Polar bear den­ning sites on Kong Karls Land

During 4 weeks of field work on the island of Kong­søya that belongs to Kong Karls Land in the far east of Spits­ber­gen, field workers coun­ted at least 13 dens whe­re fema­le polar bears had given birth to their off­spring a few months ear­lier. In 2009, at least 25 dens were found. The lower num­bers of 2011 were expec­ted and are explai­ned with the ice-free waters that sur­roun­ded Kong Karls Land in late 2010, making the litt­le archi­pe­la­go more dif­fi­cult to reach for the bears. It is not known if the pregnant bears went to alter­na­ti­ve sites else­whe­re.

Kong Karls Land is one of the most important den­ning are­as for polar bears in the who­le arc­tic and may only be visi­ted with spe­cial per­mis­si­on.

Source: Nor­we­gi­an polar insti­tu­te

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