Pursuits (and capture) of flightless snow geese lasting longer than 12 s have been documented (Iles et al., 2013), and we have observed multiple examples of this behaviour in recent years (LJG & RFR our unpublished data). Our analyses here indicate that these observations are to be expected, given that prolonged (i.e. >20 min) pursuits of even distant geese (i.e. farther than 500 m) can be energetically profitable, especially for polar bears in the size range for which there are data (Figs 3 and 4). Of those, smaller bears are capable of profitably engaging in pursuits of more distant geese and at higher pursuit speeds, given their lower overall level of energy expenditure (Fig. 4). In western Hudson Bay, subadult polar bears (those that are included in the studied size range) as well as females with cubs tend to arrive onshore in spring earlier than larger, mature individuals (Rockwell and Gormezano, 2009). Interestingly, our results suggest that these younger and smaller bears, which have recently been shown to have lower survival (Lunn et al., 2016) and which may be disproportionately affected by lost opportunities to hunt seals as a result of climate change (Regehr et al., 2007; Rockwell and Gormezano, 2009), should have an inherently better ability to recover caloric deficits via terrestrial prey.