Polar bears are remarkable creatures, but I bet you don't know just how remarkable they are. Scientists tracking some of these majestic beasts in the Southern Beaufort sea using radio-collars have determined that some of them spent the whole of the month of August in an area in which there was almost no sea ice!

From this remarkable set of observations a number of possible conclusions are possible. Are bears able to swim for weeks at a time? Or are they able to walk on water? In fact, as Susan Crockford explains, there are also more plausible stories, most likely of which is the possibility that what the satellites see as open water is in fact melt ponds above solid ice.

Which can at least give one pause for thought when considering the alleged death spiral of the Arctic sea ice.