife Conflicts for strategies to effectively manage and resolve human-wildlife conflict.
