Grizzly and black bears digested 89–96% of crude protein in the meat from various mammals and birds (Pritchard and Robbins, 1990), whereas the digestibility of crude protein for bears fed whole birds or mammals was less (85.5 ± 2.2%) because of the non-digestible or less digestible parts (e.g. feathers, hair, skeleton; Pritchard and Robbins, 1990; Robbins, 1993). Likewise, captive polar bears fed various parts of ringed seals (Phoca hispida) digested 72–95% of protein nitrogen, with the highest digestibility occurring when polar bears ate seal muscle and viscera and the lowest digestibility when the skeleton, skin and blubber were also eaten (Best, 1985). We assumed that polar bears digested 95% of protein when eating only the gizzard, leg and breast muscle of the goose; digestibility of protein would be much lower (72–85%) if polar bears also ingested other less digestible parts of the whole goose. We present results for the most likely scenario, where polar bears ate the gizzard, leg and breast muscle of the goose and thus gained 667.4 kcal per goose (total of 702.5 kcal, of which 95% was digested).