Longest polar bear (white bear) swim
Last updated: June 27, 2018 at 19:13 pm
687 km (426 miles) — In 2008, scientists tracked a female polar bear (Ursus maritimus) by radio-collar GPS as it swam without interruption for nine days in the Beaufort Sea. The bear lost 22% of its body mass as well as its yearling cub that did not survive the swim. In addition to swimming over long distances, the polar bear can hold its breath for more than three minutes, and it is the world’s deepest diving bear.
Durner, G.M., Whiteman, J.P., Harlow, H.J. et al. Polar Biol (2011) 34: 975. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-010-0953-2
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Jeffrey Gallant is the Editor-in-Chief and Records Keeper of the Diving Almanac. He is also a contributing editor of DIVER Magazine, and the scientific director of the Greenland Shark and Elasmobranch Education and Research Group (GEERG). Jeffrey started diving in 1982.
