Advice on seeing polar bears
The world’s largest terrestrial carnivore, the “King of the Arctic”, is found in five countries: Russia, Canada, the United States (in the state of Alaska), Norway (in the Svalbard archipelago) and Greenland (which is a constituent country of the kingdom of Denmark). Despite Greenland’s vast size – it is the world’s largest island, at over 830,000 square miles – polar bears are not frequent sights here as they are in other parts of their range.
The IUCN estimates that there are 22-31,000 bears worldwide, with 60-80% living in Canada. In 2014, the Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) adjudged there to be insufficient data to assess whether the East Greenland subpopulation of Ursus maritimus was increasing or declining, while the other subpopulations inhabiting Greenland share territory with Canada to the west. PBSG analysis from the early 1990s estimated Greenland to contain between 3,500 and 4,400 bears.
NEXT STEPS
• Browse our Greenland holidays
• Download our free Polar bear travel guide
• Contact our Greenland Destination Specialist for advice