Despite The Problems With The Ice Pack, Svalbard's Polar Bears Are Fat and Sassy

As we noted in May 19's "Arctic: Well, The Ice Has Begun Retreating Fom Its Winter Maximum....":

....And it was not a good year....

Here's the latest map from the Danish Meteorological Institute (I know. I should use the Norwegian's map, force of habit): 

If you travel north up the 20° east longitude line you run smack dab into the islands of the Svalbard archipelago and you see there is no ice to the west of Svalbard, and the area between Greenland and Svalbard does not have the "plug" we like to see to keep the ice from breaking off and flushing out into to open ocean and further diminishing the ice cap.

But this year the polar bears don't care. From Norway's MOSJ (Environmental Monitoring of Svalbard and Jan Mayen):

Polar bear
Last updated 30 April 2024

The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) in the Barents Sea lives on disappearing sea ice. Climate warming is the main threat to polar bears. The polar bear habitat is changing rapidly, and the Polar Basin could be ice-free in summer within a few years. To gain access to preferred denning areas and their favorite prey, ringed seals, polar bears depend on good sea ice conditions at the right time and place. The population probably increased considerably during the years after hunting was banned in 1973, and new knowledge indicates that the population has not been reduced the last 10-15 years, in spite of a large reduction in available sea ice in the same period.....

*****

Body condition index of adult male polar bears caught in spring (March-May) in the period 1993-2024. The lines in the middle of each box show the median value, and the box segments and lines above and below the median each cover ca 25 % of the data points. The changes in body condition over time is significant but does not follow a linear pattern. There was a decrease in body condition up to 2000, within a period where it was a decrease in available sea ice. After that, body condition increased over the next two decades despite a significant decrease in available sea ice. There was no fieldwork in 2020 due to the corona pandemic.
(Cite these data: Norwegian Polar Institute (2022). Condition in adult polar bear males. Environmental monitoring of Svalbard and Jan Mayen (MOSJ). URL: https://mosj.no/en/fauna/marine/polar-bear.html)

....MUCH MORE

Possibly also of interest:

"Svalbard Minute by Minute"
Can you feel the excitement?

News You Can Use: What To Do If You Meet A Polar Bear
The thing to remember is: polar bears are stone cold killers. It's what they do.
From the New York Post, August 29, 2020:
Get naked, and other advice to fend off a polar bear attack...