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Man Dies Protecting His Children From Polar Bear

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By ABC News. . .Aaron Gibbons, 31, was at a popular fishing and hunting place on Sentry Island in Hudson Bay, approximately 10 kilometers from the hamlet of Arviat on the western shore, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Gibbons’s uncle, Gordy Kidlapik.

When Gibbons saw the bear, he jumped in between his children and the animal and told his kids to run to the boat, Kilapik told ABC News via direct message on Twitter. . .

Gibbons’ children ran and called for help on CB radio, Kidlapik said on Twitter, referring to Gibbons as “qangiaq,” the Inuinnaqtun word for nephew.

“The victim was unarmed at the time of the attack,” officials said. “The polar bear was put down by another adult as other individuals were on the island nearby.” . . .

“Research suggests that polar bear attacks are typically associated with nutritional stress in the animal,” Churchill Wild told ABC News in a statement. “We don’t know yet the circumstances surrounding this incident nor the motivation for the attack so we aren’t in a position to provide an educated comment as to the cause.” (Read more from “Man Dies Protecting His Children From Polar Bear” HERE)

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‘He Died a Hero’: Canadian Man Mauled by Polar Bear While Protecting His Family

By The Guardian. A father in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut is being hailed as a hero after he died protecting his three young children from a polar bear attack. . .

“The bear started to stalk or charge one of his children,” he said. “He told his children to run back to the boat and put himself between his children and the bear.”

His school-age children made it safely to the boat and called for help on the CB radio. Kidlapik was among those who heard the call, describing it as “heartbreaking”.

Police said Gibbons was pronounced dead at the scene. “He died a hero,” said Kidlapik. (Read more from “‘He Died a Hero’: Canadian Man Mauled by Polar Bear While Protecting His Family” HERE)

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Polar Bear Breaks into Home in Alaska Village

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Photo Credit: AP/Dan JolingRuby Kaleak’s part-time job is keeping polar bears away from people in a village on Alaska’s Beaufort Sea coast, so she was prepared when one of the biggest bears she’s ever seen got inside a house. . .

She and a co-worker spotted the polar bear inside 81-year-old Betty Brower’s home in Kaktovik, a village of 300. It was eating seal oil from a drum.

Kaleak carries a shotgun loaded with beanbag and firecracker rounds, but she and a co-worker shooed the bear away.

Read more from this story HERE.

Scientists Admit Polar Bear Numbers Were Made Up To ‘Satisfy Public Demand’

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Heinz-Peter BaderThis may come as a shocker to some, but scientists are not always right — especially when under intense public pressure for answers.

Researchers with the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) recently admitted to experienced zoologist and polar bear specialist Susan Crockford that the estimate given for the total number of polar bars in the Arctic was “simply a qualified guess given to satisfy public demand.”

Crockford has been critical of official polar bear population estimates because they fail to include five large subpopulations of polar bears. Due to the uncertainty of the populations in these areas, PBSG did not include them in their official estimate — but the polar bear group did include other subpopulation estimates.

PBSG has for years said that global polar bear populations were between 20,000 and 25,000, but these estimates are likely much lower than how many polar bears are actually living in the world.

“Based on previous PBSG estimates and other research reports, it appears there are probably at least another 6,000 or so bears living in these regions and perhaps as many as 9,000 (or more) that are not included in any PBSG ‘global population estimate,’” Crockford wrote on her blog.

Read more from this story HERE.

Man Dragged From Tent and Violently Attacked by Polar Bear Remains in Critical Condition with Broken Jaw and Serious Neck Injuries but Health is Improving

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Photo Credit: Daily MailA Maine man who was terrifyingly dragged from his tent and attacked by a polar bear while camping in Canada has serious injuries but is improving in a Montreal hospital, according to his wife.

Matthew Dyer was attacked by a bear that crossed an electric fence designed to protect members of his group in Torngat Mountains National Park at the northern tip of Labrador on Wednesday.

The mauling ended when members of his group drove the bear away by firing flares. Dyer has a broken jaw and neck injuries.

The group had been advised to hire an armed guard to protect against such attacks but decided against it, a Parks Canada spokesman said.

Officials said they were investigating whether the portable electrified fence was working properly.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaskan Scientist Galvanized ESA, Global Warming Movement to Polar Bear Drownings with Article that Used “Incomplete” and “Understated” Data

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Photo credit: USGS

An Alaska scientist whose observations of drowned polar bears helped galvanize the global warming movement has been reprimanded for improper release of government documents.

An Interior Department official said emails released by Charles Monnett were cited by a federal appeals court in decisions to vacate approval by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management of an oil and gas company’s Arctic exploration plan.

The official, Walter Cruickshank, deputy director of BOEM, said in a memo that an inspector general’s investigation contained findings that Monnett had improperly disclosed internal government documents, which he said were later used against the agency in court. He also said the investigation made other findings in regards to Monnett’s conduct, but he wasn’t taking action on those. He would not specify those findings.

Cruickshank called Monnett’s “misconduct very serious,” and said any future misconduct may lead to more severe discipline, including removal from federal service.

Read more from this story, including the government’s conclusion that Monnett and his co-author had used an “incomplete database as their primary source of information to write the article, made conflicting statements to investigators regarding the writing and editing process and understated data in the manuscript,” HERE.