Understanding How Climate Change and Shifting Diets Affect Polar Bear Health

SCIENTIFIC TITLE: Shifting Diets and Diseases in Polar Bears (Project Bear Health)

START DATE: Spring 2025

PROJECTED DURATION: 2 years

SUMMARY: Researchers will study how climate change induced diet and habitat changes are affecting polar bear health.

THE PROBLEM: Climate change and melting sea ice forces polar bears to spend more time on land. This causes bears to seek out new sources of food (like geese and reindeer), which can expose them to new viruses, bacteria, and parasites. More time on land also exposes them to insect bites, providing more opportunities for diseases to spread. Females and their young have been shown to move further inland to find dens, which means that these groups may be exposed to even more diseases from insects and stagnant water. Given that polar bears are listed as vulnerable and have significant value for Indigenous groups in the Arctic, it is vital that we support research to help protect this species.

THE PROJECT: Project BearHealth aims to understand what viruses, bacteria and parasites are present in less studied polar bear populations. There has been little research on polar bear health, with the majority of studies focusing on populations from Alaska and Hudson Bay, Canada. This study will look for pathogens in the Greenland and northern Beaufort Sea (Canada) bear populations, which have little research completed on infectious diseases. By using techniques to analyze isotopes and fatty acids from polar bear hair and fat, the team will create a snapshot of the different prey that they eat. From there, they can compare the diet of animals with their disease results, which will help improve understanding the origin of viruses, bacteria and parasites. It will also reveal whether eating more prey on land increases a polar bear’s chances of becoming infected with diseases that could harm them. 

POTENTIAL IMPACT: As temperatures will likely continue to rise in the Arctic, this project provides a much-needed glimpse into how polar bear health could change in a future with less sea ice and help inform mitigation strategies.