A male polar bear walks on the sea ice near glaciers in eastern Spitzbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago. (AFP)
Paris: Their icy hunting grounds are rapidly shrinking, but polar bears in Norway’s remote Svalbard archipelago have defied the odds by bulking up instead of wasting away, a study said yesterday.
The Barents Sea has lost sea ice faster than other areas with polar bears as temperatures have risen there more than in other Arctic regions, according to the research published in the journal Scientific Reports.
But instead of growing leaner like polar bears in other parts of the Arctic where the sea ice where they hunt is retreating, those in Svalbard have gained body fat.
“The increase in body condition during a period of significant loss of sea ice was a surprise,” Jon Aars, the study’s lead author and a scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), told AFP.
Polar bears in Svalbard have become plumper by feasting on land-based prey such as reindeer and walruses species that have recovered after being over-exploited by humans, the study said.
Warmer temperatures have also made it easier for them to hunt ringed seals that now crowd in smaller sea ice areas.
