The Plight of the Polar Bear

ByABC News
September 6, 2006, 9:33 AM

Sept. 6, 2006 — -- The breakup of Arctic sea ice because of global warming is depriving polar bears of weeks of valuable hunting time they need to survive the long ice-free months without food, according to a new study in the scientific journal Arctic.

As a result, hungry polar bears are being driven to shore weeks earlier than usual, the report says.

Once on land, they are interacting with people more often, sometimes giving the false impression that their populations are increasing.

In fact, the report says, continued warming in the Arctic will cause the bears to become "increasingly food-stressed," which will most likely cause a significant decline in numbers.

Researchers from NASA and the Canadian Wildlife Service studied satellite data to measure the extent of sea ice in several regions of the Arctic since 1978.

Looking at the Western Hudson Bay region, for example, scientists found that the warmer temperatures were causing the sea ice to break up seven days to eight days earlier per decade over the last 30 years.

That means polar bears in that region have had their prime hunting period cut by as much as 24 days.

"There is a lot of variability, but in general the trend is for that date to come earlier and earlier in the spring," said Claire Parkinson, a climatologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and co-author of the study.

The earlier breakup means significantly less time for polar bears to use the ice to hunt seals and build needed energy reserves, according to co-author Ian Stirling, a polar bear expert with the Canadian Wildlife Service.

"Seventy to 80 percent of the energy they will use for the entire year is taken in between April and the ice breakup in mid-July," Stirling said.

"If they feed for a shorter period of time, they're going to accumulate less fat. At the same time, they're going to be on land and fasting for longer periods of time. So there's a double whammy."

Scientists say the irony is that among some native Inuit hunters in the region, the increased number of bears seen on land has been "interpreted as evidence that the populations were growing," the report says.

In several cases, this even led to polar bear hunting quotas being raised, allowing more of the bears to be killed.