Ursula

Polar bears are a mighty creature with a fragile future. It's amazing that they can survive, and in fact thrive, in an environment as cold and harsh as the Arctic. My name is Alisa McCall. I'm a polar bear scientist. I've studied a lot of bears over the years, but there's one that sticks out in my mind. Her research number is X33410, but we know her more fondly as Ursula. We first met Ursula in September of 2015 along the coast of Hudson Bay. At the time, she was a beautiful eight-year-old mother accompanied by a healthy yearling cub. It would be nearly impossible to follow a single polar bear around for an entire year in the remote Arctic, but through decades of research, we have been able to piece together the puzzle of what Ursula and other polar bears experience throughout their life. In this region of the sub-Arctic, sea ice forms in the fall, covers the bay through the winter and spring, and melts completely in the summer months. Given that polar bears need sea ice as a platform to travel on and hunt seals, the summer melt forces polar bears to fast on land with little to no food for multiple months. As it became colder and ice slowly started forming along the coast, Ursula and her cub headed north. A GPS collar allowed us to closely follow their movements. Ice formation in 2015 was particularly late, and it wasn't until the end of November that the ice was finally strong enough for Ursula to head out onto Hudson Bay with her growing cub. As I watched Ursula's track moving across the map, I thought about the challenges she was facing. Frigid temperatures, complete darkness, dodging aggressive males, sniffing out seals, all with the sea ice moving and drifting beneath her feet. In the spring, it was time for Ursula to wish her now two and a half year old cub good luck and send him off on his own. I hoped she would successfully mate again and perhaps be able to raise another generation of cubs. In June, Ursula traveled farther out onto Hudson Bay. She was no doubt hunting seals and trying to fatten up before the sea ice started to break apart. Each year, Ursula's world literally dissolves in the summer heat. Shortly after that, Ursula's collar went offline. This probably meant that she was swimming back to shore because the collar doesn't have a signal when it's in the water. So I was relieved to see her collar pop back online east of the town of Churchill, Manitoba in early August. She continued her journey inland toward a denning area and scientists spotted a fabulously fat Ursula in the final days of September. Shortly after that, her collar signal stopped moving and I crossed my fingers that she might have entered a den. Around Christmas, she did indeed give birth to at least two cubs. In March, she and her cubs emerged from the den. I couldn't help but feel excited at the thought of those adorable little polar bears exploring the world for the very first time. Ursula had not had a proper meal for nearly eight months. Now that her cubs were ready, they began their journey to the sea ice to hunt seals and we can be sure they were hungry. Shortly before making it out on the ice, scientists once again spotted Ursula, confirming that she had two young cubs in tow. I was thrilled when I got the news. Protecting, feeding, and teaching young cubs how to survive on a moving platform of ice is no small feat, but these are critical lessons for a polar bear and vital to the survival of the species. In July, Ursula's collar went offline. The last known location was out on the sea ice in the middle of Hudson Bay. The normal challenges Ursula faces are great, but in a warming world, the challenges polar bears face are immense. In September of 2017, scientists found Ursula's collar on land. She made it back. Whether her cubs made it with her or not, we may never know. If they did, were they able to survive the long fall without food? And then another? More than that, I wonder if they realize their world is melting away. Ursula and her cubs have to wait on land an average of one day longer every year. They have to survive a month longer on land without food than their grandparents did, and Ursula's cubs face an even longer fast unless we bring a halt to rising carbon emissions. If the world continues to warm, Ursula's cubs will face challenges they won't be able to overcome. But it's not all hopeless and there is good news. We can choose to act now to halt climate change and make a swift transition to renewable energy. Ursula was still able to give birth and raise multiple generations of cubs. Polar bears still thrive over much of the current range, and we have the knowledge and tools to halt climate change in time to keep it that way. We stopped acid rain. We saved the ozone. We can save polar bears. If we do, we will not only help Ursula, but all life on earth, including ourselves.