Patterns and temporal trends in canine breakage and scarring in Western Hudson Bay polar bears (Ursus maritimus)

TL;DR

The study examines changes in canine breakage and scarring in Western Hudson Bay polar bears over time, finding age- and sex-related patterns and some evidence of temporal changes.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into how polar bear canine injuries have changed over decades, potentially reflecting shifts in mating behavior and population structure.

Findings

Canine breakage and scarring increased with age in both male and female polar bears.

Males had higher levels of canine breakage and scarring compared to females.

There was some evidence of increasing canine breakage over time, possibly linked to changes in mating interactions.

Abstract

Canines are used by carnivores for prey capture and social interactions but are often damaged. The highly carnivorous polar bear (Ursus maritimus) has a female defence polygyny mating system where males compete for access to females and injuries to males, such as broken canines and cuts, are common. The Western Hudson Bay polar bear subpopulation has declined in abundance in recent decades and shifted from a female-biased to a male-biased adult sex ratio, which may have affected their mating system. We hypothesize that if changes in subpopulation structure have affected the mating system, then canine breakage and scarring may have changed over time. We assessed age- and sex-specific occurrences of canine breakage and scarring in 3493 individuals between 1981-2023 using non-parametric statistical analyses and linear mixed effect models. We found age- and sex-related differences in mean values of breakage and scarring. These injury occurrences increased with age in both sexes and males had greater amounts of both breakage and scarring compared to females. As the only main effect, sampling year was significant and indicated increasing breakage in both sexes over time; however, the top breakage model did not include year, indicating it was not as strong a predictor of breakage and scarring as age or sex. Age, sex, and year were all in the top model for predicting maximum scarring probabilities. We found some evidence that injuries changed over time, suggesting there could be changes to intraspecific interactions, but additional monitoring is needed.

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