Polar Bear Ice Fishing by an Igloo

About this drawing

A polar bear ice fishing with a rod is make-believe, but the idea behind it is real. These bears do hunt through holes in the ice, though their target is usually seals rather than fish.

Seals live beneath the sea ice and must come up for air, so they keep small breathing holes open. A polar bear sniffs out those holes with its remarkable nose, then waits beside one, silent and still, sometimes for hours. When a seal surfaces, the bear grabs it with powerful paws.

Seal meat, and especially seal blubber, is packed with the energy a bear needs to handle the cold. That is why polar bears spend so much of their lives out on the ice. When food is scarce, they can live off their own fat reserves for quite a while.

In summer, when the ice melts in many areas, hunting gets harder. Some bears then eat whatever they can find, from bird eggs to leftovers and even seaweed. Still, their survival depends on seals and on having enough sea ice to hunt from. Scientists track how much time bears spend on the ice each year to understand how they are coping with a changing Arctic.

• polar bear
• ice fishing
• igloo
• winter
• arctic