By Frankie Sanchez
Correspondent
Good News Lions is the Nation & World section’s bi-weekly news segment, highlighting positive news in the country and around the world. The theme of this article is positive news and advancements in the environment.
Polar Bears in the Norwegian Arctic are healthier despite glacial melt
Polar Bears in Svalbard, Norway are fatter and healthier, according to a report published in the Scientific Reports journal in January. From Canada to Greenland, polar bears suffer from lower life expectancy and population growth due to climate change. But, one subset of polar bears on the coasts of Norway are fatter and healthier than expected.
The Barents Sea experienced higher rises in temperatures compared to other Arctic regions, reaching 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit in parts. Because of this, the Barents Sea has lost ice twice as fast as any other place inhabited by polar bears.
Over 27 years body measurements of bears were taken in Svalbard as the ice continued to recede. Initially the health of the bears declined, but over the next 20 years the polar bears became “fitter and fatter”.
The study’s lead author Jon Aars said that bears on Svalbard adapted by finding new ways to forage as well as by putting more effort in other food sources around them, like reindeer, seals and their eggs.
Aars was keen to underscore how the study does not clash with our understanding of climate change and how it affects life on Earth. Instead, it highlights the complexity that can exist with how climate change affects even different groups of the same species.
Despite the positivity of the report, it illustrates the changes in the climate which led to the ice loss and food scarcity that drove the bears of Svalbard to find new ways to survive.
SoCal Honey Bees can fight off lethal mites
A recent Scientific Reports study from March 27 discusses how hybrid species of honeybee local to Southern California show more resistance to Varroa mites, a parasite that feeds on honeybees. In 2025, US honeybee populations suffered due to climate change, pesticide use and parasites like the Varroa mite.
Local honeybees in California were observed to do much better against the mites than commercial bees. The study published by UC Riverside reported on the validity and causes for this apparent resistance.
Monitoring 236 honeybee both commercial and Californian colonies found that although they are not completely immune to the mites, SoCal bees had 68% less mites than commercial bee colonies.
The mechanism behind their resistance seems to be at the bee’s larval stage, when Varroa mites like to infect them. The SoCal bee larvae were much less attractive to the mites than the other bees.
Why the mites are less attracted to the SoCal bee larvae is still under study, however the promise of more mite resistance bees would benefit bee populations, the plants they pollinate and the people and animals that consume their honey.
First jaguar spotted in Honduras range in over a decade
Camera traps in the Sierra del Merendón mountain range in Honduras took a rare image of a jaguar, the first seen in the area in over 10-years. The jaguar was spotted on Feb. 6 this year, over 7,000 feet up in high-altitude forest.
In the Americas, Jaguars have lost almost half their historical range, most live within the Amazon rainforest, with all other populations endangered or critically endangered.
The biggest threats to Jaguars are deforestation and poaching.
Honduras lost 1.5 million hectares of tree cover over the last two decades, and poaching of jaguars themselves as well as their prey contributes to population decline. The government of Honduras pledged to restore 1.3 million hectares by the end of the 2020s and has improved protections against poaching.
The sighting of the cloud jaguar in the Sierra del Merendón range may just indicate an early success of these initiatives.
