‘Jumping genes’: how polar bears are rewiring their DNA to survive the warming Arctic

Polar bears are leaping through their evolution in real time as rising temperatures threaten their habitat. A population of bears was found in a climate warmer than one in which they usually exist and showed genetic differences from their colder-weather counterparts. Those differences could be key to the survival of the species, as well as show how other animals and humans could evolve in the future.

Hot and cold

An isolated colony of polar bears found in southeast Greenland “inhabits a warmer climate zone...