When the sea ice ebbs during the Arctic summer, some hungry polar bears snack on a bounty provided by seasonal visitors—nests of snow goose eggs.

Now scientists are studying whether the big eggs might become a more regular polar bear menu item, if a warming Arctic lands them on solid ground more often.

David Iles, a Ph.D. candidate at Utah State University, studies what geese eat and, in this case, what eats geese. For several years Iles has been studying polar bear predation on birds and eggs in Western Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, with colleagues from Utah State and the American Museum of Natural History.

"Sea ice is melting sooner on average, and polar bears are coming back to shore earlier," said Iles, who worked with Utah State's David Koons, who received funding from the National Geographic Committee on Research and Exploration. "So what we're seeing is an increased overlap with nesting waterfowl. That's what we're trying to study.”

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/watching-polar-bears-eat-goose-eggs-in-warmer-arctic/