Polar Bears in the Arctic Night: Hunting in Total Darkness

Polar bear on Arctic sea ice — A polar bear on sea ice. Its hunting platform is shrinking season by season. Photo: Klaus Rassinger und Gerhard Cammerer , Museum Wiesbaden — CC BY-SA 3.0

When the sun disappears for months, polar bears do not hibernate: they hunt. They smell seals through a metre of snow, wait motionless at breathing holes, and one bear was tracked swimming 687 kilometres.

Arctic sea ice under a low sun — Sea ice is the hunting platform — without it, the bear cannot reach seals. Photo: Renée Kools — CC BY 4.0

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Photography credits: Klaus Rassinger und Gerhard Cammerer , Museum Wiesbaden (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons