Interaction between polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and people is a growing concern for both bear conservation and human safety in a warming Arctic climate. Consequently, the importance of monitoring temporal trends in the proximity of polar bears to people has become critical in managing human-polar bear conflicts. Such concerns are acute in Wapusk National Park in Manitoba, Canada on the Western Hudson Bay coast, where we deployed 18 camera traps at three remote field camps from 2010-2014 (~22,100 camera-days) to monitor the frequency and timing of bears' visits to those facilities. Following seasonal breakup of Hudson Bay's sea ice polar bear occurrences at these camps increased throughout the summer and into fall (low in May-July and increasing sharply through August-November and then approaching zero in December when Hudson Bay freezes). We quantified age and sex class and estimated body condition of bears visiting the camps: adult males were most prevalent at Nester One camp close to where adult males congregate at Cape Churchill, whereas the two camps farther south were visited more frequently by females with dependent young, likely traveling to and from a known maternal denning area. Few subadults were observed. As expected, body condition scores declined throughout the on-shore season. Our method of monitoring polar bear occurrence on shore is robust, cost-effective, and non-invasive, and so may provide an economical complement to data gathered through more conventional techniques.Keywords: Climate change, Hudson Bay, human-wildlife conflict, non-invasive, polar bears, Ursus maritimus, Wapusk National Park Cite this article as: Laforge, M.P., Clark, D.A., Schmidt, A.L. et al. Polar Biol (2017) 40: 1661. The final publication is available at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00300-017-2091-6 2 Introduction Current scientific knowledge of the causes and dynamics of conflicts between people and polar bears is insufficient for managing such conflicts; a problem that has become increasingly urgent as changes in the Arctic climate accelerate (Osvyanikov 1996;Clark 2003;Clark et al. 2012;Boisen 2014). Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) depend on sea ice in order to catch seals, which constitute the majority of their total annual diet. Where sea ice melts entirely in the summer, bears move onto shore and feed only opportunistically (Ramsay and Hobson 1991). As such, polar bears are particularly vulnerable to further reductions in the total number of days in which sea ice is present, which ultimately affects reproductive success, survival, and long-term population sustainability (Stirling et al. 1999;Derocher et al. 2004). Climate change driven alteration of sea ice dynamics have resulted in changes in polar bear habitat use (Ferguson et al. 2000;Pilfold et al. 2015). Earlier ice break-up has also been associated with increased mortality in juvenile, sub-adult and senescent polar bears (Regehr et al. 2007). Although it is well established that reduced sea ice is detrimental to polar bear populations (...

Grizzly bears and polar bears often serve as ecological “flagship species” in conservation efforts, but although consumptively used in some areas and cultures they can also be important cultural keystone species even where not hunted. We extend the application of established criteria for defining cultural keystone species to also encompass species with which cultures have a primarily nonconsumptive relationship but that are nonetheless disproportionately important to well-being and identity. Grizzly bears in coastal British Columbia are closely linked to many Indigenous Peoples (including the Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk), Kitasoo/Xai’xais, and Nuxalk First Nations), where they are central to the identity, culture, and livelihoods of individuals, families, Chiefs, and Nations. Polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba, provide another example as a cultural keystone species for a mixed Indigenous and non-Indigenous community in which many of the livelihood benefits from the species are mediated by economic transactions in a globalized tourism market. We discuss context specificity and questions of equity in sharing of benefits from cultural keystone species. Our expanded definition of cultural keystone species gives broader recognition of the beyond-ecological importance of these species to Indigenous Peoples, which highlights the societal and ecological importance of Indigenous sovereignty and could facilitate the increased cross-cultural understanding critical to reconciliation.

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