Abstract 299 – Using hair snares and camera traps in community-led polar bear research: insights on polar bear genetics, distribution and body condition in the Eeyou Marine Region (James Bay, Canada)

Alexandra Langwieder, Angela Coxon, Natasha Louttit, Stephanie Varty, Felix
Boulanger, George Natawapineskum, Sanford Diamond, John Lameboy, Murray Humphries

Engaging Indigenous Peoples and their knowledge in wildlife monitoring is recognized to be
important in conservation science but reconciling community support and leadership with the
requirements of systematic wildlife monitoring can be challenging. Polar bears in James Bay,
Canada, are the world's most southerly polar bears and already experience warming conditions
expected for populations farther north but little is known about their ecology in this boreal
system. Eastern James Bay Cree communities have observed changing polar bear distribution
and abundance in the last decade and identified polar bear ecology as a high research priority.
Given this, our objective was to build a non-invasive polar bear research program with Cree
communities to co-develop knowledge on polar bear ecology at the southern edge of their
range. We used hair snares and camera trap sampling stations to gather information about
polar bear genetics, diet, body condition and habitat use. Over three summers we deployed 40
sampling stations across 400km of eastern James Bay with four community field teams. We
collected over 300 hair samples and hundreds of polar bear observations. Here we report the
genetic, body condition and habitat use results of this project and demonstrate that these non-
invasive methods are effective tools for delivering valuable information through community-
based polar bear research. At a time when mainstream polar bear research methods are being
questioned across the Arctic, we believe this approach could be widely used by communities to
lead polar bear research in their regions.