Current:Home > StocksPolar bears in a key region of Canada are in sharp decline, a new survey shows-LoTradeCoin
Polar bears in a key region of Canada are in sharp decline, a new survey shows
View Date:2024-12-23 23:42:25
Polar bears in Canada's Western Hudson Bay — on the southern edge of the Arctic — are continuing to die in high numbers, a new government survey of the land carnivore has found. Females and bear cubs are having an especially hard time.
Researchers surveyed Western Hudson Bay — home to Churchill, the town called "the Polar Bear Capital of the World," — by air in 2021 and estimated there were 618 bears, compared to the 842 in 2016, when they were last surveyed.
"The actual decline is a lot larger than I would have expected," said Andrew Derocher, a biology professor at the University of Alberta who has studied Hudson Bay polar bears for nearly four decades. Derocher was not involved in the study.
Since the 1980s, the number of bears in the region has fallen by nearly 50%, the authors found. The ice essential to their survival is disappearing.
Polar bears rely on arctic sea ice — frozen ocean water — that shrinks in the summer with warmer temperatures and forms again in the long winter. They use it to hunt, perching near holes in the thick ice to spot seals, their favorite food, coming up for air. But as the Arctic has warmed twice as fast as the rest of the world because of climate change, sea ice is cracking earlier in the year and taking longer to freeze in the fall.
That has left many polar bears that live across the Arctic with less ice on which to live, hunt and reproduce.
Polar bears are not only critical predators in the Arctic. For years, before climate change began affecting people around the globe, they were also the best-known face of climate change.
Researchers said the concentration of deaths in young bears and females in Western Hudson Bay is alarming.
"Those are the types of bears we've always predicted would be affected by changes in the environment," said Stephen Atkinson, the lead author who has studied polar bears for more than 30 years.
Young bears need energy to grow and cannot survive long periods without enough food and female bears struggle because they expend so much energy nursing and rearing offspring.
"It certainly raises issues about the ongoing viability," Derocher said. "That is the reproductive engine of the population."
The capacity for polar bears in the Western Hudson Bay to reproduce will diminish, Atkinson said, "because you simply have fewer young bears that survive and become adults."
veryGood! (592)
Related
- FBI offers up to $25,000 reward for information about suspect behind Northwest ballot box fires
- 17-year-old boy shot and killed by police during welfare check in Columbus, Nebraska
- The first tornado to hit Wisconsin in February was spotted
- Jennifer Garner Reveals Why 13 Going on 30 Costar Mark Ruffalo Almost Quit the Film
- Amazon launches an online discount storefront to better compete with Shein and Temu
- Steve Scalise returning to Washington as another Mayorkas impeachment vote expected
- The race for George Santos’ congressional seat could offer clues to how suburbs will vote this year
- Jon Stewart changed late-night comedy once. Can he have a second act in different times?
- 'Yellowstone' premiere: Record ratings, Rip's ride and Billy Klapper's tribute
- Arizona faces Friday deadline for giving counties more time to count votes
Ranking
- Fantasy football Week 11: Trade value chart and rest of season rankings
- Rare centuries-old gold coin from Netherlands found by metal detectorist in Poland
- Conspiracy theories swirl around Taylor Swift. These Republican voters say they don’t care
- California's big cities are usually dry. Floods make a homelessness crisis even worse.
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Good Try (Freestyle)
- Powerball winning numbers for Feb. 7: Jackpot grows to $248 million
- Ohio backs off proposed restrictions on gender-affirming care for adults
- Robert De Niro says grandson's overdose death was 'a shock' and 'shouldn’t have happened'
Recommendation
-
Indiana man is found guilty of murder in the 2017 killings of 2 teenage girls
-
Wisconsin Republicans urge state Supreme Court to reject redistricting report’s findings
-
New Justin Hartley show 'Tracker' sees 'This is Us' star turn action hero
-
AP-NORC Poll: Most Americans say air travel is safe despite recent scares
-
Japan to resume V-22 flights after inquiry finds pilot error caused accident
-
Christian Bale breaks ground on foster homes he's fought for 16 years to see built
-
Donald Glover calls Phoebe Waller-Bridge exit from 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' remake 'a divorce'
-
California's big cities are usually dry. Floods make a homelessness crisis even worse.
Like
- Craig Melvin replacing Hoda Kotb as 'Today' show co-anchor with Savannah Guthrie
- Takeaways from the special counsel’s report on Biden’s handling of classified documents
- Wyoming, Slow To Take Federal Clean Energy Funds, Gambles State Money on Carbon Sequestration and Hydrogen Schemes to Keep Fossil Fuels Flowing