Scientists have discovered a hidden population of polar bears in Greenland in a habitat that’s almost impossible for them to survive, according to a report by LiveScience.
Kristin Laidre/ University of Washington
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The habitat lacks floating platforms of sea ice that is needed for the bears to hunt. The group that scientists earlier thought was a part of another population has been hiding in plain sight for hundreds of years now.
The bears were spotted to be living on the steep slopes around fjords — essentially long, narrow coastal inlets where glaciers merge with oceans. They were found to be hunting on a section of glacial ice that disintegrates in the inlets. The discovery hints at the fact that some polar bears could be able to adapt to the sea ice disappearing with the climate change getting worse with each passing year.
Researchers looked at 36 years worth of tracking data from bears tagged with GPS collars and found that bears from southeast Greenland didn’t pass over a latitude of 54 degrees north.
Similarly, bears from the northeast didn’t pass the same line in the opposite direction. Based on genetic sampling from individual bears, they found that southeastern bears were different from the ones in the northeast. They regarded the polar bears in the southeast of Greenland as the world’s 20th polar bear subpopulation.
This novel subpopulation has around 300 polar bears, and the group is by far the most genetically diverse among the rest. Based on genetic comparisons, researchers have found that the bears have actually been isolated from northeastern populations for over 200 years.
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Research has revealed that the bears have adapted splendidly to hunt near the fjord and maybe other populations could also follow this trend if ice conditions further deteriorate. They also found similar such spots in northern Greenland and Svalbard, however, researchers warn that it might not be possible for the majority of bears to move to these spots.
They state in the study, “Loss of Arctic sea ice is still the primary threat to all polar bears. This study does not change that,” while warning that sea ice will keep declining across the Arctic, reducing the odds of survival for most polar bears.
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