Researchers at the Canadian Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey (Alaska) confirm that the sharp decline that is taking place in the northern Manitoba polar bear population is likely a blueprint for the future of the entire Canadian polar bear population.
With ice break-up occurring earlier in the spring the survival rate of younger bears is declining. Over the past 50 years or so, Environment Canada has recorded an average warming in Northern Manitoba of 2 to 3 degrees celsius.With less time to find food on the ice in the spring the researchers are seeing "a large number of nutritionally stressed polar bears."
"Polar bears depend on sea ice for their survival. It is their only predictable substrate for foraging (for seals, their main food item)," the researchers reported.
The research team handled 1,963 bears in the course the its study, which concluded that the west Hudson Bay polar bear population fell from 1,194 bears to 935 in less than 10 years.
Source: Winnipeg Free Press
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