Would introducing Polar bears into Antarctica be a good idea?
There are very few occasions in which introducing an alien species into an environment has been beneficial – usually it just causes damage of one sort or another. Since Antarctica has existed for so long without polar bears, and polar bears have existed so long in a different environment than Antarctica, what possible purpose could it serve? The few animals living there have not adapted to having a predatory bear, and the environmental conditions, while cold, are not the same as in the north. Just because it’s frozen, doesn’t mean the seasons cycle the same way as what the polar bears are designed for. Food is different, and needs to be hunted differently. The terrain is different, and the temperatures are very extreme. Even if the bears did survive, don’t you think the small numbers of animals that live there have it hard enough already? Why decimate their numbers? Surely conserving the current environment of the polar bears would be much more practical.
