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2024 Manitoba Wildlife Society Annual Meeting




After completing analysis of the polar bear photos taken in Churchill, we attended the Manitoba Wildlife Society Annual Meeting. There, we had the opportunity to listen to presentations from biologists, and learned a lot! To display our results, we created a poster and presented it to other attending scientists. In May, we will be travelling to Vancouver to share our findings at the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution conference. Wish us luck!

-The Kelvin NorthSTAR Students

(Nothern Student-led Arctic Research)






Abstract: A comparison of three non-invasive methods for assessing body condition of free-ranging polar bears

Climate change is altering Arctic ecosystems, and ice-reliant species such as polar bears (Ursus martimus) are experiencing population declines. Understanding changes in body condition of polar bears is important for assessing impacts of climate change, as bears in poor condition have lower reproductive success and survival. Typically, body condition analysis requires invasive methods, e.g. anesthetizing, weighing, and measuring bears. In this study, we applied non-invasive methods to assess body condition by using photogrammetry, which does not interfere with bear activity. We compared three methods of assessing body condition from photographs of polar bears taken during fall in Churchill, Manitoba, when polar bears are typically at their lowest body condition. We assessed body condition of the same bears (individual identification confirmed by unique whisker-prints) in the same year by using 3 methods: the line method, rectangle method, and a hybrid method. The line method is widely used in other species and involves a simple ratio of belly depth to shoulder height. The rectangle method uses a box drawn from the shoulder to the tail, and down to the belly, and the ratio of box width to length. The hybrid method combines both the line and rectangle approaches. Preliminary data suggests males and females score differently using these methods and should be analyzed separately. We compared variability of each method, and consistency across methods. Each method had pros and cons in terms of ease of calculation and photograph requirements, which should be considered when applying photogrammetric body condition in future studies.

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