Showing posts with label Subspecies and populations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Subspecies and populations. Show all posts

Saturday, March 10, 2007

EVOLUTION: Subspecies and populations

Many sources list no polar bear subspecies, while others list two - Ursus maritimus maritimus and Ursus maritimus marinus. The number of populations varies depending upon who is counting. The IUCN/SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG), the pre-eminent international scientific body for research and management of polar bears, recognizes twenty populations, or stocks, worldwide. Other scientists recognize six distinct populations.

Canadian Arctic archipelago

Greenland

Spitzbergen-Franz Josef Land

Central Siberia