Have their been any scientific or speculative studies done about how polar bears would fare if they were released into the antarctic? Any discourse on how the ecology would be impacted by introducing this exotic species into that particular niche?
(Mods, I’m not putting this in IMHO because I am interested in finding actual research on the topic, though I’d welcome doper speculation on it too.)
I am unaware of any studies. However, I think polar bears would do well in some parts of the Antarctic where they could have access to seals at breathing holes. However, I’m sure they would be extremely destructive to penguin colonies and other seabird colonies, which evolved their behaviors in the absence of land predators.
Ok, thanks.
Is it wrong of me to want to sneak some polar bears down there, and just see how things work out? I promise I won’t let it get out of hand like the cane toads in Australia or kudzu in the southern US.
They’d make out like bandits, because of (a) an abundant supply of tasty and (on land) slow moving penguins, and (b) the absence of a settled human population.
I suppose you could introduce sterilized polar bears, just to see what happens.
Keep in mind that Antarctica is far colder than the Arctic due to one being land and the other ocean. But I’m sure they’d do OK on the coast, and that’s where all the food is anyway.
As a side note, the use of sled dogs has been banned in Antarctica because of the havoc a feral population would inflict on bird colonies.
But…but…that would call into question the entire opening sequence of John Carpenter’s The Thing! Say it ain’t so!
One of my favourite trivia questions is: why do polar bears not eat penguins? It’s surprising how few know the answer.
This leads to a question I’ve idly wondered about many times: has any polar bear ever eaten a penguin?
On a related note, I’ve often wondered what would happen if I imported penguins to Nunavut. Could they survive? Or would the polar bears eat them all? What if I made a fenced off, protected area for them?
There have been releases of penguins in the Northern Hemisphere, sometimes by the crews of fishing vessels, sometimes by legitimate (if probably misguided) biologists. I can’t say if any were eaten by polar bears.
The original bird that was called a “penguin” was the extinct Great Auk, and they certainly were occasionally eaten by polar bears.
When similar flightless black-and-white birds were found in the Southern Hemisphere the name was transferred to them.
Making a fence that can keep out a polar bear would be difficult. They’re incredibly strong. But even if you did, penguins have to feed at sea where they’d be vulnerable to the bears.
Do seals actually live in the Antarctic?
Indeed they do. Leopard seals, in fact, are the principal predator of the penguin.
That would make them bi-polar bears, requiring therapy and being shot with darts filled with lithium.
No, that just means that all of the dogs you saw at the base were Things.
You got yourself a fish biscuit!
Here’s a previous short thread on the subject.
I remember there was at least one more old thread (about suitable Arctic habitat shrinking, I think) including posts about introducing polar bears on Kerguelen but it seems to have disappeared.
iirc several people argued that it was a bad idea.
And dogs were only banned from Antarctica in 1994, 12 years after John Carpenter’s film was made…