The PBSG is releasing resolutions passed at the Group’s 20th Working Meeting (held in Seattle, WA in June 2024) in advance of the publication of the Proceedings, which are expected sometime in late 2025. The third resolution is in reference to a new subpopulation of polar bears in Southeast Greenland.
The PBSG formally recognized Southeast Greenland (SE) as the 20th subpopulation of polar bears following its review of published scientific information that showed a functionally and genetically isolated group of bears in Southeast Greenland south of 64oN (Laidre et al. 2022). The PBSG also recognized that, on the basis of this new science, the Government of Greenland issued an Executive Order in 2023 stating that the polar bears in Southeast Greenland will be managed as a separate subpopulation that is currently protected.
SE Greenland bears are the most genetically differentiated of all polar bear subpopulations. The genetic difference between SE polar bears and their nearest genetic neighbors is greater than that observed for any of the 19 previously-known polar bear subpopulations. Geography plays a role in the isolation of this subpopulation as bears are hemmed in on all sides by the high elevation mountain peaks and the Greenland Ice Sheet to the west, the open water of the Denmark Strait to the east, and by the fast-flowing East Greenland coastal current with low concentration drift ice, which poses a hazard offshore. Southeast Greenland bears also have limited access to sea ice during the year, with less than 100 days of fast ice available on which to hunt. They supplement their hunting by using freshwater ice which breaks off from the Greenland Ice Sheet and coastal glaciers.
The PBSG recognizes that managing and conserving the behavioral, genetic and ecological diversity among polar bear subpopulations is critically important to the conservation of the species. The PBSG Status Table and website were updated to reflect this decision.
Full text of the PBSG resolution is below:
Reference:
Laidre K. L., M. A. Supple, E. W. Born, E. V. Regehr, Ø. Wiig, F. Ugarte, J. Aars, R. Dietz, C. Sonne, P. Hegelund, C. Isaksen, G. B. Akse, B. Cohen, H. L. Stern, T. Moon, C. Vollmers, R. Corbett-Detig, D. Paetkau, and B. Shapiro. 2022. Glacial ice supports a distinct and undocumented polar bear subpopulation persisting in late 21st-century sea-ice conditions. Science 376 (6599): 1333-1338. DOI: 10.1126/science.abk2793
Last modified: August 23, 2025
