As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Sunday, 9 February 2014

Hungry polar bears robbing Arctic bird colonies


BY MARGARET MUNRO, POSTMEDIA NEWS FEBRUARY 4, 2014

There were more than 300 nests in the bird colony when the polar bear arrived.

When it meandered off with a belly full of eggs only 24 nests remained, say scientists who witnessed the “near total” destruction of nests on the bird colony off Baffin Island.

It was far from an isolated event, the team from Environment Canada and Carleton University reported Tuesday.

Hungry polar bears are becoming a bigger threat to seabirds in the Canadian Arctic than traditional nest robbers like foxes and gulls, the researchers say in a study that points to the “cascading ecological impacts” of climate change.

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