A study of an Alaska polar bear population in summer concludes the bear’s biology will not help stave off starvation in the face of global warming.
The study of southern Beaufort Sea polar bears by university, federal and private researchers over three years concluded they have no special ability to minimize energy loss during increasing periods of fasting brought on by climate warming, less sea ice and fewer hunting days.
The research rejects the idea that polar bears can avoid harmful declines in body condition in a sort of “walking hibernation,” as suggested by research conducted in the 1970s.
Report co-author Steve Amstrup, a retired US Geological Survey polar bear researcher now affiliated with Montana-based Polar Bears International, said the “walking hibernation” theory arose with observations of bears at Canada’s Hudson Bay.
The paper, published on Thursday in the journal Science, instead concludes that polar bears have no such ability to conserve energy and react like all other mammals when faced with limited food.
Fasting is a way of life for many animals. For polar bears, fasting can last eight months.
Their main prey is ringed seals. Hunting is most successful from April to July, when seals use sea ice for rearing pups and molting.
In months following, ringed seals spend most of their time in water. Some polar bears retreat to land, where feeding opportunities are limited, or stay on sea ice that in recent years has retreated far north of the shallow, biologically abundant outer-continental shelf.
Using helicopters launched from a US Coast Guard icebreaker, researchers sampled bears on summer sea ice.
The study found that activity and temperature patterns recorded for polar bears in summer were not comparable to patterns for hibernating bears in winter dens. The patterns were typical of food-deprived mammals, rather than hibernating mammals, Amstrup said.
Additional studies are coming out, but scientists say it is already clear what needs to be done.
“We already know the answer to the question: ‘What do we need to do to save polar bears from extinction?’” Amstrup said. “All of the studies in the world won’t help us there. If we don’t deal with greenhouse gas emissions, those of us who have been studying polar bears for our whole lives will be nothing more than polar bear historians.”
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