Fitting the von Bertalanffy growth equation to polar bear age–weight data
- 1 May 1979
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Canadian Science Publishing in Canadian Journal of Zoology
- Vol. 57 (5), 1020-1025
- https://doi.org/10.1139/z79-130
Abstract
Heavy sea ice in the Canadian Arctic in the winter of 1973–1974 reduced seal populations; polar bears, preying principally on seals, consequently lost weight. The nature and degree of this weight loss was investigated by examining the parameters of von Bertalanffy growth curves, fitted by direct minimization of a sum of squares using the simplex algorithm of Nelder and Mead. Growth rates were lower for both males and females tagged in 1974–1975 than for bears tagged in 1971–1973. Weights of mature bears were unaffected.This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Distribution and Abundance of Seals in the Eastern Beaufort SeaJournal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 1977
- A Method of Fitting Growth Curves of the von Bertalanffy Type to Observed DataJournal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 1966