Few people have spent as much time studying mammals in the Arctic as Kristin Laidre, a University of Washington polar scientist and expert on marine mammals.
One exception would be Inuit subsistence hunters, who for generations have relied on these mammals for nutritional, economic and cultural reasons. A new study documents the experience of these hunters and what it might show about changing conditions for polar bears on Greenland’s east coast.
“Our research was motivated by the importance of obtaining local perspectives from subsistence hunters in East Greenland about the subpopulation of polar bears,” said Laidre, who is the corresponding author on the paper. “There had not been an interview study for several decades, so a new interview survey was important to conduct, especially before starting an assessment of the subpopulation.”
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