Earth Live: Cooper Island

George Divoky’s been going to Cooper Island for thirty years. When he first showed up, he was worried about polar bears roaming onto their island. Aside from one chance encounter, he saw none for the first 27 summers they spent there. Now with the Arctic warming,

I have seen polar bears annually for the past seven years, and in two of those years had to terminate the field season early because of the frequency and nature of bear encounters. Not only are bears now a regular and predictable part of being here on Cooper Island in late July and August, individual bears are spending more time on the island both looking for food and sleeping after or before having to swim in the ice-free Arctic Ocean. Last summer polar bears regularly visited the cabin during my last week on the island.

Here’s a 10-second video of a polar bear checking out their shack research structure:

You can read regular updates from him at his Earth Live: Cooper Island blog, including tales of a polar bear smashing eggs and killing nestlings of an Arctic bird without bothering to eat them