Based on empirical research, the Nunavut government's manager of wildlife research rejects the US Geological Survey report claiming that two-thirds of the world's polar bears will die off within fifty years.  The report is based on the supposition that declining sea ice triggered by global warming will cause polar bears to starve and die, which Dr Mitch Taylor dismisses as "naïve and presumptuous".

The USGS presumption is flatly contradicted by an ongoing three-year study in Davis Strait, an area near the southern limit of the polar bear's customary range.  In fact, polar bears are healthy and their numbers are increasing.

According to the USGS, Davis Strait ought to be among the first places where polar bears will starve due to shrinking seasonal sea ice, which scientists say will deprive the bears of a vital platform to hunt seals.

Yet "Davis Strait is crawling with polar bears," Taylor said. "It's not safe to camp there. They're fat. The mothers have cubs. The cubs are in good shape."

Dr Taylor also says he and many Inuit hunters have seen bears catch seals without ice.

The Government of Nunavut is conducting a study of the Davis Strait bear population. Results of the study won't be released until 2008, but Taylor says it appears there are some 3,000 bears in an area – a big jump from the current estimate of about 850 bears.

"That's not theory. That's not based on a model. That's observation of reality," he says.

Diminished sea ice notwithstanding, polar bears are so numerous in some areas that increased hunting quotas are being considered.  Several of the bears observed in the study are among the largest on record.

Taylor does not disagree that climate change is occurring; nevertheless, he maintains that projections of declining polar bear numbers are unwarranted.

Canada is home to two-thirds of the world's polar bears, and 12 of Canada's 13 polar bear populations live in Nunavut.

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