Isolated Greenland Polar Bear Population Adapts To Climate Change

A southeast Greenland polar bear on glacier, or freshwater, ice is seen in this handout photograph taken in September 2016. An isolated population of polar bears in Greenland has made a clever adaptation to the decline in the sea ice they depend upon as a platform for hunting seals, offering a ray of hope for this species in at least some locales in the warming Arctic. Thomas W. Johansen/NASA Oceans Melting Greenland/Handout via REUTERS

18 Juni 2022 00:00 WIB

An adult female polar bear (L) and a pair of 1-year-old cubs walk over a snow-covered freshwater glacier ice in Southeast Greenland in this handout photograph taken in March 2015. They were found to be the world's most genetically isolated polar bears, distinct from the species' 19 other known populations. They have been almost entirely cut off from other polar bears for at least several hundred years, with no evidence of any leaving, though some evidence of an occasional arrival from elsewhere. Kristin Laidre/University of Washington/Handout via REUTERS

18 Juni 2022 00:00 WIB

Three adult polar bears in southeast Greenland using the sea ice during the limited time when it is available in this region in this handout photograph taken in April 2015. These bears are "living at the edge of what we believe to be physiologically possible," said evolutionary molecular biologist and study co-author Beth Shapiro of the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Kristin Laidre/University of Washington/Handout via REUTERS

18 Juni 2022 00:00 WIB

A polar bear family group, consisting of an adult female and two cubs, crosses glacier ice in Southeast Greenland in this handout photograph taken in September 2016. NASA OMG/Handout via REUTERS

18 Juni 2022 00:00 WIB

A fjord in southeast Greenland, shown with a marine-terminating glacier in the distance, is filled with open water in this handout photograph taken in April 2016. The southeast Greenland coast can be ice-free for more than 250 days per year, much longer than polar bears are thought to be able to survive without hunting. Kristin Laidre/University of Washington/Handout via REUTERS

18 Juni 2022 00:00 WIB