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Polar Bears Drowing Because of Melting Ice |
| Written by SerenaStargazer | |
| Monday, 26 December 2005 | |
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Scientists have found evidence that polar bears are drowning because global warming is melting the Arctic ice shelf. Polar bears now have to swim up to 60 miles across open sea to find food because the ice floes from which they feed are melting, becoming smaller and drifting further apart.
Last summer the ice cap receded about 200 miles further north than the average of two decades ago, forcing the bears to undertake much longer voyages between floes. Polar bears are adapted for swimming close to shore. The long sea journeys leave them vulnerable to hypothermia, exhaustion and being overcome by the waves.
In one month, four bear carcases were found floating in a single patch of sea off the north coast of Alaska, where average summer temperatures have increased by 2-3C degrees since the 1950s. The scientists believe that such drownings are becoming widespread across the Arctic, as the proportion of polar bears having to swim in open seas has doubled in the past 20 years. The population of polar bears in Hudson Bay, Canada, fell from 1,194 in 1987 to 935 last year, a 22 per cent decrease. Polar bears are now roaming further south, rummaging in the dustbins of Canadian homes. Field researchers working for the World Wildlife Fund in Yakutia, on the northeast coast of Russia, has also found the region’s first evidence of cannibalism among bears competing for food supplies. |
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