Bear breaks bear swimming record, hearts

Maggie Koerth 4:21 pm Thu Jul 21, 2011

A female polar bear has broken the polar bear long-distance swimming record—covering 426 miles of water over nine straight days. If polar bears were influenced in their actions by things like the Guinness Book, then this feat would be pretty exciting (at least, until it turned out that the bear was on performance-enhancing drugs). As it is, the story takes a rather depressing turn when you realize that this wild bear had no choice in her record-breaking swim. She was forced into it by the loss of sea ice and had lost 22% of her body weight by the time she found solid land again.

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