Polar bear weig­hed only 62 kg

The polar bear that died in late Janu­a­ry during trans­por­ta­ti­on in a heli­co­p­ter weig­hed only 62 kg as first results of the post mor­tem reve­a­led. This means that the bear must eit­her have been very small or extre­me­ly thin. Even a small, sub-adult fema­le should have more than 100 kg. Even a second year cub should weigh signi­fi­cant­ly more than 60 kg, and it should still be with its mother then. A first year cub would not be able to sur­vi­ve on its own, without the mother.

Also chan­ces for sur­vi­val for a (sub)adult polar bear with a weight of only 62 kg would have been doubt­ful at best.

This is cur­r­ent­ly, howe­ver, spe­cu­la­ti­on. Fur­ther details of the post mor­tem, which will hope­ful­ly enab­le spe­cia­lists to draw con­clu­si­ons regar­ding the cau­se of death, will only be avail­ab­le in several weeks.

Young polar bear tog­e­ther with its mother. The litt­le bear was about 20 mon­ths old at the time the pic­tu­re was taken and its weight was cer­tain­ly well abo­ve 60 kg.

The­re is also new infor­ma­ti­on regar­ding the polar bear visits to Lon­gye­ar­by­en in late Decem­ber: DNA ana­ly­sis of various sam­ples reve­a­led that it were at least two indi­vi­du­als who came clo­se to and into the sett­le­ment then.

By the way, my new book is in print and it can now be orde­red 🙂 it is a pho­to book with the tit­le “Nor­we­gens ark­ti­scher Nor­den (1): Spitz­ber­gen – vom Polar­licht bis zur Mit­ter­nachts­son­ne”, with Ger­man text Click here for fur­ther details!