Are polar bears drowning? I thought they could swim for MILES?

Question

From wikipedia:

"Polar bears are excellent swimmers and have been seen in open Arctic waters as far as 60 miles (100 km) from land. Their 12 cm (5 in) layer of fat adds buoyancy in addition to insulating them from the cold."

Answer 1

I think the real problem is McDonalds.  The polar bears have been eating dinner at McD's and their fitness levels have been dropping ever since. Of course, this has not effected their population as it has been increasing steadily.

Answer 2

Yes they can swim for miles, but they can't stay in the water forever. All the glaciers are melting, and if they can't find whatever small glaciers there are, they drown.

Answer 3

They can swim fine.  But they MUST hunt from the ice.  The problem is not that they drown (although that can happen when they're swimming long distances in a desperate search for ice).  The problem is that they starve.

And cubs can't hunt for themselves, their mother must feed them.  Or die trying.  Which happens and the cubs starve.

This is even uglier than you think.

Answer 4

no their not drowning and u do u wont to no this this just weird

Answer 5

Well if you're talking about your basic well trained and conditioned polar bear they're the ones that can swim for miles on end without even working up a sweat but if you're talking about those overweight and hugely obese ones like we have here in Ohio well it's thirty yards and then sink like a rock. That's the reason polar bears are pretty well extinct in this state.

Answer 6

they can Al Gore uses animated polar bears.

Answer 7

This is idiotic.  No creature can swim indefinitely.  They need to find food, and the ice (& the water near it) is the only place they can hunt.  Large predators have a high death rate as they need a great deal of high quality protein, and there is a lot of competition for prey.  Many die of starvation under NORMAL conditions.

Answer 8

Yes, polar bears are capable of swimming for miles.  However, what you are not considering is this:

1.) With the loss of stable arctic ice, the distances which polar bears must travel by swimming increase dramatically.  While a polar bear may swim extensively on occasion, doing so consistently will consume much of the fat and other energy reserves that the animal is trying to build for its winter hibernation.  Too much of this, and they will become too weak to safely make these water crossings.

2.) The quote you referenced deals with **adult** polar bears, yet the cubs are quite prone to accidental drowning during anything but short swims.

Answer 9

No, none of them are drowning.

Yes, its true they can swim for miles.

Answer 10

Yes they can swim for miles but if the have nowhere to take a rest they probably will drown

Answer 11

They have their limits,

the distances are very great ,between the floating bits of ice ,and are getting more all the time and the ice islands are getting less.

many get trapped by the spaces of water so to speak ,

Also wading through slush is very exhausting ,And ice does not support them any more so they are crawling half swimming ,very sad to see

they cannot walk and pounce as they did to hunt seal before .

the time span between meals is to great to keep cubs alive or maintain energy for long distance swimming

Watch a BBC documentary by David Attenborough

he did about 15 movies called Planet earth

the ones called Future ,the ice worlds ,from Pole to Pole ,

covers the poles and shows footage of polar bears swimming

And they can drown eventually from exhaustion

you have to see the film to realize the distances involved.

Also some very impressive stuff with polar bears attacking Walruses in desperation ,because their normal game and normal way of hunting ,of seals on ice is gone.

So Hunger is also doing the bears in.

this goes with the changes in Habitat

If the bears are near land they may adjust and start hunting people, the next game on their list

But this may cause someone to be upset and they will get shot instead.One wonders why Humans are the least in danger of extinction.on the contrary

NOTE

All 15 movies are great these people have been making nature movies for many years and they show and talk about the differences of what they see today ,

compared with before

They say whole migrations of millions of animals in the tundras have disappeared in just 5 years.

And everywhere they go people talk about certain species not being there any more..

thousands of species of frogs have gone ,world wide.

this is very significant because they are indicators of pollution because their skin is very absorbent,and they are sensitive to environmental changes.