POLAR BEARS

1. Context 

2. Key points

• At the time of the survey, conducted by air in 2021, researchers calculated that there were 618 bears left in Western Hudson Bay, the region includes Churchill, the town that is known as "the Polar Bear Capital of the World".
• When the last survey took place in 2016, there were 842 bears in the area.
• According to the researchers, Western Hudson Bay has witnessed a drop of around 50 per cent in the population of polar bears since the 1980s.
• The survey is yet another addition to the long list of reports and studies that have highlighted the vulnerability of polar bears to climate change.
• An earlier study published in Nature Climate Change in 2020 warned that polar bears will be wiped out by the end of the century.

• Polar bears are the planet's biggest land-based carnivores although they spend most of their lives around water and ice.
• These are restricted to the icy Arctic region where the temperature falls as low as 50°C.
• They are found in the frozen wilds of the Arctic, in Canada, Alaska (US), Greenland, Russia and Norway.
• 40 per cent of polar bears live in the north of Canada.
• These are not found in Antarctica due to the evolution, location and climate.

 

Image Source: Britannica 

4. Impact of climate change

• The Arctic sea ice is crucial to polar bears' survival as they use it not only to hunt seals their chief food but also for travelling, mating and resting.
• However, with rising global temperatures, the sea ice is breaking earlier in summer and refreezing later in winter, due to which polar bears get less time to hunt and have to stay hungry for longer and travel greater distances.
• This extra need for energy coupled with a lack of food can result in body deterioration and a drop in the average weight of adult bears.
• The change in the diet leads to a higher mortality rate of bear cubs.

5. Importance of polar bears

• Polar bears are one of the most significant predators in the Arctic region and they keep biological populations in balance.
• The big kills made by them serve as a food resource for scavengers like Arctic foxes and Arctic birds.
• If polar bears are not able to hunt animals like seals, it can severely impact the food chain and the health of the ecosystem.
• Researchers have also found that once polar bears can not find seals to eat, they would quickly move to kill and survive on other creatures in the Arctic region.
• This would threaten the existence of species like the Arctic fox or the Walrus.
• Moreover, it might also cause the overpopulation of seals, which could endanger the existence of crustaceans and fish which are an important food source for local human populations as well as other Arctic wildlife.

For Prelims & Mains