Imagine you are walking through the depth of the cold in Antarctica, where big, tall, white mountains covered in snow are surrounding you. You’re walking on solid ice and hear crackling sounds beneath your feet. You look up to feel the grazing sun hit your face and there lies a polar bear sitting on a floating patch of ice. Climate change is right in front of you and is warming up our glaciers! These polar bear’s homes are disappearing and they have to find a way to survive. So what are they doing now?
With the environment constantly changing over time due to increasing temperatures, polar bears have had to adjust and change their behavior to increase their survival. As temperatures rise, ice begins to melt at a rapid rate and the polar bears spend more time on land. They usually follow the sea ice during seasonal changes and retreat north to offshore zones and places where seal hunting is possible, including a shore near Svalbard. Before increasing temperatures, Svalbard was connected to the sea ice all year long. However, open water has divided the archipelago from the ice edge. Over the last three decades, the north edge is now located much farther north, causing polar bears to travel farther for food. The Barents Sea has encountered the greatest decline in sea ice in the Arctic. It has been documented that polar bears have been swimming between Svalbard and the ice edge (several day journey). Longer swims have been correlated with reduced sea ice.
In the southern Beaufort Sea, polar bears have been reported to cover 700 km over nine days. That is like walking 2,000 laps around a soccer field! This is an extraordinary distance which is very costly and uses a lot of energy. Therefore, with an immense amount of documentation, polar bears travel longer distances at a greater cost in exchange for food and colder climates while spending more time on land as a result of less sea ice.
Aars, J. (2021). Polar Bear Behavior in Response to Climate Change. In: Davis, R.W., Pagano, A.M. (eds) Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of Sea Otters and Polar Bears. Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of Marine Mammals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66796-2_16
