“We were finding that sea ice rarely existed more than four months out of the year-in some fjords in some years, even much less than that,” Moon said.Īccording to the samples collected and sequenced, the bears are genetically quite different from others in the same species. They likely walk on glacial ice that flows into the fjords and travel up the mountains to reach other fjords in search of food, often seals. However, movement data suggests that the bears display some different behaviors from their kin. The region only sees sea ice between February and May. Most polar bears make use of sea ice to hunt, but this is a limited option for the southeast Greenland bears. The region is surrounded by mountains, by the Greenland Ice Sheet, and by the Denmark Straight. These difficulties also likely explain why the bears are isolated. This is because of its rough, mountainous terrain and unforgiving weather, which includes heavy snowfall. The southeast of Greenland is quite poorly studied. This is a very remote area that requires difficult, time-consuming, challenging conditions for field work.” Estranged

“There’s a really large collection of data here,” Twila Moon, co-author of the paper and deputy lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, told Ars. They also used fieldwork, satellite data-which also allowed them to study the geographical and sea ice conditions of the region-and tracking collars to get a sense of the bears’ movements. For the new data, the team connected with local hunters and used tissue samples taken from the hunters’ kills to sequence the bears' genomes. The research team used seven years of data collected in the region, along with 30 years of historic data. According to the World Wildlife Fund, between 22,000 and 31,000 polar bears are left in the world. This is unlike most other populations of polar bears, which require sea ice for hunting. For much of the year, they survive by hunting from ice that falls into the ocean after breaking off a Greenland glacier the ice floats in the fjords these bears call home. Several things set this group of bears apart. Beyond the novelty these animals represent, they could also help inform scientists about how more traditional bears will fare in a warming Arctic, according to new research. This population has developed distinct habits to survive in its odd-as far as polar bears are concerned-habitat, and the bears' genomes are quite different from many of their kin.

In the southeast corner of Greenland, scientists have discovered an unexpected population of polar bears.

Ocean Snow by Doug Johnson