What would happen?

[nedflanders]

If someone was to introduce polar bears into the antarctic region? (theoretical q?)

[CrazyWolfman]

In short, ecological disaster would almost certainly ensue. Penguins are certainly not the fastest animals out of the water and, at least in the antarctic have not been subjected to terrestrial predators such as polar bears. In other words the polar bears would run around, eating all the hapless penguins until they had all dissapeared, then they would starve to death as basically nothing else lives there that polar bears would be so capable of catching.

However doing the opposite proved less silly. There was once a bird in the arctic called the Great Auk. In 1844 they were made extinct by humans. However this left an ecological niche which was no longer filled, as such the fish which the Auk's ate no longer were kept in check and everything which ate the Auks went somewhat hungry. To solve the problem people shipped penguins up from the southern hemisphere and bunged them up north. It all went well for a bit...the ecological problems were solved, however once again humans were the problematic factor. Although penguins drowning in fishing nets was one major problem another was that the local people had something of a tendency to beat them to death with sticks as they were under the impression that the penguins were some kind of demons.

[Clanad]

I would disagree slightly with CrazyWolfman... since penguins do not exist north of the equator (in natural habitats) the polar bears wouldn't have tribal knowledge of how to hunt and consume them. Even if they were succesful in catching a few, the fat content of the polar bears most common prey, sea lions, walruses and seals is so high that the bear can live for quite a long time after consuming only one, whereas the penguins, even the larger Emperor would consist mainly of feathers and some small amount of meat that would leave the bear with a calorie deficit: i.e. it would take more calories to catch them than they provide, and the bear would soon die of starvation, in my opinion.....

[RATTER15]

Would a polar bear still be left handed on the opposite pole?

[gen2]

Whether or not a polar bear would expend more energy catching a gentoo than it gained from eating it is beside the point. Penguins nest on land and polar bears would devastate a penguin rookery once they chanced upon it. Maybe the adults could escape, but the long term effects of preventing successful breeding would be the demise of penguins.

I know coz I woz there.

[mangetoute]

there was a documentry on beeb 2 on sunday it traced a mother and cubat one point the mother and cub stopped of at a bird nesting site and fed of the young that were flying for the first time down to the sea , so pingue would good enough to live on also polor bears can slow thier motabolism down when theres a shortage of food.

[mangetoute]

http://www.antarticconnection.com/antartic/wil dlife/index.shtml
the bears would be fine.

[mangetoute]

naffed that up did'nt it try this
http://www.antarticconection.com

[newtron]

There are seals in Antactica. So I think the bears would probably adapt.

[Clanad]

Thanks for that newtron... I didn't consider that aspect of the question... Seen here: http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/w ildlife/seals/index.shtml

[mangetoute]

got the web site wrong but thats what i tried to show,spoilt for choice are'nt they.

[CrazyWolfman]

Much as the bears may be fine, the penguins wouldn't. Somebody please, think of the poor penguins!