A new study by the scientific journal, Science, reported by CNN revealed that polar bears are going extinct at a much quicker rate than expected. The study shares that polar bears are starving to death.
Researchers placed collars on a total of nine bears over a period of 11 days to examine their activity when it was discovered that the bear's food supply was incredibly short. This is a result of climate change--as the Arctic ice melts, the bears must travel extreme distances and exhaust themselves in order to find and catch prey. This means that the excess energy used and lack of enough food is causing the bears to lack calories, leading to malnutrition.
The study discovered that for one polar bear would need to take in over 12,000 calories each day in order to keep the energy needed to thrive. "According to the World Wildlife Fund, polar bears spend more than 50% of their time hunting and are successful less than 2% of that time," CNN said.
In the few days the study took place, the bears lost a combined 44 pounds.
"I'm not surprised to have seen this, polar bears are reliant on seals for food and seals rely on sea ice. Global warming is melting the ice so it has a chain reaction on how polar bears can survive," Liz Greengrass, a director at UK animal conservation charity Born Free Foundation told CNN.
Studies found that the population of this endangered species has gone down by 40 percent in the last decade and that the arctic ice is at its "second-lowest level since 1979," as stated by the National Snow & Ice Data Center.
"Without decisive action to address Arctic warming, the long-term fate of this species is uncertain," Greg Siekaniec, Alaska regional director of the wildlife agency, told CNN. "We now have the technology to learn how they are moving on the ice, their activity patterns and their energy needs, so we can better understand the implications of these changes we are seeing in the sea ice," he said.
