Wildlife

Secret population of polar bears found living in seemingly impossible habitat

A secret population of polar bears in Greenland has been discovered in a seemingly impossible habitat — one that, for most of the year, lacks the floating platforms of sea ice the beasts use to hunt. The unusual group, which scientists previously thought was part of another nearby population, has been hiding in plain sight for hundreds of years.

The bears live on the steep slopes around fjords — long and narrow coastal inlets, where glaciers meet the ocean — and hunt on a patchwork of glacial ice that breaks up in these inlets. The new discovery suggests that some polar bears, at least, may be able to adapt to sea ice disappearing as climate change worsens, the study suggests.

Glacier ice may help small numbers of polar bears survive for longer periods under climate warming, but it is not available for the vast majority of polar bears. This is because this type of glacier ice is only found near a small fraction of other polar bear populations.

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