Mother of the polar bear floating in the sea

The Daily Mail UK has just released images of a pair of polar bear mothers stuck on an iceberg and floated between the seabed 12 miles off the Norwegian Strait of Olga.

The baby bear nestled into the mother bear.Photo: Daily Mail

Immediately after the publication of the photos has received great attention from the public, and aroused a fierce debate about the impact of global climate change. An environmental activist claims that similar images have shown that global warming is destroying the world.

Although these photos were just released, they were taken in August last year. That's right in the summer in the Arctic so it is normal for ice on both sides of the shore to collapse and melt.

Environmentalists do not object to this, however, they argue, according to scientific observations in the past few decades, it is clear that the Arctic spring melting time is getting earlier. Meanwhile, the time started to freeze in the autumn more and more late. As a result, the results of the Arctic sea ice area have decreased by 1.28 million km ² in the last 25 years.

The pair of the bear mother is said to have been stuck after catching seals on the sea ice. Polar bears are the world's largest land-based predator, mainly seals. The iceberg follows Olga Strait Strait, close to Svalbard, Norway and is constantly shrinking. The pair of bear and mother just had to lean close to each other in the middle of a small iceberg.

The ice is shrinking.Photo: Daily Mail

The body of the polar bear is huge. Adult males have a body length of 240-260cm, and their weight is about 400-500 kg. Female bears are only half the size of male bears in both length and weight. According to this data, it is clear that the ice sheet that polar bear mothers live in is too small.

Eric Lefranc, who took these photos at that time, was sailing near the area. Eric said: 'After I approached, I found a mother polar bear and its baby stuck on an unstable ice sheet. Baby bears were only about 9 months old. Looking at this pair of mother and son felt very sorry.

'Mother bears try to find ways to keep the ice stable, protect themselves and their children. The little bear felt very anxious, constantly pacing back and forth. Although the polar bear is a great swimmer, the ice is at least 12 miles from the shore, while still following a fast flow. Some people on my boat wanted to bring this pair of bears to the nearest beach, but it was obviously impossible. '

After publication, these photographs have created a debate about the impact of climate change on the survival of polar bears. Recently, scientists discovered a fossil record of ancient polar bears. Fossil samples have shown that this animal was fortunate to survive the most recent warming of the earth.

Will polar bears escape the effects of global warming?

Two scientists from the University of Iceland and the University of Oslo have discovered a polar bear bone fossil specimen dating from about 11 to 13,000 years ago. This proves that the polar bear has escaped the impact of global warming in the Northern Hemisphere, about 130,000 - 115 thousand years ago. Then the area of ​​ice in Greenland and Arctic is smaller than the current.

However, Professor Chris Stringer of the British Museum of Natural History said: 'Being able to survive in the warming of global climate does not mean that polar bears can cope with it at all. climate change at the present time '.

It is undeniable that, because the temperature of the earth is constantly rising, the Arctic ice is gradually melting, the polar bear's house is also destroyed at some level, food is also reduced.

In addition, no matter how good the polar bear's ability is, it is still a land animal so they have no way in the sea for a long time. Therefore, the increasing sea area cannot be said not to threaten this animal.