A recently published study lead by Norwegian polar bear specialist Jon Aars found that both male and female polar bears were fatter and healthier after 1995 despite the greatest loss of sea ice of any Arctic region. However, no evidence was provided that a greater consumption of walrus and reindeer explain these results.
This new paper (Aars et al. 2026) updates and expands to 2019 data for a study I’ve repeatedly cited (e.g. here and here) that reported female bears in better condition between 2005-2017 than during the 1990s, despite dramatic sea ice loss in summer and winter in the 2000s (Lippold et al. 2019). Continue reading
polarbearscience 
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