159 A New Polar Bear Population
Channel: Curiously Polar
Date: 2022-07-28

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**POLAR NEWSREEL**: 
**// A New Border** The nearly 50-years-old infamous [Whiskey War](https://curiouslypolar.com/curiouslypolar/show/cp056) between Canada and Denmark/Greenland has come to an end with an [agreement to divide Hans Island](https://www.arctictoday.com/canada-denmark-agree-on-a-landmark-deal-over-disputed-hans-island/?wallit_nosession=1) with the [first land border between Canada and Denmark](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/vbh10a/new_international_border_between_canada_and/).
**// Proof of Life?** Being a prime candidate for extraterrestrial life, [the most common surface feature on Jupiter’s moon Europa]([EarthSky | Do Europa’s odd ridges indicate life?]https://earthsky.org/space/odd-ridges-on-europa-greenland-habitability/) has been found its [earthy analog in double ridges in Northwest Greenland](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29458-3), providing a [possibility of liquid water in Europa’s icy shell](https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/greenland-provides-insight-into-the-possibility-of-liquid-water-in-europas-icy-shell/). | 
**// Earthquakes in Antarctica** [Orca Seamount](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_Seamount), a long believed extinct underwater volcano in the Bransfield Strait, has been place of [the largest seismic swarm ever recorded](https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00418-5?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=commission_junction&utm_campaign=CONR_PF018_ECOM_GL_PHSS_ALWYS_DEEPLINK&utm_content=textlink&utm_term=PID100052172&CJEVENT=a8feccb708bd11ed83c888200a18050d) in the history of the region.

**A NEW POLAR BEAR POPULATION**
Until recently, [polar bears were thought to primarily survive on ice-covered waters](https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3196/subpopulation-of-greenland-polar-bears-found-by-nasa-funded-study/). Not only do they tend to breed and rest on sea ice, but they also prey on seals that use cracks and holes in the ice to breathe. [A new study](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq5267) has now shown that [a small population of a several hundred bear in southeast Greenland has evolved to survive in an area where the sea ice season tends to be shorter than four months](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/why-this-newly-identified-polar-bear-subpopulation-is-so-special). In the summer months, pieces of ice calve into the ocean from marine-terminating glacier, creating what scientists call a [freshwater glacier mélange, a chunky slush that can pack tightly enough for polar bears to walk—and hunt—on](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-clever-population-of-polar-bears-survives-on-glacial-ice-in-greenland-180980280/). Being the [“most genetically isolated polar bears on the planet”](https://www.washington.edu/news/2022/06/16/se-greenland-polar-bears/) with a common ancestor, about 200 years ago when a small number of individuals separated from the larger group, the scientists suggest to accept the group as [the 20th subpopulation of polar bears](https://polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears-changing-arctic/polar-bear-facts/status/) in the Arctic.

But while it’s tempting to read the study as a new hope that polar bears can survive with less sea ice, it does not mean a salvation of polar bears as the animals are [“living at the edge of the physiologically possible.”](https://oceanographicmagazine.com/news/special-new-polar-bear-subpopulation-discovered-in-greenland/) If anything, this study really is another piece of evidence of the [fundamental relationship between polar bears and ice-covered water](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/polar-bears-algae-sea-ice-warming). However, the findings offer [a small glimmer of hope](https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/isolated-greenland-polar-be…