Pictures: 80 Polar Bears Throng Village in Search of Whale

Picnic Grounds

Photograph courtesy Loren Holmes, Alaska Dispatch

Polar bears and seagulls stream toward chunks of whale meat in a Kaktovik meadow in early September. Inupiat villagers generally drag chunks of butchered whale meat from beach to field, where whaling captains separate the flesh for distribution.

Dating to at least the 1970s, polar bears feeding on hunt leftovers "is not a new thing at all," said Polar Bear International's Amstrup. "What is new is that there seem to be larger numbers this year than there have been in the past."

Some scientists have speculated that climate change—and specifically, this year's record retreat of Arctic sea ice—might be responsible for the polar bear spike in Kaktovik. But ecologist John Whiteman said it's too soon to say. "There aren't thorough, quantitative, historical data on the number of bears on shore in Alaska during the summer," Whiteman, of the University of Wyoming, said in an email.

Recent studies, however, suggest that "as ice retreats farther north, more bears will come ashore during summer," he said. "And as more bears wander the coast, it is likely that more will discover the whale remains."

(In depth: "Big oil, wild creatures, and native populations collide" on Alaska's North Slope.)

Published October 1, 2012

Buffet Line

Photograph courtesy Loren Holmes, Alaska Dispatch

A mother polar bear (center) and her cubs feast on whale remains in Kaktovik in early September.

Because polar bears are among the most mobile mammals on the planet—their ranges can approach hundreds of thousands of square miles—scientists aren't sure how far the animals travel for the yearly whale feast, the University of Wyoming's Whiteman said.

Wherever the Kaktovik bears had come from, once they reached Kaktovik, the effect was "disconcerting," Holmes said.

"I didn't expect to see so many. I didn't really realize how dangerous it was," the Anchorage-based photographer added. "You couldn't walk from the airstrip to the village or from the village to the beach, and you couldn't go outside at night." (Video: polar bear vs. polar bear.)

Published October 1, 2012

Hooked

Photograph from Accent Alaska/Alamy

Captured the traditional way, by harpoon, the body of a bowhead whale floats alongside Inupiat hunters from Kaktovik in 2006.

The International Whaling Commission, the intergovernmental body charged with whale conservation, allows cultures with whaling traditions to hunt a limited number of the mammals each year to satisfy "cultural and nutritional requirements"—in other words, not for profit.

For the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, those strictures aren't strict enough. Spokesperson Vanessa Tossenberger, said via email that, while the WDCS respects differing cultural attitudes, the group works to "stop the deliberate killing of all whales and dolphins ... [and] aims to reduce and eventually end all hunts by encouraging aboriginal communities to move towards alternatives to killing whales and dolphins."

(Pictures: Dolphins and Whales Hunted Despite Protection.)

Published October 1, 2012

Long Division

Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic

Kaktovik villagers butcher a bowhead whale (undated picture).

Scraps from annual whale hunts in Alaskan communities form a kind of yearly bonus for polar bears. But, Amstrup of Polar Bear International said, that could change if summer Arctic sea ice continues shrinking at record rates. (Related: "Shrinking Arctic Sea Ice Linked to Snowier Winters?")

"I think increasingly we're going to see bears relying on the whale remains to survive," he said.

"Ultimately, the whale remains aren't going to support the whole population of polar bears ... When it gets to the point where all the bears are stuck on land and there's nothing for them to eat, many of them are just going to perish."

(Read "Polar Bears: On Thin Ice" from National Geographic magazine.)

Published October 1, 2012

Night Game

Photograph from Alaska Stock/National Geographic

Pervasive summer sun powers late-night basketball in Kaktovik. The island community, just a few hundred strong, sits just a few miles north of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR. Still dependent on wild caribou and whale meat, isolated Kaktovik holds fast to Inupiat traditions.

Published October 1, 2012

Leftovers

Photograph courtesy Loren Holmes, Alaska Dispatch

An adult polar bear and a cub pick at what's left of a bowhead whale head after it's been exposed to nearly two dozen hungry bears, wind, and rain in Kaktovik in September 2012. (Video: how a National Geographic photographer captured a polar bear feeding on a whale carcass.)

Published October 1, 2012

After-Dinner Stretch

Photograph courtesy Loren Holmes, Alaska Dispatch

Two polar bears frolic in Kaktovik shortly after the annual whale hunt in September. When the whale scraps disappear, the bears soon follow suit. "They would rather hunt and eat fresh seal instead of old whale," Amstrup said. (Related: "Polar Bears Turning to Goose Eggs to Survive Warming?")

Published October 1, 2012

Behind the Curve

Photograph by Damon Winter, New York Times/Redux

Picked clean, a lower jawbone from a bowhead whale rests outside Barrow, Alaska (file picture). (See a picture of whale bones in Kaktovik.)

By 2050, or even sooner, Arctic sea ice—so crucial to polar bears for hunting—could disappear completely in the summer, experts say. What will become of the bears then?

"Polar bears are going to be showing up in beaches all over the place," Amstrup said. "We don't know what that's going to bring, except ultimately it's not going to be good for polar bears."

Published October 1, 2012

More Pictures: "Pizzly" to Be Joined by More Arctic Hybrids?

Photograph by Troy Maben, AP

Published October 1, 2012