US Geological Survey’s biologists attached cameras and radio collars to four free-ranging female Alaskan polar bears last April. One of the resulting videos shows one of the bears in action in the Beaufort Sea, checking out a potential mate, swimming below ice, and trying to eat a frozen seal (which is kind of gross.)
Female polar bears were used exclusively as the necks of male polar bear males are wider than their heads—so collars easily slide off.
The full footage will be studied to improve understanding of polar bear behavior amidst continuing concern. Populations of these ferocious predators are generally believed to be at riskas a result of habitat decline as sea ice melts due to climate change.
