On the Red List produced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), polar bears, Ursus maritimus , have been classified among the vulnerable species. Experts estimate that about 26,000 of them survive in 19 regions spread across different parts of the Arctic, from Canada to Siberia . However, a team of researchers from the Polar Science Center, at the University of Washington, and the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources has discovered that the floating ice masses that cover much of their habitat, essential for their survival, are disappearing in all of them.
In a study published in the journal The Cryosphere , edited by the European Geosciences Union, these experts warn that the impact of climate change is very notable on the populations of these predators. In fact, it is their greatest threat today. As temperatures rise, the ice melts earlier, in spring, and forms later and later, well into autumn . Satellite measurements show that since 1979 the period in which the waters remain covered with ice in the territory of polar bears has diminished at a rate of between 7 and 19 days per decade. What’s more, climatologists point out that this part of the world is warming faster and faster than the rest of the planet.
This phenomenon forces them to move more and more to find “solid ground” and greatly complicates their health and survival. IUCN estimates that by mid-century their numbers will be reduced by a third .
Image: Susanne Miller / US Fish & Wildlife Service
