Well fed in a rapidly changing home

Polar bear (Ursus maritimus)

A week ago a video by photographer Paul Nicklen of an emaciated polar bear (https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/polar-bear-starving-arctic-sea-ice-melt-climate-change-spd/) went viral, and tears were rolling as we watched how it was barely able to walk and in desperation chewing on some human garbage with zero value to it.

I have watched stranded polar bears eat sea weed off the beaches on the northern shores of Svalbard. During this trip I also encountered an emaciated polar bear lying down on the only snow on the islet that had appeared as the ice cap of Kvitøya (White Island) has retreated considerably. This despite the islet being home to a large colony of terns. Its coat was matte, uneven and its body skinny and it acted lethargic. It did not have any energy to stand up or to follow us by sight or movement – it only occasionally opened its eyes which was resting on its front paws.

Every year the sea ice has retreated further away, and this time we found it 81.31 degrees north. South of it only sporadic floats and ice bergs were found. Those polar bears stranded were all scouring the land, and those with luck would encounter incubating geese, or a sea bird colony with access to nests. I’ve seen polar bears climb to ledges even I would not have considered accessible.

For now the polar bears are decimating the reproduction of the bird populations they raid, but the energy they gain form their raids is far too little, and eventually the stranded bears will not be able to survive.

I have also encountered polar bears swimming far out at sea where the nearest access to a shore is a day or more away by boat – like Austfonna – Europes largest ice cap by area. How they survive is beyond me.

It is such joy every time we encounter successful individuals, and especially a mother with a cub as seen here at 81.31 degrees north. It was a large male that had made the kill, and he was eating all he could manage and rested in intervals a bit away from the seal carcass. Each time the mother went in with her cub to eat as fast as they could before the male came back for more.

This went on until there was nothing more to eat and the mother decided to investigate the ship from where this is shot.

As the ocean itself is warming, the ice is melted from the underside, so how long will the lucky polar bears that stay on the sea ice have any ice left to carry them? And what about the seal populations dependent on the sea ice?

I fear this lovely capture is fast becoming a rare sight even around Svalbard, and that the ships travelling in these waters might need to go much further north to reach the sea ice.

Image Copyright © 2017 +Morten Ross
Image Capture Date: 27 July 2016 13:10
Altitude: 3 meters

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