Polar bears usually hold their breath for about 1–2 minutes underwater, with rare record dives a bit over 3 minutes.

Quick Scoop

Typical breath-hold time

  • Most polar bears can stay underwater for around 2 minutes while diving or stalking seals near the ice edge.
  • Many sources and observers give a range of 1–2 minutes as a realistic everyday limit for normal dives.

Record dives and extremes

  • A documented “record” underwater stalk by a wild polar bear lasted about 3 minutes and 10 seconds , showing what a desperate, highly motivated bear can do at the limit of its abilities.
  • These extreme dives are not the norm; they are rare and usually linked to intense hunting efforts or a stressed, thin bear pushing its endurance.

How they manage it

  • Polar bears have large lungs (around 165 liters in adults) and can slow their heart rate dramatically during a dive, from roughly 70 beats per minute down to about 5–6.
  • By redirecting blood mainly to vital organs and closing their nostrils underwater, they use oxygen very efficiently while swimming under the ice.

Why it matters in today’s Arctic

  • Their breath-holding ability is crucial for sneaking up on seals at breathing holes or ice edges, which is still their primary hunting strategy.
  • As sea ice shrinks and breaks up with climate change, polar bears often have to swim farther between ice floes, making every dive and every breath-hold more energetically costly.

In simple terms: a polar bear underwater is running a tight oxygen budget—most dives stay around a minute or two, and anything past three minutes is an all-out, high-risk push for survival.

TL;DR: Polar bears can generally hold their breath for about 1–2 minutes, and in rare, extreme cases just over 3 minutes, which is enough for short underwater stalks during hunts on the shifting Arctic ice.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.