Animal Watch

Endangered: Polar Bear

Species: U. maritimus

Class: Mammalia

Order: Carnivora

Family: Ursidae

Numbers: 20,000 to 25,000 bears; population has dropped 22% since the early 1980s.

Threats: Global Warming, CFC, pollution for PCB,

Habitat: Tundra around the North Pole, Greenland and towards the north side of North America, Europe and Asia.

Food: These animals are good hunters and they feast on seals, rodents, shellfish, crabs, Beluga whales, young walruses, occasionally Muskox or Reindeer, fish and seabirds. They sometimes eat berries, roots, and kelp in the summer.

Range: Their range is limited by the availability of the sea ice they use as a platform for hunting seals. Global warming threatens the bear's survival as a species.

One of the most majestic animals in the world is being directly threatened due to global warming. The polar bear is a vulnerable species at high risk of extinction. In May 2006, the World Conservation Union listed polar bears as a vulnerable species as currently one in three of the polar bear subspecies are threatened. In the arctic the polar bear is the undisputed king of the land with no known enemies except for one.

MAN.

Yes, due to man’s neglect of the Earth we have shrunk the polar bears natural habitat and hunting range. Scientists and climatologists believe that the projected decreases in the polar sea ice (due to global warming) will reduce their population by two thirds by mid-century. Polar bears are threatened by the spread of hormone-disrupting chemicals and global warming. This affects the polar ice edge ecosystem, the habitat of walrus, seals and penguins, as well as bears. Due to global warming the icecaps are shrinking which makes the prey of the polar bear easier to spot the polar bear and now they have to swim much further to capture their prey.

The decline in polar bear numbers is a direct correlation to the global warming. Ice is also breaking up earlier therefore forcing bears ashore before they have time to build up sufficient fat stores. This has forced the bears to swim long distances, which exhausts them. Fishermen has spotted polar bears swimming further and further out in the ocean just to feed and many polar bears have drowned due to lack of energy.

The results of global warming have caused bears to be thinner; hence decreasing reproduction, and lower juvenile survival rates. The bears are now weaker and thinner with less natural body fat due to the retreat of ice inland. Before they have been able to replenish their reserves of fat by feeding on seal pups, which live on the ice but due to the shrinking habitat, the polar bears are becoming malnourished and do not have enough insulation to last them through the winter.

Adult males generally weigh between 720 and 1,700 pounds (363 and 771 kilograms) and despite polar bears being the largest predators on land they are being starved and choked by their environment that man has caused.

Man is slowly killing the polar bears.