{"id":293513,"date":"2024-01-02T15:56:36","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T14:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=293513"},"modified":"2024-01-02T15:56:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T14:56:39","slug":"the-narrative-that-polar-bears-need-sea-ice-to-catch-prey-has-collapsed-as-more-evidence-piles-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=293513","title":{"rendered":"The Narrative That Polar Bears Need Sea Ice To Catch Prey Has Collapsed As More Evidence Piles Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From NoTricksZone<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Kenneth Richard<\/a> on 1. January 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arctic regions with 6+ months of sea ice coverage today were ice-free nearly year-round 9,000 to 5,000 years ago (2\u00b0C warmer) and 130,000 to 115,000 years ago (7-8\u00b0C warmer). And yet polar bears survived these periods.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Per a new study<\/a><\/strong>, today\u2019s Scandinavian Arctic climate is so cold it is actually \u201ccomparable\u201d to that of the late last glacial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026the occurrence of the polar bear as far south as 56\u00b0N during the Late Glacial in Scandinavia, when climate there was comparable to with modern low [temperature] Arctic climate.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But during the early Holocene, when it was so warm that boreal forests expanded northward to Arctic regions that are today too cold to support anything other than tundra, there was also little to no sea ice \u2013 even in winter \u2013 in regions that are today covered in sea ice throughout the autumn, winter, and spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost sites in the Bering Sea, particularly the western and southern portions of the basin, contain no evidence of sea ice during most of the Holocene.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists are increasingly admitting polar bears may not need to rely on sea ice to hunt prey, as polar bear remains can be found in regions that had little to no sea ice just a few millennia ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe findings from St. Paul and Unalaska islands are remarkable because they represent the southernmost polar bear presence in the Holocene and date to the Middle Holocene, when climate was generally warmer than today and sea ice in the Bering Sea was only present in winter, if at all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026polar bears living on the St. Paul Island and Unalaska may not have relied only on the presence of sea ice for hunting\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026terrestrial-based hunting and foraging have been observed in several polar bear populations around the Arctic at present.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polar bears not only survived without sea ice during the warmer Early to Middle Holocene, but also 130,000 to 115,000 years ago, when the Arctic temperatures were \u201cup to 7-8\u00b0C above present.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Source:\u00a0Sepp\u00e4 et al., 2023<\/a><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This study again exposes the falsity of the alarmist narrative that says polar bears are threatened by sea ice losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 2022\u00a0study<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0assessed the body condition of polar bears in the Gulf of Boothia \u2013 an immense 67,000 km\u00b2 study region in Canada \u2013 and found they have vastly improved in the last decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent thinning ice in this region seems to have \u201cfacilitated a short-term boost in hunting opportunities for bears,\u201d and declining ice thickness and extent \u201cmay be partly responsible for the observed improvement in body condition of GB bears.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The subpopulation of polar bears in this region is considered \u201cstable to likely increasing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image Source:\u00a0Dyck et al., 2022<\/a><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the native Inuit populations have been monitoring and hunting these bears for millennia and they actually observe the exact opposite of what we\u2019ve been told by well-funded scientists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wong (2021)<\/a><\/strong> used interviews with Inuit to access the ecological knowledge of these less-sophisticated polar bear experts. The local populations report polar bears readily adapt to their surroundings and climate, and thus they routinely catch seals in open waters. They do not require sea ice to access prey. Their best body condition (\u201cfat\u201d) is in summer, or when sea ice is thinnest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The polar bear populations used to be \u201cscarce\u201d in the 1960s and 1970s. People living in the Gulf of Boothia region could go an entire year without seeing even one. Today polar bear populations are growing so rapidly in the Gulf of Boothia that Inuit report humans \u2013 especially unarmed children \u2013 are in danger. Bears can be seen \u201ceverywhere,\u201d and safety has become a grave local concern. The Inuit cannot sleep without fear polar bears will enter their cabins and attack their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Inuit \u201cdon\u2019t have a concern\u201d about polar bears handling changes in sea ice extent, or adapting to nearly any environment. They don\u2019t believe the made-up claims about polar bears going extinct due to sea ice decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image Source:\u00a0Wong, 2021<\/a><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arctic regions with 6+ months of sea ice coverage today were ice-free nearly year-round 9,000 to 5,000 years ago (2\u00b0C warmer) and 130,000 to 115,000 years ago (7-8\u00b0C warmer). And yet polar bears survived these periods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":293524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Arctic regions with 6+ months of sea ice coverage today were ice-free nearly year-round 9,000 to 5,000 years ago (2\u00b0C warmer) and 130,000 to 115,000 years ago (7-8\u00b0C warmer). And yet polar bears survived these periods.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818605,691825896,691818192,691818251,691819701,691818895,691825894,691825895],"class_list":{"0":"post-293513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-arctic","9":"tag-gulf-of-boothia","10":"tag-holocene","11":"tag-polar-bears","12":"tag-scandinavia","13":"tag-sea-ice","14":"tag-st-paul-island","15":"tag-unalaska","17":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-50.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1em5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":217498,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=217498","url_meta":{"origin":293513,"position":0},"title":"Polar Opposite: Polar Bears Require Thin Ice or Open Water to Survive","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/06\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"During the Early Holocene CO2 concentrations ranged between 255 to 265 ppm, and yet the Arctic was 5-7\u00b0C warmer than it is today and many regions that are now sea ice-covered were sea ice-free.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-294.png?fit=1200%2C781&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-294.png?fit=1200%2C781&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-294.png?fit=1200%2C781&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-294.png?fit=1200%2C781&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-294.png?fit=1200%2C781&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":262450,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=262450","url_meta":{"origin":293513,"position":1},"title":"New evidence that polar bears survived 1,600 years of ice-free summers in the early Holocene","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/16\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"New evidence\u00a0indicates that Arctic areas with the thickest ice today probably melted out every year during the summer for about 1,600 years during the early Holocene (ca. 11.3-9.7k years ago), making the Arctic virtually ice-free. As I argue in\u00a0my new book, this means that polar bears and other Arctic species\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"early Holocene\"","block_context":{"text":"early Holocene","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=early-holocene"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-polar-bear.jpeg?fit=1200%2C806&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-polar-bear.jpeg?fit=1200%2C806&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-polar-bear.jpeg?fit=1200%2C806&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-polar-bear.jpeg?fit=1200%2C806&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-polar-bear.jpeg?fit=1200%2C806&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 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