The Lost Solution for Polar Bears

Someone’s been watching too much “Lost.” Andrew Derocher, a polar bear researcher, has proposed that perhaps we should start airlifting kibble to supplement the polar bear’s diet and save them from certain extinction. After years of having the message “Don’t Feed the Bears” drilled into my head, this just sounds wrong.

While there is no word on whether the kibble would come packaged with the Dharma octagon, the kibble contains “a high level of fish and animal products designed specifically for polar bears” and “should not be fed to other species” (according to one manufacturer). Don’t tell Yogi, because I’m sure that once he hears about it, he’ll be coming over for dinner, assuming he can brave the cold.

Supplemental feeding programs, as they are called, are not that uncommon actually. In the United States, they tend to happen in the central states where hunting and trapping routinely depletes the available stock. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks has regulations on its website for homeowners to participate in feeding programs for the white-tailed deer. Wyoming has been feeding the elk for over a hundred years, a “program” that started when locals started feeding the few elks that were thisclose to extinction. The federal government took over that program in 1912, presumably so the locals could focus on pushing a button every 108 minutes.

One of the big problems with feeding programs is that the animals aren’t stupid and will congregate where the food is dropped. Disease runs rampant where populations are kept artificially high, which is why Texas cautions “Supplemental feeding of deer may be beneficial if the herd is harvested adequately each year and the range is in good condition” (Perkins).

Feeding polar bears presents another challenge that we don’t necessarily see in feeding deer: will the polar bears forget how to hunt? Deer and elk are foragers, and feeding programs run the gamut from putting out feed stands to planting fields of their natural diet. Kibble is much easier to hunt than seals or smoke monsters, so is there a way to produce a food that polar bears will eat, but won’t find as yummy as seal fat? The Washington Forest Protection Association faced a similar dilemma in the early 80s with the black bear. They wanted the bear to continue eating the berries but leave the sapwood tree trunks alone, so they developed pellets to supplement the diet. Again, though, we’re dealing with an opportunistic feeder and not a hunter.

Bear acclimation is a really big issue in National Parks. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who had their car broken into by a hungry black bear in Yosemite because the bear decided it was easier to steal a sandwich than to go find some berries (looking at you Yogi). Depending on how much Mr. Derocher was planning on feeding the bears, we might see that sort of behavior in the great white north.  The other thing to factor in is what that would cost. The Dharma Initiative had a seemingly unending supply of cash to airlift food in for 34 years. But since this project would cost an estimated $32,000 a day, it’s not very practical. Nobody is going to be clamoring to take on that cost.

Or we could just put the polar bears in a cage and teach the combination to get a fish biscuit. That worked for Sawyer.

Sources:
Impacts of the black bear supplemental feeding program on ecology in western Washingtonby GeorgJ. Ziegltrum

Don't feed the (polar) bears By John D.Sutter, CNN

Supplemental Feeding by J.R. Perkins

Debate Rages Over Elk Feeding by Kirk Johnson

Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks Supplemental Feeding Regulations