A newly discovered population of polar bears uses freshwater ice flowing from glaciers for hunting grounds in the warming Arctic.
Warming temperatures are causing sea ice, which polar bears depend upon for survival, to diminish. However, the hardy Southeast Greenland bears use freshwater ice from coastal glaciers as platforms from which to hunt seals year-round. These glaciers may create previously unrecognized “climate refugia” for polar bears, the researchers wrote.
She and her collaborators identified the unique group while surveying polar bears along Greenland’s east coast, which is about 1,800 miles long. The team drew upon more than three decades of data from captured polar bears and samples collected from subsistence hunters. The researchers tracked the movements of bears wearing GPS collars as well as analyzing DNA and observing the demographics of polar bears in the region.
Elsewhere in the Arctic, polar bears move to land or head northward when sea ice recedes during the warmer months. But the freshwater ice flowing into the sea from the Greenland Ice Sheet, known as glacial mélange, allowed the Southeast Greenland bears to stay put and capture prey throughout the year.
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