Polar Bears and Ice
It’s complicated
The money shot of climate change is without doubt that of a polar bear stranded on a tiny island of ice, seemingly hopelessly adrift while the world around melts into oblivion. But as the month of May arrives and the northern spring starts to break up the frozen Arctic Ocean after the world’s warmest winter on record, I’m reminded of a trip I took a few years back to Svalbard Island where I came to understand that this iconic image tells a very different story about the way bears live.
In fact, if everything is going right with climate and bear habitat, polar bears want to be floating on ice. Fast ice, that is ice that fringes the edge of dry land on one side and more permanent sea ice on the other is prime hunting ground of the polar bear. It’s very movement and permeability is a way for this energy intensive animal to conserve its fuel while searching for its next meal.
The seal-on-ice hunting strategy can be pretty successful but once a seal has been eaten or spooked from its hole, the bear has to move on to a new one. That’s where the ice becomes essential.
That next meal is more often than not a seal, a ringed seal perhaps or a harp or a bearded. Seals spend about 80% of…
