Polar bear energetic and behavioral strategies on land with implications for surviving the ice-free period

Anthony M. Pagano (), Karyn D. Rode, Nicholas J. Lunn, David McGeachy, Stephen N. Atkinson, Sean D. Farley, Joy A. Erlenbach and Charles T. Robbins
Additional contact information
Anthony M. Pagano: U. S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center
Karyn D. Rode: U. S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center
Nicholas J. Lunn: Wildlife Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada
David McGeachy: Wildlife Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada
Stephen N. Atkinson: 226104 Melrose Road
Sean D. Farley: Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Joy A. Erlenbach: Washington State University
Charles T. Robbins: Washington State University

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Declining Arctic sea ice is increasing polar bear land use. Polar bears on land are thought to minimize activity to conserve energy. Here, we measure the daily energy expenditure (DEE), diet, behavior, movement, and body composition changes of 20 different polar bears on land over 19–23 days from August to September (2019–2022) in Manitoba, Canada. Polar bears on land exhibited a 5.2-fold range in DEE and 19-fold range in activity, from hibernation-like DEEs to levels approaching active bears on the sea ice, including three individuals that made energetically demanding swims totaling 54–175 km. Bears consumed berries, vegetation, birds, bones, antlers, seal, and beluga. Beyond compensating for elevated DEE, there was little benefit from terrestrial foraging toward prolonging the predicted time to starvation, as 19 of 20 bears lost mass (0.4–1.7 kg•day−1). Although polar bears on land exhibit remarkable behavioral plasticity, our findings reinforce the risk of starvation, particularly in subadults, with forecasted increases in the onshore period.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-44682-1 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-44682-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44682-1

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().