Polar bears appear to be surviving despite the lack of sea ice, should we take this as a positive sign?

A group of polar bears are surviving in south-east Greenland are surviving despite there not being sea ice for most of the year.

A new Polar bear population genetically isolated from other Polar bears has been identified in South East Greenland

These polar bears, which are not thought to have bred with any other groups for several centuries, are thought to be holding on because of fresh water ice that discharges from glaciers into the sea. Unfortunately, while this means that polar bears might survive for longer, if they are only surviving on glacier ice, this isn’t going to last for ever either. As an aside, this population is a newly identified population, increasing the number of Polar bear populations from 19 to 20. There are occasional crossings between these groups, but these genetic exchanges are rare. This group is only about 200 polar bears.

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