sub polar bear

29 x 20 cm
Acrylic, conte crayon, pencil & ballpoint pen on photograph
 
Sub polar bear: Apex predator, the world’s largest land based carnivore maybe be difficult to find soon. Polar bears are beautifully adapted to a way of life, peculiar to the extreme. Hibernating for months, not eating, not drinking and yet giving birth to two cubs, which is the usual amount in a frozen den. The mother then takes her babies out to search for fresh seal pups which are hidden away in icy retreats upon the frozen sea. The seals will only birth their pups upon the ice. Safer from predators, bear one. The polar bears have to hunt them down over miles and miles of ice. Assisted by an extremely powerful sense of smell. Traveling over the frozen water the heavy bear must hope that the ice will hold. The bears only have a few months to gather enough food to last them all year.
Naturally enough the frozen sea is seasonal and only freezes when it’s cold. This is changing as we all now know. The warmer Springs and Autumns delay the winter freeze, and bring about an ever earlier Winter thaw. This in turn reduces the seal availability, making more and more hungry bears. No food on the frozen sea, no frozen sea at all. The bears must now roam elsewhere, desperately in need of food and seek out solid ground. Retreating from the Arctic wasteland and coming further southwards. Sub –Arctic, sub polar now a tundra bear.