An Arctic Balance As Polar Bears Switch to Egg Diet

Goose eggs and developing embryos could become an alternative source of nutrition for polar bears unable to find seals as the ice pack melts.

A new study says that some polar bears are likely to survive a melting Arctic by switching their summertime food source from seals to the eggs of the snow goose.

Writing in the journal Polar Biology, researcher Robert Rockwell of the American Museum of Natural History points out that polar bears survived a period of significant global warming 125,000 years ago when sea level was 12 to 18 feet ( 4-6 metres) higher and trees grew above the Arctic Circle.

It's believed they did so by changing their diet as the climate and available food sources changed.

Rockwell estimates that an earlier breakup of the ice pack around western Hudson Bay will coincide in less than four years with the time snow geese lay their eggs, bringing the bears and nesting birds together.

Polar bears have already been seen eating some eggs, and it's estimated that a diet of the eggs from less than 40 nests will be able to replace the energy gained from an average day of hunting seals.

There are now too many geese nesting in the Arctic for the region’s resources to support. Threatened bears feeding on the surplus of eggs could be a way for nature to restore two separate balances.

“Polar bears might get skinnier and some might die, but I don't think they will go extinct,” said Rockwell.