Amazing photo: Polar bear "eats whale"!

A simple meal is hard to come by for polar bears wandering the Arctic wilderness. As climate change reduces sea ice, the bears are being forced ashore and away from their main food source, seals. So a dead sperm whale washed up on a beach in Svalbard, Norway, was a gift to them.

"It's a 'free lunch' from God," wildlife filmmaker Jeff Wilson said of the photos, which were released last week. Wilson was in the area directing the Disney nature film "Polar Bears," which includes some footage of bears feeding on whale carcasses.

Image credit: Jeff Wilson/Disneynature

With a giant sperm whale carcass to feast on, Svalbard’s polar bears are getting more than just the bare necessities.

When food is plentiful, competition among polar bears decreases. “That’s when the really interesting interactions start,” Wilson said. “Bears in a group are having fun and playing with each other.”

Wilson speculates that the sperm whale carcass has been feeding polar bears for the second year in a row, having resurfaced after spending the winter under the ice. "We think a sperm whale has about 3 billion calories," he said.

Image credit: Ryan Atkinson/Disneynature

The free meal may have given the polar bears a sigh of relief. But a 2020 study published in Nature Climate Change suggests that polar bear populations could be threatened by 2100.

"The future is very bleak," Wilson said. "If polar bears have any chance at all, the solution lies in how humans change the way they live and the way they consume energy."

Source: China Science Daily

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