Polar Bears Moving North

A 10-day polar bear research expedition by the Norwegian Polar Institute has just been completed. Traveling to Svalbard a team of researchers placed twenty satellite collars on female polar bears to track their travels on the peninsula. Males and cubs cannot be included in the study; their heads are smaller than their necks so collars would just slip off. The collars will record temperature, the amount of time and depth that the animals spend in the ocean and exposure to daylight. With this information the researchers will be able to determine how frequently the bears hunt and how long they stay in their dens. This data will help answer the question about how polar bears will respond to less and less sea ice. Global warming has consistently reduced the amount of summer sea ice that the bears use as platforms where they hunt seals and other marine prey. The scientists predict that their findings will indicate that the bears are moving north to colder climes.