Polar bears threatening geese as diet ravaged by climate shift

Published on Thursday 17 June 2010 20:44

A CONSERVATION success which has seen barnacle geese numbers bounce back from the brink could be under threat from hungry polar bears struggling to cope with climate change, experts said yesterday.

The number of Svalbard barnacle goslings that overwintered in the Solway Firth this year was just half that expected, according to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT).

The conservation group blames polar bears feasting on eggs in the nests of the geese in their summer breeding site, around Spitsbergen, Norway.

Researchers, who have photographed bears in the nests and found evidence of "egg raids", say more polar bears are gathering around Spitsbergen and preying on the eggs because a reduction in Arctic ice is making it harder for them to hunt seals.

Brian Morrell, a zoologist based at the wildlife centre, said: "Our suspicion is that, as climate change reduces the polar ice-floe, making it harder for the bears to hunt their usual diet of seal, they are being driven by hunger to prey on nest sites.

"Obviously it takes a very large quantity of eggs to satisfy an animal as big as a polar bear, especially one with cubs.

"The impact is that entire nesting areas are being stripped bare of eggs and young, with potentially dire consequences for the geese and wildlife tourism."

The bears could threaten the fortunes of the Svalbard barnacle geese population; there were just 300 birds in the 1940s, but now up to 30,000 visit Scotland each winter. The turnaround was the result of a ban on hunting, work on monitoring and the provision of a safe habitat for the geese at Caerlaverock, the WWT said.

Trust chief executive Martin Spray said: "It is a tragedy to witness two species of conservation concern clashing over the right to survive, and demonstrates the tensions the natural world is experiencing right now."