Norway study: Scientists tranquilise polar bears in Arctic to study effects of pollution
NORWAY, May 20 — With one foot braced on the helicopter's landing skid, a veterinarian lifted his air rifle, took aim and fired a tranquiliser dart at a polar bear.
The predator bolted but soon slumped into the snowdrifts, its broad frame motionless beneath the Arctic sky.
The dramatic pursuit formed part of a pioneering research mission in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, where scientists — for the first time — took fat tissue biopsies from polar bears to study the impact of pollutants on their health.
The expedition came at a time when the Arctic region is warming at four times the global average, putting mounting pressure on the iconic predators as their sea-ice habitat shrinks.
'The idea is to show as accurately as possible how the bears live in the wild — but in a lab,' — Laura Pirard, Belgian toxicologist
'To do this, we take their (fatty) tissue, cut it in very thin slices and expose it to the stresses they face, in other words pollutants and stress hormones,' she added.
Moments after the bear collapsed, the chopper circled back and landed. Researchers spilled out, boots crunching on the snow.
One knelt by the bear's flank, cutting thin strips of fatty tissue. Another drew blood. Each sample was sealed and labelled before the bear was fitted with a satellite collar.
Scientists said that while the study monitors all the bears, only females were tracked with GPS collars as their necks are smaller than their heads — unlike males, who cannot keep a collar on for more than a few minutes.
An helicopter carrying scientists flies over a glacier in search of polar bears in eastern Spitzbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago, on April 6, 2025. The Norwegian Polar Institute, an Arctic research organisation, organised a five-week expedition aboard the high-tech research vessel and icebreaker Kronprins Haakon to collect adipose tissue biopsies and blood samples from polar bears in order to study the impact of pollutants on their health. — AFP pic
Arctic lab
For the scientists aboard the Norwegian Polar Institute's research vessel Kronprins Haakon, these fleeting encounters were the culmination of months of planning and decades of Arctic fieldwork.
In a makeshift lab on the icebreaker, samples remained usable for several days, subjected to controlled doses of pollutants and hormones before being frozen for further analysis back on land.
Each tissue fragment gave Pirard and her colleagues insight into the health of an animal that spent much of its life on sea ice.
Analysis of the fat samples showed that the main pollutants present were per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — synthetic chemicals used in industry and consumer goods that linger in the environment for decades.
Despite years of exposure, Svalbard's polar bears showed no signs of emaciation or ill health, according to the team.
The local population has remained stable or even increased slightly — unlike parts of Canada, where the Western Hudson Bay group declined by 27 per cent between 2016 and 2021, from 842 to 618 bears, according to a government aerial survey.
Other populations in the Canadian Arctic, including the Southern Beaufort Sea, have also shown long-term declines linked to reduced prey access and longer ice-free seasons.
Scientists estimate there are around 300 polar bears in the Svalbard archipelago and roughly 2,000 in the broader region stretching from the North Pole to the Barents Sea.
The team found no direct link between sea ice loss and higher concentrations of pollutants in Svalbard's bears. Instead, differences in pollutant levels came down to the bears' diet.
Two types of bears — sedentary and pelagic — feed on different prey, leading to different chemicals building up in their bodies.
Belgian toxicologist Laura Pirard (R), who specialises in marine mammals, tests the ?Slice? method on polar bear adipose tissue biopsies, with Finnnish toxicologist specialising in marine mammals, Heli Routti (L), in a laboratory onboard the science icebreaking vessel 'Kronprins Haakon' while sailing in eastern Spitzbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago, on April 6, 2025. The Norwegian Polar Institute, an Arctic research organisation, organised a five-week expedition aboard the high-tech research vessel and icebreaker Kronprins Haakon to collect adipose tissue biopsies and blood samples from polar bears in order to study the impact of pollutants on their health. — AFP pic
Changing diet
With reduced sea ice, the bears' diets have already started shifting, researchers said. These behavioural adaptations appeared to help maintain the population's health.
'They still hunt seals but they also take reindeer (and) eggs. They even eat grass (seaweed), even though that has no energy for them,'— Jon Aars, head of the Svalbard polar bear programme
'If they have very little sea ice, they necessarily need to be on land,' he added. 'They spend much more time on land than they used to... 20 or 30 years ago.'
This season alone, Aars and his team of marine toxicologists and spatial behaviour experts captured 53 bears, fitted 17 satellite collars, and tracked 10 mothers with cubs or yearlings.
'We had a good season,' Aars said.
The icebreaker research vessel Kronprins Haakon sails through the sea ice, in eastern Spitzbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago, on April 6, 2025. The Norwegian Polar Institute, an Arctic research organisation, organised a five-week expedition aboard the high-tech research vessel and icebreaker Kronprins Haakon to collect adipose tissue biopsies and blood samples from polar bears in order to study the impact of pollutants on their health. — AFP pic
The team's innovations go beyond biopsies. Last year, they attached small 'health log' cylinders to five females, recording their pulse and temperature.
Combined with GPS data, the devices offer a detailed record of how the bears roam, how they rest and what they endure.
Polar bears were once hunted freely across Svalbard, but since an international protection agreement in 1976, the population here has slowly recovered.
The team's findings may help explain how the bears' world is changing — and at an alarming rate.
As the light faded and the icebreaker's engines hummed against the vast silence, the team packed away their tools, leaving the Arctic wilderness to its inhabitants. — AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Straits Times
4 days ago
- New Straits Times
Oceans feel the heat from human climate pollution
OCEANS have absorbed the vast majority of the warming caused by burning fossil fuels and shielded societies from the full impact of greenhouse gas emissions. But this crucial ally has developed alarming symptoms of stress – heatwaves, loss of marine life, rising sea levels, falling oxygen levels and acidification caused by the uptake of excess carbon dioxide. These effects risk not just the health of the ocean but the entire planet. By absorbing more than 90 per cent of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases, "oceans are warming faster and faster", said Angelique Melet, an oceanographer at the European Mercator Ocean monitor. The UN's IPCC climate expert panel has said the rate of ocean warming – and therefore its heat uptake – has more than doubled since 1993. Average sea surface temperatures reached new records in 2023 and 2024. Despite a respite at the start of 2025, temperatures remain at historic highs, according to data from the Europe Union's Copernicus climate monitor. The Mediterranean has set a new temperature record in each of the past three years and is one of the basins most affected, along with the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, said Thibault Guinaldo, of France's CEMS research centre. Marine heatwaves have doubled in frequency, become longer lasting and more intense, and affect a wider area, the IPCC said in its special oceans report. Warmer seas can make storms more violent, feeding them with heat and evaporated water. The heating water can also be devastating for species, especially corals and seagrass beds, which are unable to migrate. For corals, between 70 per cent and 90 per cent are expected to be lost this century if the world reaches 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming compared to pre-industrial levels. Scientists expect that threshold – the more ambitious goal of the Paris climate deal – to be breached in the early 2030s or even before. When a liquid or gas warms up, it expands and takes up more space. In the case of the oceans, this thermal expansion combines with the slow but irreversible melting of the world's ice caps and mountain glaciers to lift the world's seas. The pace at which global oceans are rising has doubled in three decades and if current trends continue it will double again by 2100 to about one centimetre per year, according to recent research. Around 230 million people worldwide live less than a metre above sea level, vulnerable to increasing threats from floods and storms. "Ocean warming, like sea-level rise, has become an inescapable process on the scale of our lives, but also over several centuries," said Melet. "But if we reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we will reduce the rate and magnitude of the damage, and gain time for adaptation." The ocean not only stores heat, it has also taken up 20 to 30 per cent of all humans' carbon dioxide emissions since the 1980s, according to the IPCC, causing the waters to become more acidic. Acidification weakens corals and makes it harder for shellfish and the skeletons of crustaceans and certain plankton to calcify. "Another key indicator is oxygen concentration, which is obviously important for marine life," said Melet. Oxygen loss is due to a complex set of causes including those linked to warming waters. Combined Arctic and Antarctic sea ice cover – frozen ocean water that floats on the surface – plunged to a record low in mid-February, more than a million square miles below the pre-2010 average. This becomes a vicious circle, with less sea ice allowing more solar energy to reach and warm the water, leading to more ice melting. This feeds the phenomenon of "polar amplification" that makes global warming faster and more intense at the poles, said Guinaldo.
Sinar Daily
5 days ago
- Sinar Daily
Polar bear biopsies to shed light on Arctic pollutants
The predator bolted but soon slumped into the snowdrifts, its broad frame motionless beneath the Arctic sky. 01 Jun 2025 06:00pm Despite years of exposure, Svalbard's polar bears showed no signs of emaciation or ill health, according to the team. - AFP photo NORWAY - With one foot braced on the helicopter's landing skid, a veterinarian lifted his air rifle, took aim and fired a tranquiliser dart at a polar bear. The predator bolted but soon slumped into the snowdrifts, its broad frame motionless beneath the Arctic sky. Belgian toxicologist Laura Pirard works on biopsy samples of polar bear adipose tissue in a laboratory onboard the science icebreaker vessel Kronprins Haakon in the Svalbard archipelago. - AFP photo The dramatic pursuit formed part of a pioneering research mission in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, where scientists, for the first time, took fat tissue biopsies from polar bears to study the impact of pollutants on their health. The expedition came at a time when the Arctic region was warming at four times the global average, putting mounting pressure on the iconic predators as their sea-ice habitat shrank. "The idea is to show as accurately as possible how the bears live in the wild -- but in a lab," Laura Pirard, a Belgian toxicologist, told AFP. "To do this, we take their (fatty) tissue, cut it in very thin slices and expose it to the stresses they face, in other words pollutants and stress hormones," said Pirard, who developed the method. Moments after the bear collapsed, the chopper circled back and landed. Researchers spilled out, boots crunching on the snow. One knelt by the bear's flank, cutting thin strips of fatty tissue. Another drew blood. Each sample was sealed and labelled before the bear was fitted with a satellite collar. Scientists said that while the study monitors all the bears, only females were tracked with GPS collars as their necks are smaller than their heads -- unlike males, who cannot keep a collar on for more than a few minutes. Arctic lab For the scientists aboard the Norwegian Polar Institute's research vessel Kronprins Haakon, these fleeting encounters were the culmination of months of planning and decades of Arctic fieldwork. In a makeshift lab on the icebreaker, samples remained usable for several days, subjected to controlled doses of pollutants and hormones before being frozen for further analysis back on land. Each tissue fragment gave Pirard and her colleagues insight into the health of an animal that spent much of its life on sea ice. Analysis of the fat samples showed that the main pollutants present were per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) -- synthetic chemicals used in industry and consumer goods that linger in the environment for decades. Despite years of exposure, Svalbard's polar bears showed no signs of emaciation or ill health, according to the team. The local population has remained stable or even increased slightly, unlike parts of Canada, where the Western Hudson Bay group declined by 27 percent between 2016 and 2021, from 842 to 618 bears, according to a government aerial survey. Other populations in the Canadian Arctic, including the Southern Beaufort Sea, have also shown long-term declines linked to reduced prey access and longer ice-free seasons. Scientists estimate there are around 300 polar bears in the Svalbard archipelago and roughly 2,000 in the broader region stretching from the North Pole to the Barents Sea. The team found no direct link between sea ice loss and higher concentrations of pollutants in Svalbard's bears. Instead, differences in pollutant levels came down to the bears' diet. Two types of bears -- sedentary and pelagic -- feed on different prey, leading to different chemicals building up in their bodies. Changing diet With reduced sea ice, the bears' diets have already started shifting, researchers said. These behavioural adaptations appeared to help maintain the population's health. "They still hunt seals but they also take reindeer (and) eggs. They even eat grass (seaweed), even though that has no energy for them," Jon Aars, the head of the Svalbard polar bear programme, told AFP. "If they have very little sea ice, they necessarily need to be on land," he said, adding that they spend "much more time on land than they used to... 20 or 30 years ago". This season alone, Aars and his team of marine toxicologists and spatial behaviour experts captured 53 bears, fitted 17 satellite collars, and tracked 10 mothers with cubs or yearlings. "We had a good season," Aars said. The team's innovations go beyond biopsies. Last year, they attached small "health log" cylinders to five females, recording their pulse and temperature. Combined with GPS data, the devices offer a detailed record of how the bears roam, how they rest and what they endure. Polar bears were once hunted freely across Svalbard but since an international protection agreement in 1976, the population here has slowly recovered. The team's findings may help explain how the bears' world is changing, and at an alarming rate. As the light faded and the icebreaker's engines hummed against the vast silence, the team packed away their tools, leaving the Arctic wilderness to its inhabitants. - AFP More Like This
The Star
7 days ago
- The Star
20,000YO whale bone tools are the oldest known evidence of humans using tools
A file picture from 2021 of a projectile made from gray whale bone, dating back to about 18,000 years ago. — ALEXANDRE LEFEBVRE/AP Scientists have pinpointed the oldest known evidence of humans making tools from whale bone. The bones, fashioned into narrow projectiles for hunting, had been uncovered in excavations dating back over a century in the Bay of Biscay near Spain and France. Scientists figured the tools were quite ancient, but many were small fragments so it was hard to determine their age. Technological advancements in the past decade have now made it possible to date the oldest of the tools to about 20,000 years ago. Scientists found that the bones came from blue whales, fin whales, sperm whales and other species. "Humans and whales have clearly been encountering one another for a long time,' said Vicki Szabo with Western Carolina University in North Carolina, United States, who studies the history of whaling and was not involved with the latest research. Scientists think that ancient humans were crafting whale bone instruments in places including the Arctic and South Pacific. There's been solid evidence of whale bone tools dating back to about 5,000 years ago, but the new research published in the journal Nature Communications pushes the timeline back. Ancient humans weren't necessarily hunting whales, said study author Jean-Marc Petillon with the French National Centre for Scientific Research. More likely, they were scavenging the bodies of beached whales and fashioning their dense, heavy bones into tools to hunt reindeer or bison. The tools indicate that ancient people in the area took advantage of resources near the sea for survival. They likely also collected seashells and fished. Finding such evidence has been difficult as rising sea levels disrupt coastlines across the globe, scientists said. "It's one more contribution to the importance of coastal environments for human groups, even in this long past," said Petillon. – AP
