Template that can be used by federal, state/provincial, local, and tribal entities to develop their own agency, regional, or community-specific protocol or plans for responding to incidents where humans have been attacked by polar bears. The document can be a resource for items and actions to consider when responding to a polar bear attack that results in human injuries or a fatality.

A pdf copy of the template can be viewed and downloaded here

A MS Word copy of the themplate can be downloaded here

The Range States Human-Polar Bear Conflict Working Group has published recommendations of approach to be taken by appropriate authorities in situations when polar bears are dispatched in locations outside of their normal range. Occasionally, some polar bears get transported long distances by ocean currents and sea ice.

The purpose of the recommendation is to give practical information of polar bear sampling to local people and agencies in locations such as Iceland, Newfoundland or other areas outside of their normal habitat.

The position paper can be viewed and downloaded here.

First published March 28,  2022. Latest update April 2024.

This page is intended to be updated annually with new data on these metrics (as part of Action HBC-A5 Report findings on human-bear conflicts which end in injury or death (to bears or humans) annually on the Range State website for each country or subpopulation.)

Polar Bears injured or killed in conflict situations

Action HBC-A3, Establish baseline for bear injuries and deaths using existing data from 2020  was created to establish a baseline number of bears injured and killed due to conflicts with humans in order to gauge progress towards meeting Circumpolar Action Plan (CAP) Objective 5. Although a baseline from before the CAP was implemented in 2015 would be the most informative metric for gauging progress, conflict data was not collected in a consistent way among the Range States, and the baseline metric is therefore set to 2020.

In 2020 there were 58 polar bears killed in response to, or to prevent, conflicts with humans (Table 1). In 2021, this number was 62 bears and 47 bears in 2022 (data from Russia not provided beyond 2020). No polar bear injuries were reported in 2020, 2021, 2022 or 2023. Bears can be legally killed in defense of human life in Norway, the United States, and Russia. However, in Greenland and Canada bears can also be legally killed in defense of property.

April 2022

Introduction

Human-polar bear interactions are becoming more common and frequent across the Arctic. These interactions are linked to expanding human activity including tourism and exploration in the Arctic, and polar bears spending more time on land due to sea ice loss. There is a continued need to address human-polar bear interactions to ensure public safety and minimize polar bear injury or mortality. Deterrence programs and training protocols can provide site- and situation-specific measures to minimize interactions between humans and polar bears.

The information presented below is the output of action HBCIS-2 of the Human-Polar Bear Conflict Working Group.

Purpose

The goal of this resource is to provide information on polar bear deterrence programs and training protocols currently in use across the polar bear RS. Individuals and organizations seeking to implement polar bear deterrence programs in their area can access this resource for information on programs that address their specific needs. For each program/protocol, a brief summary is provided about the program, its history, the number of people trained, and where to find more information.

List of polar bear deterrence programs and protocols: 

Data on human-polar bear conflict has been published on the Polar Bear Range States website. The data icludes information on both polar bears and humans injured or killed in conflict situations:

Polar Bears injured or killed in conflict situations:
The Polar Bear Range States have published the numbers of polar bears killed or injured due to conflicts with humans in 2020. The data from 2020 was collected in a consistent way among the Range States and will set the baseline metrics for future monitoring.

For more information see here


Humans injured or killed by polar bears:
The Polar Bear Range States have published data on the numbers of humans killed or injured by polar bears in 2006-2020. The baseline metrics were establised using the data from 2006-2015 to represent the decade prior to establishment of the Circumpolar Action Plan (CAP).

For more information see here