A idle polar bear has just broken the criminal record for the longest submersed prima donna made by a appendage of his species , Ursus maritimus . It last for 3 minutes and 10 seconds ! That ’s about 2 minutes longer than the previous record . These observation were describe in the August issue ofPolar Biology .
The grownup male made this epic dive during an “ aquatic stalk ” of three bearded seals ( Erignathus barbatus ) who were lying several meters from each other at the edge of an icing ice floe in a Norwegian archipelago called Svalbard . In those 3 minute and 10 seconds , the bear swam 45 to 50 meters without surfacing to breathe – or even to reorient himself to the seals ’ locations , fit in to a dyad led byUniversity of Alberta ’s Ian Stirling . But , unfortunately for the bear , the seals got away . The submerged huntsman detonate out of the water , Live Scienceexplains , and propel itself halfway onto the floating ice , flop in front of where one seal was resting .
Polar bears split up off from dark-brown bear ( Ursus arctos ) about 400,000 to 500,000 years ago , which is pretty recent in evolutionary terms . Their ability to concur their hint for so long may be an indication of when the species begin to recrudesce major adaptations for living and track down in this marine surroundings . Until now , the longest recorded dive , which was forkelp , lasted 1 minute and 12 seconds .
This dive ’s duration may be approach the maximal capability for polar bear . But while this is the long dive reported to date , we do n’t really know what their maximal dive duration is . chance for document undisturbed bears are very uncommon .
unluckily , increased diving abilities ca n’t evolve tight enough to make up for the increase difficulty of hunt cachet , the squad says . The handiness of sea glass during the open - water meter of the year is apace declining . In fact , we late take that polar bear who enter a blue - energy mode prognosticate “ walk hibernation ” during times of solid food deprivationaren’t save that much energy – certainly not enough to recompense for seal shortages during the summertime melt . Although , as it turns out , frigid bear are now also killing andeating lily-white - beaked dolphinsfor the first time , and some populations aremoving into Arctic regionsthat are potential to keep ocean ice for longer into the future tense .
[ ViaLive Science ]
