Is it a... fish? Is it a Submarine?...No, it’s a Polar Bear

It seems Polar bears have been having a bit of a rough ride of late. This whole global warming business, and the resulting thinning and breaking up of Arctic sea ice in recent years, has meant that the Yogi Bear’s cousins’ natural habitat has been decreasing rapidly. Polar bears are naturally found on the sea-ice edge, hunting seals and other things that hang out on the sea-ice edge. However, over the past ten years, whilst the Arctic sea ice has been disappearing like an ice cube in a glass of warm Coke, Polar bears have been finding it more and more difficult to firstly hunt, since their natural hunting habitat, the sea-ice edge, is in decline, and secondly, to get to places where they can hunt, because these places are now few and far between and usually have a lot of sea in between them. According to one study of a group of polar bears in the Western Hudson Bay area of Canada, between 1987 and 2004 its population declined by 22%. Polar bears are having trouble finding food, but also getting to places where food might be found, and this is resulting in hungry polar bears in poor health having to swim long distances in order to find food and survive.

Polar bears are one of nature’s better swimmers, considering they are bears, and big hulking flabby heavily furred ones at that. Considering the environment they have evolved and adapted to, they have to be. However, they are still big hulking flabby heavily furred bears, and add hunger and poor health into this mix and it’s easy to see how swimming long distances could become a problem. But this problem is getting worse. As the Arctic sea ice continues on its current thinning trend, the more the polar bear’s natural hunting habitat becomes few and far between.

Yet Yogi Bear’s cousins appear to have a trick up their sleeve. A study conducted in Greenland, published last week, has dared to suggest that all is not lost. This study, which observed a group of polar bears on the North Greenland ice sheet, has revealed an amazing development in polar bear anatomy – webbed feet. The study suggests that this is probably a new and recent mutation, as the incidence of webbed feet in the population of bears studied was 17%, with a high proportion of these (11%) being in animals under the age of 6 years. Professor Ike Bergmann of the Greenland Arctic Research centre, who was part of the scientific team conducting the study, has said that the discovery of webbed feet in a young group of polar bears, given the context of global warming, was nothing less than “Evolution in action...animals adapting to the conditions of their habitat, fighting for survival, before our very eyes”. Although it is still not known exactly how much of an advantage webbed feet will be to hungry polar bears who have to swim long distances to hunt, it’s certainly an evolutionary step in the right direction, as webbed feet would, theoretically, allow polar bears to use up less energy when swimming, which would in turn allow them to firstly conserve more energy for hunting and secondly swim longer distances on fewer calories. I guess it would be like buying a more fuel efficient car; suddenly, you find you’re spending a lot less on petrol, meaning you can spend money on other things instead. Darwinism in action, ladies and gentlemen.

It’s not good news for every species in Greenland though. A company called Noah’s Arks, based in the Greenland capital of Nuuk, has in recent years been busy developing inflatable life-belts and arm bands designed specifically for polar bears, in a range of grey/white colours so as to blend in with both the polar bear’s fur and their natural surroundings. Perhaps a little too premature, you say? Recently, there has been a rash of high-tech solutions to various problems cropping up due to global warming. I’ve gone on about the uselessness of certain “eco-gadgets” on here before. Life-belts for polar bears is, however, the most hats-off-to-the-eco-nutter-who-invented-this, out of this world, loony idea I have heard of in perhaps forever. First prize for imagination anyway. On that note, let me simply say that it seems survival of the fittest may be about to change into survival of the most buoyant. Or perhaps Mother Nature will prevail and we’ll all be able to swim a lot better in the near future. Life seems to have found a way for Polar bears....why not us?

Xx

p.s. Take the first letter of the first word of each complete sentence of the last paragraph to see what they spell out (except the first sentence)

p.p.s. Sorry couldn’t resist.....