Polar bears need more foods to survive; climate change is pushing their survival to edge

Washington, February 4: Our man-made disaster of climate change is not only wreaking havoc on us but other species too. The sweetest Polar-bears who are on the verge of extinction is now even facing crisis to collect food to for their energy need due to melting ice in Arctic region.

This is kind of a warning that the bears might face more crises to get their high-fat diet, the seals. As the ice is melting in the Arctic, scientists fear these innocent victims of climate change may have to walk or swim longer to even find a suitable hunting ground.

Spring is bears’ prime hunting season. But the thinning of ice is making it harder to find a seal. A Polar Bear needs one seal in nine days as per their BMR need. George Durner, United States Geological Survey said: “Things are likely to get worse before they’re going to get better.”

The researchers monitored the behavior and metabolic rates of nine free-ranging polar bears over 2 years. They found that high energy demands required consumption of high-fat prey, such as seals, which are easy to come by on sea ice but nearly unavailable in ice-free conditions. Thus, as sea ice becomes increasingly short-lived annually, polar bears are likely to experience increasingly stressful conditions and higher mortality rates.