Polar bears eat dolphin meat due to climate change

Norwegian scientists have for the first time discovered polar bears eating dolphin meat, due to the decline in food in their habitat.

Climate change causes polar bears to eat dolphin meat

Telegraph yesterday reported, Jon Aars, Norwegian Polar Institute scientist photographed a bear eating meat white dolphins on the Svalbard Islands, Norway in April 2014. At that time, he was surprised because the main food of polar bears was seals.

A male polar bear is eating dolphin meat.(Photo: Telegraph)

Aars said the bear caught two dolphins as they floated to the surface to breathe, through small holes on the ice surface. He ate a dolphin and saved the remaining baby under the snow.

"We think the bear tries to hide the dolphin into the snow so that the bears, foxes and other birds will not be found ," Aars said.

Dolphins often appear in Norway's Arctic region during the summer months, when the ice melts. People have never observed them appear in the winter or spring, because at this time the ice is covering the sea surface.

"It is likely that new species are appearing in polar bear diets due to climate change, because new species are finding their way to the north," Aars said. Since April 2014, there have been 5 more reports of dolphins being grounded and eaten by bears.

Norwegian scientists report that, in the recent two winters, many large ice sheets melted and there was no freezing of water. They say this is the reason that dolphins have to move further north, where they are easily trapped in narrow ice blocks.