North Slope grizzly bears are smaller and less numerous than the region's polar bears, but when it comes to getting access to the bowhead whale scraps left by Inupiat hunters on a beach outside of the village of Kaktovik, the grizzlies are "socially dominant," a newly published study says.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists came to that conclusion after watching nighttime bear behavior at the "bone pile" in fall seasons from 2005 to 2007. The biologists set up a spotlight, sat in nearby vehicles and armed themselves with video cameras. They documented 137 encounters between polar bears and grizzly bears and found that polar bears reacted submissively to the grizzlies and almost always tried to avoid them.
They published their study in the Journal of Mammology earlier this year.
Though the formal documentation of the interactions ended in 2007, the grizzly-polar behavior continues to follow the pattern, biologists say. When grizzlies come on the bone-pile scene, the polar bears tend to depart.
Read more: At North Slope bone pile, small grizzlies dominate bigger polar bears
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