Huh, weird (and interesting). Thanks for the post.
Posted by Scott Buckel on May 12, 2006 at 10:36 AM
Kind of unusual. Thanks for sending us the link.
Having talked to several reserachers that study polar bears this seems very strange, but it may help save the species. The climatic change is definitely effected the polar bear population.
To further confuse the issue, the brown bears on an isolated corner of Kodiak (SE) have been found via DNA testing to be different than all the others, and in fact fairly closely related to polar bears. It all started because the bears in that region are unusually aggressive and the biologists were asking "howcum?" There's also a documented account of a polar bear showing up on Kodiak around 50 years ago. By the same token, BB's are regularly seen happily swimming the 20+ miles between Kodiak and the Alaska Peninsula.
Shake it all in a bag, and this point comes through: Bears are extremely mobile and great swimmers under any circumstances. Given a good reason, they think nothing of covering great distances.
Discussion
4 replieshttp://msnbc.msn.com/id/12738644/?GT1=8199
Looks like the polar bear may be looking for different habitat due to climate change as well as mates.
Robbie George
Having talked to several reserachers that study polar bears this seems very strange, but it may help save the species. The climatic change is definitely effected the polar bear population.
Shake it all in a bag, and this point comes through: Bears are extremely mobile and great swimmers under any circumstances. Given a good reason, they think nothing of covering great distances.