Not much sign of freeze up coming anytime soon in Hudson Bay. At these temperatures, the Bay will need to cool for a while. Now, it's all about the weather & colder is better for polar bears. You can watch the Bay (& sometimes polar bears) here: explore.org/livecams/polar…

This is the 6th lowest area on record for this day of the year.

Fieldwork Friday.

Hudson Bay polar bears are waiting (& will be for quite a while with the current weather - it's well above normal temperatures there). For now, most bears will still have lots of stored energy but the skinniest will be seriously hoping for sea ice to form so they can hunt.

No alarm for Hudson Bay polar bears yet as there's time for things to cool but at these temperatures, the Bay will still be warming. Normal for this date is -3 C to -9 C. It's a bit cooler further north but not cold. 1 kg of body mass loss per day - how long can they wait?

Mom & cub on Hudson Bay shore on the polar bear cam (explore.org/livecams/polar…). The sea ice coming back is critical for cub survival. If mom runs out of stored energy, she stops nursing & cubs have little stored energy of their own as they are growing so fast. This is a weak link.

Latest polar bear paper exploring their role in providing carrion to other vertebrate species. Polar bears provide approximately 7,600,000 kg/year of carrion biomass for scavengers across their range. nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oi… [open access]

Nowhere close to freeze up in Hudson Bay this year. It's far too warm. No sea ice anywhere. Things can change quickly but the Bay has to cool a lot before ice strong enough to support polar bears shows up. Watch the Bay live here: explore.org/livecams/polar…

Polar bears provide millions of kilograms of food for other Arctic species sciencenews.org/article/polar-…

cbc.ca/radio/asithapp…

The benefit of being in a Tundra Buggy is that a bear is close but not a threat...

Hudson Bay sea ice is slow to form this autumn. I've seen some rather skinny polar bears on various forums. It's cool but far from cold in Churchill: normal lows should be about -17 C but it's only -10 C. Not much sea ice forms at those temperatures.

Hudson Bay polar bears have nowhere to go: it's still much warmer than normal. When I started studying the bears here in 1984, they were back on the ice weeks earlier. At 1 kg mass loss/day, the bears would welcome some frigid weather.

Goodblaatsiaq. 🥶 after a long spell of warmer than normal weather

This is the 2nd lowest area on record for this day of the year, only 2016 (180,187 sq km) was lower.

This morning's drive seen 4 bears and I dint find my binoculars

Wondering how polar bear habitat in Hudson Bay is doing? Bluntly, not well this year. Red areas are missing sea ice: should have ice but don't. The white areas are not usually frozen & aren't so that's normal but nothing else is. Late freeze-up.

Western Hudson Bay polar bears are trying to get onto the sea ice but there's precious little ice for them to use. Nearshore is largely unconsolidated / mushy but the cold weather coming should help. It's a late freeze-up but not perilously so for the bears.

It's a bit hard to see with the cloud but there's precious little sea ice in Hudson Bay & thus, not much habitat for polar bears. At this time of year, they should be well out into the Bay. Some bears will kill seals under these conditions but they're far from optimal.

Eastern Arctic is missing a lot of polar bear habitat this December (red). Things may improve for as the temperatures are finally colder & sufficient for cooling the Bay & making sea ice. At this time of year, bears would normally be migrating offshore. Soon if it stays cold.