Lots of bears have been found in the southeastern part of Greenland1, which has no ice at sea most of the year. White bears (Ursusmaritimus) usually need sea ice to survive, so the discovery raises hope that some species may survive the loss of ice caused by climate change.Researchers have identified small genetically modified populations living in the southeastern part of Greenland, surrounded by mountains and snow on the west, and the sea on the east. Because the region is so far south, sea cover covers about 100 days each year.
White bears need to reach the Arctic ice to hunt seals. Thus, as sea ice declines due to global warming, these animals are expected to become extinct by the end of this century.But an isolated sub-population has found a way to hunt off the sea ice. The group, which includes 27 adult women, has become accustomed to hunting on ice that has cleared glaciers – called glacial mélange. A team of researchers used genetic analysis to determine if the human population had been isolated from other polar bears near the eastern coast of Greenland for at least 200 years.
Tracking data on tagged bears ensures they do not go too far. For example, when the team members came out of the river, the ice caps they were sitting on were sometimes caught by a stream along the east coast of Greenland. Whenever this happened, “they were trapped on the shoreline and literally jumped off the beach,” and swam to shore and returned home, said lead author Kristin Laidre, a zoologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.The presence of this small number under low sea ice conditions raises the possibility that these animals can survive, as sea ice recedes northward year after year. Says Laidre: “This small, genetically diverse group of bears can give us some insight into how bears in the northern hemisphere can survive in the frozen Arctic. Source Journal Reference: Bianca Nogrady, Polar bear population discovered that can survive without sea ice, Nature News (2022), https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01691-2
