Polar Bears Drowning As Globe Warms

Polar bears appear to be drowning when they attempt long sea crossings as a result of receding summer ice. New evidence from field researchers working for the World Wildlife Fund in Yakutia, on the northeast coast of Russia, has also shown the region’s first evidence of cannibalism among bears competing for food supplies. As the ice pack retreats north in the summer between June and October, the bears must travel between ice floes to continue hunting in areas such as the shallow water of the continental shelf off the Alaskan coast — one of the most food-rich areas in the Arctic. However, last summer the ice cap receded about 320km further north than the average of two decades ago, forcing the bears to undertake far longer voyages between floes