TORONTO —
Whereas polar bears are recognized for being worthy opponents within the Arctic, questions remained about how they managed a few of their largest kills, corresponding to walruses, and new analysis exhibits they employed the usage of rock and blocks of ice as weapons.
Oral histories over the course of greater than 200 years from Inuit in Northern Canada and in Greenland depict tales of polar bears utilizing instruments corresponding to rocks and blocks of ice to kill walruses, in line with researchers.
Utilizing these histories and documentation of brown bears utilizing instruments in captivity, Canadian zoologist and marine biologist Ian Sterling and colleagues got down to show that polar bears use instruments to hunt.
The examine, revealed within the June version of the journal Arctic, particulars varied accounts of polar bears utilizing blocks of ice or rocks to bludgeon 1,000 kg walruses to dying. It additionally describes GoGo, a younger male polar bear in captivity, who opted to make use of instruments to entry meat that was suspended out of his attain.
GoGo used varied instruments and strategies to attempt to get to the meat, together with a department and a log. He even threw a bit of pipe and a floating system utilizing each entrance paws to attempt to knock down the snack.
Brown bears, polar bears’ closest relative, have additionally been documented utilizing instruments in captivity, in line with the examine. Whereas they haven’t been documented utilizing instruments to entry salmon in a river, they opted for instruments to assist them get to meals simply out of their attain, simply as GoGo did.
The accounts of polar bears utilizing instruments focus totally on utilizing them as weapons of their hunt. Lots of the documented accounts are third-hand.
“The [Inuit] of various tribes extensively separated have informed me they’ve watched a bear stalk a younger walrus out on the ice, profiting from a hummock to get inside putting distance, after which hit the walrus over the top with a bit of ice held in a single paw,” reads an account by an explorer recognized as Munn revealed within the examine.
In a single statement used within the examine from 1974, a biologist utilizing foot snares speculated that the bears noticed his snares and used a rock to set off the lure to get to the bait with out getting caught. Sterling and his colleagues recommend that this might point out that this bear had been captured earlier than and was capable of drawback resolve by utilizing the software.
Whereas there are recorded accounts and documentation of polar bears within the wild and captivity utilizing instruments, the researchers speculate that this stays a uncommon occasion and would probably solely be employed to be used in opposition to walruses.
