A 6 year old watching a documentary on the plight of polar bears turned and asked "why not send some of them to the Antarctic?" What's your answer?"?

Everyone knows Polar Bears drink Coca Cola.

Isn’t that only during the Christmas season? But back to eating. I suppose there would be plentiful penguin entrees.

There are no polar bears in in the Antarctic so they’d be lonely and all alone. When she asked why, I’d flip it on her and say that’s a good research project for a girl needing to know

While you’ve got her thinking, you might want to point out that there are also no penguins in the arctic and she might want to research the why of that one too

Polar bears are known to be very bad at listening to orders and directions.

They may not like the fish in the Antarctic.

Another point is that almost all animals (insects, reptiles, all the way up to primates) are sensitive to magnetic fields for directions and orientation.
read this among other articles.

Polar bears in particular have developed their sensitivity because of their proximity to the magnetic north pole. Moving them to the South Pole would mess up their magnetic sensitivty and perception for severla million years, until evolution let them adapt as a species.

How would you suggest that be done?

Aaaccckkk!! Bad idea, bad, bad idea!

No leopard seals , which is the polar bear’s main food, in the antarctic either.

@janbb You bring back memories of the chik-fil-a ads where the cows carry picket signs reading “eat more chikin”.

They would eat penguins, maybe to the point of extinction. And they would probably eat the residing #1 predator at the South pole, the leopard seal. (There is a reason that seal is called the leopard seal!)

@Dutchess_III There are no leopard seals at the North pole! There may be seals, but not leopard seals.

I don’t know why can’t they send them there?

The south is polar, too, Send them!

Polar bears evolved from the brown bear and adapted to the artic weather over centuries.
Thus they can adapt to warmer climate over time and then the while fur will eventually evolve back to brown or black.
Yhey can then adapt to different food sources as well over time.
Interesting fact..Polar bears have black skin.

You’d be messing with the balance of nature.

It’s not a good idea to mess with Mother Nature. If Polar Bears can’t adapt to changes in their environment then they will go extinct. That’s nature. That’s natural. 99.9% of all animals that were once alive on Earth are extinct.

The Arctic is home to polar bears and no one wants to leave their home. But it sounds like it might be a good idea. Let’s see if we can find out if it would work.

That’s nature. That’s natural.

Nope, that is anthropogenic, not natural. The dodo did not go extinct because of nature, they went extinct because of women’s fashions.

Don’t you think the dodo was probably on the very edge of extinction when men arrived in their hood? I mean any predator that managed to stumble onto Mauritius, and it’s curtains. Now that you bring it up, it’s probably an object lesson regarding the arrival of the polar bear and janbb’s relatives.

That’s an endearing question from a child.

Antarctica isn’t a polar bear habitat, and we don’t want invasive bears attacking @janbb.

:D.

She’s indestructible. Try to name another flightless bird roaming wild in New Jersey.

You send polar bears to the South pole.
The bears eat lots of penguins.
The bears thrive and multiply.
They eat all the penguins.
Then the bears starve to death because there are no more penguins.
And the plight of the bears goes right back to where it was when the bears were at the North pole.
Mother Nature Rules!

My response is, sounds like a good research project. Maybe polar bears wouldn’t like it there. Maybe the adjustment would be very difficult. I don’t know much about polar bears. Every time you alter an ecosystem there is a risk of unforeseen consequences.

Sounds like she’s really thinking though! Very impressive. I’d tell her it’s a great question.

By the way I have a photo with the Coca-cola polar bear. We have a cardboard one in Disney in Florida.

I read some new responses and realized that if we mess with the natural order we could have polar bears extant. If polar bears do survive they might attack penguins which could put penguins in danger of excitation which is bad.

@KRD your auto-correct is acting up – check your wording

<—————pictures @janbb jiving to “I’m so exci-i-ited, and I just can’t hi-i-de it…”

Sorry @elbanditoroso sometimes I don’t see it.

I hate autocorrect. I don’t know how to turn it off on the tablet.

I completely agree with you @HP.

@smudges Ha! Nix on the polar bears; we have enough problems with leopard seals. and skuas who eat our eggs!

And besides, the race is on between the birds & bears to see which succumbs first to climate change.

@HP Yup – and they can win that one. Meantime, I’ll keep on waddling!

Your cousins are more diversified. There are penguins hiding in rain forests. You know an interesting question, (rather than transplanting the bears) would be whether the existence of those bears is the reason North America is penguin free?

@Penguin deprived, not penguin free!