https://www.kijkmagazine.nl/nieuws/ijsbeer-breekt-duikrecord/
Never before has such a long dive been observed in a polar bear. Is this because of the melting ice?
Dutch polar expedition leader Rini van Meurs and Ian Stirling of the University of Alberta in Canada recorded the longest dive of a polar bear to date last summer. Now, an underwater diving polar bear is not a strange sight in itself, but with a time of 3 minutes and 10 seconds, this specimen was well over a minute above the old record.
Explosion
The scene took place near the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, where Van Meurs and Stirling saw a somewhat emaciated male polar bear standing on the ice. A few hundred meters away, three seals were floating on an ice floe. While they were enjoying their rest, the hungry polar bear slipped into the water and went under at a safe distance.
The seal closest to the edge already felt wet and left the stage before the bear explosively threw itself onto the ice floe right in front of the two survivors after more than three minutes. Unfortunately for the polar bear, these unsuspecting Arctic residents also managed to escape in time.
Time pressure
It must have looked spectacular, but what do the scientists say about this extreme achievement? According to Van Meurs and Stirling, it is particularly special that the polar bear continued its attack attempt after seeing the first seal flee. This shows that he remembered exactly where the other two animals were on the ice floe. As a result, he did not have to reorient himself via the water surface and thus remained unnoticed.
Will this trick save the polar bear from climate change? The scientists don't think so. Hunting seals quickly becomes more difficult as there is less ice and therefore more water, and according to the researchers, the polar bear will not have enough evolutionary time to adapt its diving skills at the same pace.
Sources: Polar Biology, LiveScience