Fewer dan­ge­rous con­fron­ta­ti­ons with polar bears

Accor­ding to stu­dies by mas­ter stu­dent Mar­gre­te Nils­dat­ter Skak­tavl Key­ser, dan­ge­rous con­fron­ta­ti­ons bet­ween polar bears and humans have recent­ly beco­me less fre­quent, inspi­te of increased traf­fic also in remo­te parts of Spits­ber­gen. The main reason for the posi­ti­ve deve­lo­p­ment is belie­ved to be the decre­asing num­ber of inex­pe­ri­en­ced tou­rists that visit wil­der­ness are­as indi­vi­du­al­ly. Ins­tead, the­re is an incre­asing trend to join orga­ni­zed tours with expe­ri­en­ced gui­des, who work to avo­id con­fron­ta­ti­ons and are more likely to be able to deal with such events wit­hout shoo­ting the ani­mals, for exam­p­le by sca­ring the bears away with war­ning shots from the signal pis­tol.

Sci­en­tists are now actual­ly more likely to get invol­ved in dan­ge­rous con­fron­ta­ti­ons, inclu­ding events whe­re bears were shot in self defence. The reason is that sci­en­tists spend more time on land, also in remo­te are­as which are fre­quen­ted by bears, also in camps during the night. Addi­tio­nal­ly, not every indi­vi­du­al rese­ar­cher has the level of expe­ri­ence and skills that is desi­reable to deal with polar bears as safe­ly as pos­si­ble.

Source: UNIS

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