KARACHI (UNESCO): Let’s celebrate Polar Bear Day and their incredible survival skills in the toughest of environments!
From their fluffy white fur to their impressive swimming ability, there’s a lot to admire about these awesome creatures.
But their habitat is facing numerous threats that can lead them to extinction.
From melting sea ice to dwindling food sources, more than ever, we NEED to work towards a sustainable future for all living beings.
The IUCN estimates there are currently about 26,000 polar bears worldwide.
But without action on climate change, we could lose all but a few polar bear populations by the end of the century.
In addition to climate warming, other challenges to the bears include increased commercial activities, conflicts with people, pollution, disease, inadequate habitat protection (of denning and seasonal resting areas), and the potential for over-harvest in smaller or declining polar bear populations.
Polar bears roam across the circumpolar Arctic, where they rely on sea ice to reach their seal prey.
Polar bears live in remote areas that are difficult and expensive to study.
This makes monitoring them a challenge, both for single surveys and long-term studies.
For this reason, scientists don’t have solid figures on the total number of polar bears worldwide.
They lack data on some populations, specifically those in Russia and East Greenland.
Arctic Russia, aside from the Chukchi Sea population, is especially data deficient.
Not only is it one of the most remote areas on the planet, it lacks basic infrastructure (roads and airfields) and logistical support (small aircraft).
Polar Bears International is currently helping to fund studies that will erase some of Russia’s big blank spots.
The number of polar bears worldwide is not increasing.
Some populations are recovering after their numbers were vastly reduced by uncontrolled hunting in the 1960s, but that potential for growth is running head first into declining carrying capacity in some regions due to loss of sea ice habitat.
Related to this, residents of many communities in Hudson Bay are seeing more polar bears.
These polar bears are increasingly getting into food caches, entering camps, and posing risks to communities and residents.
The observation that “people are seeing more bears in and around sites of human activities” is real evidence of a change from the past conditions northern residents knew.
Western science-based knowledge/evidence shows that in the Hudson Bay system, polar bear body condition has been declining, bears are having fewer cubs, fewer cubs are surviving after birth, and the population size has declined.
As malnourished bears spend more time on land for longer periods, more are venturing into settlements where they are looking for food, leading to increased polar bear-human conflicts.
UNESCO
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