Polar

Bearbnb: Polar bears make themselves at home in abandoned village

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By Gege Li Dmitry Kokh Photographer Dmitry Kokh AN ABANDONED weather station and its surrounding settlement is an unconventional place to find polar bears, but then we are living in unconventional times. Dmitry Kokh Wildlife photographer Dmitry Kokh happened upon the animals when the boat he was on took shelter from a storm at the … Read more

Arctic Krill Track Day and Night Even in Polar Darkness

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During Arctic winter, the sun disappears below the horizon for long weeks of “polar night.” But new research shows that tiny crustaceans in the Arctic Ocean somehow maintain their daily rhythms during these extended periods of darkness. Most living creatures use sunlight to time their biological processes and behaviors. This becomes a challenge when there … Read more

Juno solves mystery of what drives Jupiter’s polar cyclones

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Giant cyclones around the poles of the solar system’s largest planet are generated by the same forces that move water in Earth’s oceans, a new study has found.  Jupiter’s gargantuan polar cyclones, which are up to 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) across, were first spotted in 2016 by NASA’s probe Juno. Since then, scientists have speculated … Read more

Polar Bears Keep Being Seen Hunting Reindeer, But There’s More to The Story

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Recently, scientists in Hornsund, Svalbard – a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic ocean – witnessed a polar bear pursuing a reindeer into the sea before killing it, dragging it ashore, and eating it.   The video that they captured was widely shared on news and social media platforms. Then, two days later, they saw the … Read more

Polar bears: Extreme lack of sea ice in Hudson Bay puts predators under pressure

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Sea ice in Canada’s Hudson Bay has been unusually late to form, raising fears over the impact on polar bears that hunt for seals on the ice Environment 6 December 2021 By Adam Vaughan A lone polar bear along Hudson Bay Cindy Hopkins / Alamy An extreme lack of sea ice in Canada this winter … Read more

Once Shunned in Antarctica, Female Scientists Are Now Doing Crucial Polar Research

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In 1981, as a young scientist, I applied for my dream job as a geologist with the British Antarctic Survey. As a child, I had adored snow and ice. Winter was my favorite season (and still is). My most cherished book was Wilson A. Bentley’s atlas of snowflake photographs, and I avidly read the accounts … Read more