Polar bears and global warming

Polar bears are the largest predators living on land and are also the largest of the bears. They are also the only bears that mostly eat meat to sustain life. This bear is in danger of extinction due to the effects of global warming in the Arctic. Why can polar bears become extinct? Because when polar ice sheets melt, they will have less time to fatten in the summer, and that is why the baby bears die.

Even though most of us will almost never have the opportunity to see polar bears in the wild world, they have long since become one of the most representative wildlife species. Unfortunately, they are now rapidly becoming a prime example of the animals most affected by global warming. The increase in global temperature will be a challenge for wildlife in the future.

How does global warming threaten polar bears?

Polar bears can swim regularly for hours in a freezing environment (Photo: Morguefile)

Polar bears adapt quite quickly to hunting and living on sea freezing environments. They can swim for hours on a regular basis in a freezing water environment thanks to their special adaptability to incomplete feet and impermeable coat.

However, habitat destruction due to global warming melting the Arctic is taking place at a worrying rate. According to the University of Colorado's Boulder National Snow and Ice Data Center, the ice is seriously melting at a rate of more than 23,000 square miles (59570 m ² ) a year (or nearly 9% within a decade.) ).

Indeed, polar bears are ' drowning ' by global warming, they cannot swim farther and farther between the land and sea ice (because the ice is shrinking and retreating from the mainland). than). They rely on sea ice to hunt for food sources mainly of seals. With ice forming late in the fall and melting early in the spring, the time it takes for bears to find food sources is shortening each year.

A recent study by the Alaska Science Center of the US Geological Survey found an amazing change in the survival of baby bears and estimated only about 43% of bears. Alaska's Beaufort sea can survive the first year after their habitat is narrowed. The survival of baby bears is being reduced by 65% ​​compared to the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Even if the number remains around 22,000 to 25,000, polar bears are in serious danger because their ice environment is shrinking. The US Department of Wildlife and Wildlife Protection recently asked to list the number of endangered polar bears according to the program of action for endangered animals.

Wild animals have not been prepared to face the threat of global warming and climate change.

Please follow up on the polar bear topic in the following articles.

Việt Hằng (Source: American Wildlife Protection Association)