The Arctic’s polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are often the poster species for the perils of climate change. Threatened by rapidly dwindling sea ice and habitat loss as the world warms, over two-thirds of polar bears could go extinct by 2050. There are also an estimated 3,000 polar bears and about 300 remain on Svalbard year-round, while others migrate. Video OneIn the new study, Norwegian Polar Institute polar bear ecologist Jon Aars and colleagues investigated why the Svalbard population has remained so stable. “Svalbard (and the Barents Sea area) has experienced a much faster loss of sea ice than other areas having polar bears,” Aars tells Popular Science.