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Variation in non-metrical skull traits of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and relationships across East Greenland and adjacent subpopulations (1830–2013)

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Abstract

Knowledge of subpopulation identity including substructure is a prerequisite for sound management of polar bears (Ursus maritimus). It is not known whether the present catch of polar bears in the East Greenland subpopulation (EG) is sustainable. We used the Mean Measure of Divergence (MMD) to examine geographical variation in non-metrical traits from 1414 polar bear (Ursus maritimus) skulls collected in East Greenland (EG), Svalbard (SVA), Franz Josef Land (FJL), Davis Strait (DS), Baffin Bay (BB), and Kane Basin (KB), between 1830 and 2013. We focused on East Greenland with the goal of examining substructuring in the subpopulation. We did not find significant differences among samples across four areas of the EG subpopulation (i.e., offshore Fram Strait, NE, SE, and SW Greenland) using data from 1830 to 1983. Our analyses did not lend support to substructuring. However, we draw our conclusions with caution because skulls were sampled over a long time period and had low power due to small sample sizes. Also, comparisons were limited to pre-1980s skulls. The decrease in sea ice in EG since the 1990s due to climate change may have led to substructuring not detected with MMD. This study contributes to the current efforts by Greenland authorities to quantify connectivity of polar bears between southeast and northeast Greenland which is important information for the evaluation of the sustainability of the catch of bears from the EG subpopulation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Frédéric Santos for help and discussions related to the use of the AnthropMMD program and Karsten Sund for taking the photographs of the polar bear skull (Fig. 2). The Danish Cooperation for Environment in the Arctic (DANCEA) and local hunters are acknowledged for financial and logistic support for sampling skulls in East Greenland. We are grateful to the following institutions for providing access to their historic polar bear skull collections for this study: American Museum of Natural History, New York; Canadian Museum of Natural History, Ottawa; Canadian Wildlife Service, Edmonton; Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh; Göteborg Natural History Museum, Gothenburg; Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge Mass.; Museum Man and Nature, Munich; Natural History Museum, Berlin; Natural History Museum, London; Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo; Natural History Museum, Vienna; Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen; National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC; Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm; The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; University Museum of Bergen, Bergen; Zoological Museum of Moscow University, Moscow; Zoological Museum of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg. Two of the coauthors (PH and TS) had permission from each of the museums to investigate polar bear skulls in their collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Blindern, P.O. Box 1172, 0318, Oslo, Norway

    Øystein Wiig

  2. Møllevej 35, 4872, Idestrup, Denmark

    Poul Henrichsen

  3. Osteology Unit, Stockholm University, 106 91, Stockholm, Sweden

    Torstein Sjøvold

  4. Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 570, 3900, Nuuk, Greenland

    Erik W. Born & Kristin L. Laidre

  5. Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, 98105, WA, USA

    Kristin L. Laidre

  6. Department of Bioscience, Arctic Research Centre, Faculty of Science and Technology, Aarhus University, P.O. Box 358, 4000, Roskilde, Denmark

    Rune Dietz & Christian Sonne

  7. Fram Centre, Norwegian Polar Institute, P.O. Box 6606 Langnes, 9296, Tromsø, Norway

    Jon Aars

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  1. Øystein Wiig
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Correspondence to Øystein Wiig.

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Wiig, Ø., Henrichsen, P., Sjøvold, T. et al. Variation in non-metrical skull traits of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and relationships across East Greenland and adjacent subpopulations (1830–2013). Polar Biol 42, 461–474 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2435-x

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