Viral Video Shows How Polar Bears Brilliantly Travel Across Thin Ice

The phrase "you're on thin ice" is usually used when trying to alert someone about their risky behavior, but for one polar bear, it was a literal warning about the sheet of ultra-thin ice that was the only thing standing between him and his destination. To cross the icy water, this smart bear needed to think outside the box, which he easily did, shocking viewers in the viral video that shows the sad reality for bears living in areas that are seeing the affects of climate change.

Scroll down to watch the video and to see just how much polar bears are having to adjust to continue to survive on a warming planet.

The video of the quick thinking polar bear was shared on Reddit by user @armaan204. In the clip, the polar bear can be seen approaching the frozen surface. But, as he leans down to make his way from one solid shoreline to the other, it looks like he senses that the ice isn't exactly as thick as it should be.

Instead of turning back to find another route or giving up entirely, the ingenious bear used a bit of physics and lowered himself until he was flat against the ice, spreading his considerable weight across his entire body.

If you look closely, you can see just how compromised the ice is, as his paws churn up splashes of water while he pulls himself along. Once he safely reaches the other side, the polar bear seems to sense the videographer watching him and he takes off for parts unknown.

The bright idea garnered the polar bear a lot of praise in the comments, with plenty of Redditors cheering him on.

"Smarter than a lot of humans I know," user @getzlafmylawn wrote.

While this trick may be one that has been passed down for generations, it's likely that the polar bears of the future will need to perfect this skill as the frozen tundra they're used to crossing continues to shrink.

That's because the continued increase of average temperatures around the world is causing the patches of sea ice that polar bears and other arctic creatures once called home to become more and more inhospitable each year.

In fact, this disappearing frozen landscape is part of what caused the polar bear to be added to the Endangered Species list back in 2008. The landmark addition was a sobering one, as the polar bear was the first to see their name added due to the threat of global warming alone.

Without major changes, it's possible that someday, polar bears won't even have any ice to cross, which means videos like this will become a thing of the past.

And sadly, that moment may come quicker than we realize. In 2020, researchers raised concerns about the future of ice in the Arctic, noting that it's possible that there won't be any sea ice there by the year 2050, something that would be catastrophic for the polar bears and other animals in the region, who will no longer need to figure out a way to keep the partially frozen ice from breaking, since there isn't likely to be any there in the first place.