A new bear population has been identified in Greenland. They live in an atypical habitat that offers a new perspective on how these species adapt to climate change.
These polar bears were well hidden in a remote region of Greenland. The paper, published in Science on June 17, 2022, reports on their amazing discovery. This new population, until then very secretive, becomes the twenty referenced in the Arctic. “This is the most genetically isolated population of polar bears on the planet,” the authors say.
Scientists used to think that there was only one population in the area. More advanced genetic analysis, as well as observing the number of individuals and their distribution, have just shown that a particular group stands out in an atypical ecosystem and constitutes a true population. It would be around 300 people.
Hey you ! (a polar bear belonging to the newly discovered population) // Source: Kristin Laidre/University of Washington
The least likely thing is not so much the discovery of a new population as where these popular bears live. They live on steep coastal slopes surrounding fjords (flooded glacial valleys, between a glacier and the ocean). Even more amazing, for most of the year there is no pack ice for the bears to hunt on.
A new hope
Discovering this population and its habitat is important. And this is not due to the lack of their usual hunting ground, but on the contrary, because the population manages to survive in other ways, despite these effects of climate change.
The ecosystem in which this population was discovered. // Source: Kristin Laidre/University of Washington
Typically, polar bears in the Arctic rely on sea ice to hunt fish and seals, using the sea ice as a platform. If this pack ice melts, they lose their main food. Summer has always melted, but global warming is extending the time that sea ice is almost non-existent.
Apart from the fact that the newly discovered population can hunt all year round without this pack ice thanks to the resources offered by the atypical ecosystem of this valley (mixture of glacial and fresh water). These types of inland glaciers that flow into the ocean could therefore serve as “climate sanctuaries,” not least because polar bears are classified as “vulnerable.”
As the authors write in the part of the study titled “A New Hope” that “the discovery of this population suggests both that such environments may serve as refuges for polar bears and that the conservation of this new population is essential.” “. Unfortunately, this configuration remains relatively unique at the moment. Thus, the melting of sea ice caused by climate change remains a threat to the entire species.
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