The annual polar bear migrations has begun, but the melting ice is affecting the worlds 20,000 polar bears. Within the past month, hundreds of polar bears have passed through small towns of Canada, it's part of their annual migration back to Hudson Bay, where sea ice is reforming after months of summer melt. To get to the ice each autumn, they pass through Churchill, Manitoba, the "polar bear capital of the world." Churchill has only about 900 people, but several hotels. The polar bear migration is a huge tourist draw, some 10,000 visitors flock here each year. As the seasonal freeze approaches, polar bears gradually gather in the coastal areas.
Sea ice that forms annually is key to polar bear survival. It provides a vital platform to hunt bearded seals, which helps make this the largest bear migration in the world. When the sea ice melts in the summer, polar bears make their way to land, where they save energy with what some have called a "walking hibernation".
But today the Hudson Bay population—and the rest of the world's 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears—is being affected by changes. Since 1979, sea ice cover has declined by about 30 percent in the Arctic. As greenhouse gases continue to warm the Earth, polar bears are being forced ashore for longer periods of time. The bears of Hudson Bay, for instance, now spend an average of nearly 30 days longer on land than they did 30 years ago.
Polar bears lose nearly two pounds of body weight each day they're on land—meaning the bears here are, 60 pounds lighter than they were three decades ago. Lighter bears produce smaller cubs, which can struggle to survive. Since 1987, there has been a 22 percent decline in the Churchill polar bear population.
Because polar bears depend on a habitat "that literally melts as temperatures rise, they are perhaps the most vulnerable of any species to a warming world." If nothing changes, 2-3rds of all polar bears will be gone by 2050, and perhaps extinct in the wild by the end of the century.
As their home melts, some wonder if polar bears could re-adapt permanently to land. It's unlikely but even if they could, it couldn't happen fast enough. They can't undo hundreds of thousands of years of evolution in 50 or 100 years. For one thing, there probably isn't enough suitable food on land for these huge animals, males weigh up to 1,200 pounds, females 650 pounds.
According to fossil evidence, polar bears today look about the same as they did 120,000 years ago.
For such a truly amazing animal that has been around for so long, we cant just let them go extinct, don't you want your children and their children and all the future generations to be able to see them? They are too great of a creature to let go. What are your guys opinions?
Replies
Good topic abut make it more of your own as some seems a bit copy and pasted in. Good job replying!
Holy cow that's crazy. It's sad. I really hope that the Polar Bears are okay.
We can easily find ways to help this country get back on a good track, help the environment and save animals. Animals are becoming more and more extinct everyday. The world just seems like its falling apart!
Global warming has caused a lot of issues so far, and this just happens to be one of those issues. I hope there is something we can do to help keep polar bears thriving because they are such an interesting creature. But I agree, we really need to do something about global warming.
We should try and have been trying to lessen global warming, but I think that it is too late for the Arctic. Hopefully we are able to help the wild bears survive, and maintain the population of bears in captivity.
This is terrible, I think something needs to be done. Yes I do want future generations to be able to see the polar bears.
I think it is a good idea to cut back on cars but I don't think America will because cars are what helped build the country and taking them away would anger a lot of people including me
This is really sad hopefully this can be fixed because it would be horrible if they went extinct. It is terrible that this is what we do to the earth. It is terrible that they are losing fat like this every time they are on land and hopefully soon they will be able to move off of land.
I personally don't believe in global warming at all, but it is sad to hear about the polar bears having no where to go. But most animals adapt to their environment all the time, so I think it's probably something that has to happen eventually.
I hope that this helps people realize that global warming does affect other parts of the world, like the north pole. It is not just the polar bears. there are many animals that we need to help protect for the future.
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