Pirate's Cove

I have a hummingbird feeder on the back deck, and the little bastards are constantly running into me (especially when I have on my blue NY Giant hat with the red under-brim. I blame hotcoldwetdry

Collaborative project explores Mainer’s attack by polar bear, climate change

When a polar bear ripped Lewiston lawyer Matt Dyer out of his tent and dragged him away while camping in Canada, he thought he was going to die, he told writer Sabrina Shankman.

He was wrong. Thanks to the quick response of his fellow campers, Dyer survived to tell the tale. In the new ebook “Meltdown: Terror at the Top of the World,” penned by Shankman, the terrifying details of the attack and all that led up to it are recounted by Dyer and the six hikers camping with him in Canada’s Torngat Mountains National Park in the summer of 2013.

“My hope was that I would see a bear. I thought I’d be lucky to see one,” the 49-year-old Dyer said this week. “I didn’t think there would be so many of them up there.”

Shoulda read the website

Polar bears are true carnivores and can be a significant risk to human beings. Visitors travelling and camping in the park are in polar bear country and are at high risk of encounters. Polar bears are almost always present along the north Labrador coast. In the winter and spring they drift south on the pack ice and roam the floe edge hunting for seals. As the ice breaks up they head to shore and begin to work their way north again. In recent years Inuit have seen an increase in the number of polar bears within the boundaries of the park, especially along the coast. Some polar bears have been seen far inland and at high elevations. Historic satellite collar data indicate that bears will cross the Ungava Peninsula by travelling west through the southern part of the park. So even though polar bears are generally found along the coast, you should remain vigilant, even when far inland.

There are also black bears, foxes, and wolves. It is highly recommended that people hire and Inuit guide, who is legally allowed to carry a firearm. In this case, the group didn’t, and instead relied upon an electrified fence, which the polar bear broke through.

Anyhow, Dyer was seriously mauled, and is fortunately back to work and well on his way to recovery. Anyhow, let’s be clear that it is not Dyer claiming “climate change”, though he does mention it in a quote

In writing “Meltdown,” Shankman worked with scientists around the world to put the story into context.

Polar bear-human conflicts have increased noticeably over the past decade, and many scientists are attributing this to the melting of the sea ice that enables bears to hunt for seals successfully.

“We knew from the start that this would be a way to present a climate change story to a much broader audience,” Shankman said. “People like to read adventure stories and survival narratives.”

Or, it could be that people are taking trips into dangerous areas where polar bears are present. The simplest explanation is usually the most reasonable.