Secret Polar Bear Population Is Found Living in a Seemingly Impossible Habitat

For most of the year, there is no floating platforms of sea ice in the area where a secret population of polar bears is found. The group has been hiding in plain sight for hundreds of years.

The bears live on the steep slopes of the fjords and hunt on a patchwork of glaciers that break up in the inlets. The study suggests that some polar bears may be able to adapt to the loss of sea ice.

That isn't a silver bullet for the species.

According to the lead researcher,Glacier ice may help small numbers of polar bears survive, but it is not available for the vast majority of polar bears. Only a small portion of other polar bear populations have this type of glacier ice.

Scientists have known for a long time that there are 19 known polar bear subpopulations. There is a 1,988 mile stretch of the eastern coast of Greenland. Researchers took a detailed look at this group to see how many bears there were.

Researchers analyzed 36 years of data from bears tagged with a gps collar and found that bears from the southeast did not pass above a latitude of 64 degrees north and bears from the northeast did not pass the same line in the opposite direction. The bears in the southeastern part of the country were different from the bears in the northeastern part.

The first evidence for a genetically distinct and functionally isolated group of polar bears in southeast Greenland was presented in a new study.

The exact number of people in the new southeastern population is difficult to determine.

There are around 36,000 polar bears left in the wild and they are listed as vulnerable to extinction. Climate change may cause the species to disappear by the end of the century.

Despite being the world's largest land predator, polar bears are listed as marine mammals because they rely mostly on seals. The snow-white bears use sea ice as a platform to chase their prey from above. Climate change is decreasing the amount of sea ice available, which is bad news for the environment.

The extent of the sea-ice varies in the northern part of the planet. The temporary ice sheets form on the ocean's surface in the fall and then melt away in the spring. When the sea ice is gone over the summer, polar bears can live for between 100 and 180 days without food. The melting of sea ice is pushing polar bears to the edge of extinction.

The fjords that are home to the southeastern polar bears are located at the southern edge of the Arctic Circle and are free of sea ice for more than 250 days a year. The fjords should be unsafe for polar bears by the end of the 21st century because of the sea ice conditions. The bears in the southeastern part of the country seem to be doing well.

The bears are taking advantage of the bits of ice that break off the fjords. The freshwater ice patches allow the bears to feed themselves during the long spells when sea ice is not present. The researchers think that glaciers may serve as climate refugia.

An extra layer of security for the bears is added to the southeastern population because it is too hard to reach for most hunters. The steep slopes of the fjords make it difficult for the polar bears to cross them. Researchers think that the low birth rate among the new population is due to the difficulty in reaching one another.

The researchers used genetic data to identify two people who could be immigrants from the northeast. The immigrant bears seem to have adapted well to hunting on glaciers, which suggests that other populations might be able to do the same. There are other locations where polar bears can be supported. Most bears won't be able to move to these locations.

The researchers insist that the study doesn't make climate change any less of a problem for the polar bears. The main threat to all polar bears is the loss of sea ice. The study doesn't change that. She said that the survival odds for most polar bears will decrease due to the decline in sea ice.

Live Science is a future company. All rights belong to the person. It may not be published, broadcast, or redistributed.