Everything is being played out on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard on August 21, when the sea ice has receded. A favorable period for the polar bears who see their favorite prey, the seals, come back to the region. But that day, no seal on the horizon. But a male reindeer, suddenly chased by a young bear. Cornered, the ruminant throws itself into the icy water in an attempt to swim away. The predator, an experienced swimmer - his Latin name is ursus maritimus - soon catches up with him and drowns him. A few meters away, a scientific team attends the scene, stunned. One of the expedition photographers does not miss a thing and films with his telephoto lens. This is the first time that such an atypical hunting scene has been captured on video. Once the reindeer is killed, the bear brings it back to the ground to devour it.“It looked like a documentary,” recalls Izabela Kulaszewicz, a biologist at the University of Gdansk. “You could almost hear the narrator's voice in the background saying that you absolutely have to watch this event because we'll probably never see anything like it again,” she continues.
A new predation
According to scientists, this episode is part of a series of observations which suggest that the polar bear now falls back more frequently on terrestrial prey, to overcome the difficulty of putting the paw on seals. Signs of predation between bears and reindeer have also increased in recent decades. There are two explanations for this: the retreat of the pack ice which keeps bears on the mainland for a longer time and the multiplication of the number of reindeer in Svalbard since their hunting was prohibited there in 1925. In Svalbard, a territory distant from a thousand of kilometers from the North Pole, some 300 sedentary bears now rub shoulders with around 20,000 reindeer. This predation, apparently new, "should not however be overinterpreted", note other experts."If polar bears were killing reindeer in the 1950s or 1960s, it would have been very difficult to observe because there were few people, few bears and few reindeer in Svalbard at the time," said Andrew. Derocher, professor at the University of Alberta.
Although ringed or bearded seals, with their highly calorific fat, are their favorite delicacies, bears are opportunists who have also been observed to feed on young birds and even rodents. With its 70 and 90 kg in adulthood, reindeer would also be a good food supplement for bears in summer, a period of "lean cows" which tends to lengthen with global warming. According to Professor Ian Stirling of the Canadian Wildlife Service, however, this adapted diet will not become a lifeline for the polar bear. "While an occasional successful predation attempt on reindeer may be good in the short term, for one or two bears, I think it does little for the polar bear or reindeer population."Polar bears simply cannot compete on land with reindeer over long distances, otherwise they will overheat.