Grizzlies Encroaching on Polar Bear Country

"Our helicopter pilot was with us, and he has flown many expeditions into northern Canada, so he knew what the tracks were," Doupé says.

The tracks revealed extended claws, characteristic of grizzlies, not polar bears, he adds. The tracks appeared fresh and "it seemed like they went toward the cabin," Doupé says.

The scientists examined the sides of the cabin, and sure enough, they found brown hairs. Color is not always indicative of species, however, so when they returned to Alberta they turned the hairs over to other sources, including a wildlife genetics lab in British Columbia. The results were unmistakable, Doupé says. DNA analysis reveals that the hairs came from a grizzly, not a polar bear.

The results confirmed a siting on Melville Island that England had made a year earlier. He saw and photographed a bear that sure looked like a grizzly, with the characteristic hump atop its shoulders, but until the DNA work came back, he couldn't say for sure. It is believed to have been the northernmost grizzly ever seen, and may have been the same bear that was seen earlier on the sea ice south of Melville. Mitch Taylor, a wildlife biologist for the Northwest Territories, tranquilized and measured a grizzly running across the ice in 1991.

"It was a 700 pound male," Doupé says. "There was no sign it was having a tough time up there."

Cubs at Risk

Although not quite as far north, other grizzlies have been spotted on Victoria Island just south of Melville, despite the fact that recent scientific literature suggests that grizzlies were limited to mainland Canada and had not crossed dozens of miles across sea ice to reach the islands.

But, Doupé notes, it's not clear at this point if grizzlies are moving north, or if more are being seen because more researchers are venturing into that region, believed to be rich with mineral resources.

"Was it just an observer effect," he asks, or are the big brown bears really moving north? And if so, why?

No one knows yet, but it could be that substantial increase in human habitation to the south is convincing the bears to head for safer ground. And Doupé says global warming may be making it possible for the grizzlies to extend their range to the north, something the polar bears clearly don't need.

Especially the young ones.