How do polar bears use sea ice to journey?

Are bears truly following these optimum paths? This query is surprisingly troublesome to reply, resulting from one of many limitations of telemetry knowledge: its time decision. Telemetry knowledge sometimes picks up the situation of collared bears each couple of hours. This signifies that whereas scientists know the start line and ending level of a polar bear’s motion over that interval, they don’t know the precise route they’ve taken. Ongoing analysis goals to bridge this hole, utilizing drones to hint polar bear tracks. This will enable us new insights into their step-by-step actions throughout variable ice and snow circumstances.

A sophisticated path

While a polar bear’s path on a map might appear like a easy line connecting one location to the following, in actuality, each step is formed by a transferring panorama. Bears journey throughout sea ice that drifts with winds and currents, navigate round fractures and open water, reply to altering prey alternatives, and make motion choices that scientists are nonetheless working to know. The tracks displayed on the Polar Bear Tracker symbolize rather more than a journey from level A to level B: they’re the results of a polar bear navigating one of the dynamic environments on the planet.

Citations

Griffen, B. D. (2018). Modeling the metabolic prices of swimming in polar bears (Ursus maritimus). Polar Biology, 41(3), 491–503.

Klappstein, N., Togunov, R., Reimer, J., Lunn, N., & Derocher, A. (2020). Patterns of sea ice drift and polar bear (Ursus maritimus) motion in Hudson Bay. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 641, 227–240.

Lone, Ok., Merkel, B., Lydersen, C., Kovacs, Ok. M., & Aars, J. (2018). Sea ice useful resource choice fashions for polar bears within the Barents Sea subpopulation. Ecography, 41(4), 567–578.

McCall, A. G., Pilfold, N. W., Derocher, A. E., & Lunn, N. J. (2016). Seasonal habitat choice by grownup feminine polar bears in western Hudson Bay. Population Ecology, 58(3), 407–419.

Togunov, R. R., Derocher, A. E., & Lunn, N. J. (2017). Windscapes and olfactory foraging in a big carnivore. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 46332.