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Grounded icebergs as maternity denning habitat for polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in North and Northeast Greenland

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Abstract

This study provides the first documentation of polar bear (Ursus maritimus) maternity denning in snowdrifts around icebergs frozen into the fast ice or grounded on the seafloor. Based on six den observations in north and northeast Greenland during spring surveys in 2018 and 2019 (109 flight hours), together with observations of 20 adult females with 35 cubs of the year (COYs) in adjacent sea ice, we hypothesize that the use of snowdrifts around icebergs for maternity denning is an established behavior in the region and not a random event. Factors influencing maternity denning in snowdrifts around icebergs may include limited suitable drifts on the nearby terrestrial polar desert due to low precipitation, the presence of suitable wind-blown snow banks regardless of the direction of autumn storm winds, cold and stable habitat throughout the winter denning period, and access to ringed seal (Pusa hispida) pupping habitat in the nearby Northeast Water polynya. This type of maternity denning habitat is only available in glaciated regions of the Arctic where marine-terminating glaciers deposit mélange large enough to become grounded offshore and remain in place for months or years. This habitat may become less stable or disappear with long-term climate warming.

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Acknowledgements

Funding for KLL to undertake polar bear studies in the northeast Greenland in 2018 and 2019 was provided by Environmental Protection Agency (Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark) DANCEA Programme, the Northeast Greenland Environmental Study Program (a collaboration between the Danish Centre for Environment and Energy at Aarhus University, the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, and the Environmental Agency for Mineral Resource Activities of the Government of Greenland), and the Leo Model Foundation. We thank Air Greenland pilots Geir Akse and Pål Telnes, as well as Frissi Adolfsson, Poul-Erik Nissen, Lars B. Jensen, the Villum Research Station, and the Danish military at Station Nord for their support in the field and sharing observations. IS was supported by Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Physics Laboratory, Polar Science Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA

    Kristin L. Laidre

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, TGH 2E9, Canada

    Ian Stirling

  3. Wildlife Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, c/o Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, TGH 2E9, Canada

    Ian Stirling

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  1. Kristin L. Laidre
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  2. Ian Stirling
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Correspondence to Kristin L. Laidre.

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Laidre, K.L., Stirling, I. Grounded icebergs as maternity denning habitat for polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in North and Northeast Greenland. Polar Biol 43, 937–943 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02695-2

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