Polar bear wanders far from Arctic to find food as hunting zone melts
A polar bear has made an unprecedented journey of nearly 2500 kilometres south from the Arctic in Russia, walking along the banks of rivers, avoiding settlements and evading attempts at capture.
Melting ice cover forced the bear to make the journey, scientists say. It ended at the coal mining village of Dzhebariki-Khaya in the Yakutia region of Russia, 480km outside the Arctic Circle.
It was the farthest south a polar bear had been seen in Russia, said Ilya Mordvintsev, a researcher at Russia’s Academy of Science.
Villagers were warned to keep children at home as the female bear, believed to be about two years old, wandered the streets. It slept in back gardens, stole dog food, and chased off locals.
The bear was eventually lured into a cage by specialists, who used seal fat as bait, and taken by helicopter to Yakutsk, the regional capital.
Veterinarians said the animal was exhausted and had dental problems. Officials said it would be treated in Moscow, and sent to a zoo or returned to the wild.
Russian scientists warned in February that polar bears in the Arctic were adapting to a land-based diet because shrinking ice cover caused by climate change was making it harder for them to hunt seals and walruses. Some have been seeking alternative food sources including geese, lemmings and musk oxen, as well as fish.
‘‘We had previously noticed more malnourished individuals, but now often the animals are well fed. Their behaviour suggests they are finding ways to adapt,’’ Mordvintsev said.
Packs of hungry polar bears have besieged settlements in Russia’s Arctic region in recent years. In 2019, more than 50 of the animals, which can weigh up to 750 kilograms, entered a town on a remote archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, forcing authorities to declare an emergency.
Polar bears are protected in Russia, and cannot be shot without government permission. There are thought to be about 30,000 within the Arctic Circle.
The female polar bear’s remarkable trek to Siberia has highlighted the pace of climate change in the Arctic, which is warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Last June, temperatures in a town inside the Arctic Circle hit a record high of 38 degrees C.