Polar bears heading to Arctic islands for more food, new research suggests

This diagram from a new research paper on polar bears shows how the animals are moving according to a genetic analysis of various polar bear samples.

Polar bears appear to be on the move, heading to Canada’s Arctic islands — that’s what Inuit hunters in Nunavut have been saying — and what the observations of people in many Nunavut communities also support.

Now a new research paper, published Jan. 6 in the online journal Plos One, whose authors include former Government of Nunavut polar bear biologist Elizabeth Peacock, provides genetic evidence that also points to movement by polar bears to the Arctic islands, where the polar bears can find better seal-hunting conditions.

The paper’s authors say there should be “more research, monitoring and proactive conservation in this region” due to the “novel and recent gene flow towards the Canadian Archipelago.”

For their research paper, called “Implications of the Circumpolar Genetic Structure of Polar Bears for Their Conservation in a Rapidly Warming Arctic,” Peacock and other scientists analyzed DNA from 2,748 polar bear samples as well as other samples and materials from 18 of the 19 recognized sub-populations of polar bears used in polar bear management around the circumpolar world.

The research goal: to evaluate polar bear genetic changes over the past 20 years.

The analyses find there’s been a genetic flow of polar bear groups from southern Canada and the eastern polar basin towards the Canadian islands within the past one to three generations.

Previous research has suggested the Arctic islands area could become a future refugium — that is, a safe place — for polar bears as climate-induced environmental changes continue, although other studies have said warming Arctic conditions may become “critical” for polar bears by the end of this century, meaning favourable, year-round polar bear habitat may be gone by 2100, even in the High Arctic.

Researchers have also predicted the High Arctic islands could become more productive habitat for polar bears. That’s because annual ice over shallow waters, which provides better conditions for seal prey, will replace thick, multi-year — and less productive — ice habitat.

And, as a result, researchers have also predicted a northerly shift in polar bears.

“Our empirical gene flow data support this prediction,” says the research.

Funding for collection and analysis of new samples was provided by the United States Geological Survey’s Changing Arctic Ecosystem Initiative and various agencies including the GN, the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, Makivik Corp., the Polar Continental Shelf Program, the World Wildlife Fund, and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.