Polar bears in western Hudson Bay, in northern Canada, are disappearing fast, warns a new study released Friday by the Canadian government.
The researchers recorded 194 bears between late August and early September 2021, as they flew over the Churchill region, a place at the Arctic entrance to the Canadian province of Manitoba that calls itself the “polar bear capital.”
From this census, scientists estimated that there were 618 polar bears in the area.
The previous census, conducted in 2016, estimated that there were 842 polar bears in this region.
“Comparison with estimates from 2011 and 2016 aerial surveys suggests that the abundance of the West Hudson Bay population may be declining,” the study notes.
The researchers note that females and calves were particularly affected by this decline.
Despite not being able to confirm with certainty the reasons for this loss, they mainly point, as possible factors, to the movement of the animal to neighboring regions or even to hunting.
“The observed declines are consistent with long-standing predictions about the demographic effects of climate change on polar bears,” they noted.
Bears rely on ice to feed seals, move around, and reproduce.
But in the Arctic, global warming is up to four times faster than in other parts of the world, according to the latest studies.
Gradually, the ice pack, the habitat of the polar bear, disappears. Since the 1980s, sea ice has been reduced by nearly 50% in the summer, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
According to a report published in Nature Climate Change in 2020, this situation could mean the virtual extinction of this emblematic animal: there were 1,200 individuals in the 1980s.
Source: TSF
