they would have nowhere to retreat if their food supply ran out.
Um. Hello? There are scientists there.
Which means scientific papers, then tourists, then garbage and a symbiotic relationship, then the eventual domestication of polar bears.
Not, you know, the international scientific community treating scientists like cats.
They have been corralled into a kill box, not “whoopsie, we stumbled into a war zone when the place we were born was turned into a war zone by invaders and we were promised this area was safe but now they’re bombing the areas they said would be safe and there’s no where else safe to go, lol, how silly!”