Patience, Power, and Precision

Hunting in the Arctic is not easy. Sea ice shifts constantly, temperatures plunge far below zero, and prey is highly alert and fast in the water. Yet polar bears are remarkably effective hunters, having evolved a suite of techniques that take full advantage of their environment, their physiology, and the behavior of their prey.

Technique 1: Still-Hunting (The Most Common Method)

Still-hunting — also known as still-waiting — is the most frequently used hunting strategy. It requires extraordinary patience.

  1. The polar bear locates a seal's breathing hole (called an aglu) in the sea ice, using its powerful sense of smell.
  2. The bear stands or crouches motionlessly beside the hole, sometimes for hours.
  3. When the seal surfaces to breathe, the bear lunges forward with explosive speed, hooking the seal with its forepaws and biting down on its head or neck.
  4. The bear then drags the seal completely out of the water onto the ice.

A polar bear's sense of smell is so acute it can detect a seal's breathing hole beneath nearly a meter of snow. This ability is fundamental to still-hunting success.

Technique 2: Stalking on the Ice

When a seal is resting on top of the ice — a behavior called hauling out — polar bears will attempt a slow, deliberate stalk.

  • The bear approaches by crawling flat on its belly, minimizing its visual profile.
  • It uses pressure ridges, snowdrifts, and any available cover to conceal its approach.
  • When within sprint distance (roughly 15–30 meters), the bear charges at full speed.

Seals are highly vigilant and will often escape into the water. The success rate of stalking hunts is generally lower than still-hunting, but when it works, the bear secures a meal with less waiting time.

Technique 3: Aquatic Ambush (Still-Hunting from the Water)

Polar bears are powerful swimmers and sometimes use the water itself as part of their hunting strategy. In open-water areas or near ice edges, a bear may swim below a basking seal and burst upward to catch it before it can react.

This technique is less common but demonstrates the polar bear's remarkable flexibility as a predator — equally capable on land, ice, and in frigid Arctic waters.

Hunting Seal Pups: The Spring Advantage

Spring is the most productive hunting season for polar bears. Ringed seal mothers give birth in snow lairs dug above their breathing holes. Polar bears use their noses to locate these hidden lairs and then smash through the snow roof with their forepaws — a technique called still-hunting on birth lairs.

Seal pups are easy to catch, extremely fat, and unable to escape into the water. Hunting pups in spring allows polar bears to rapidly build the fat reserves they need for the leaner summer months.

How Successful Are Polar Bear Hunts?

Success rates vary by technique, season, and individual bear skill. Still-hunting at breathing holes can require many hours of waiting per successful kill. Experienced adult bears, particularly large males, tend to be more efficient hunters than younger bears. Female bears with cubs face additional challenges, as cubs can disturb the hunt or reduce the bear's speed and stealth.

The Role of Sea Ice in Hunting

Every hunting technique described above depends on sea ice as a platform. Without stable, widespread sea ice, polar bears lose their primary hunting ground entirely. This is the fundamental reason why sea ice loss driven by climate change poses such a severe threat — it doesn't just reduce habitat, it eliminates the physical surface from which polar bears can hunt.