POLAR BEARS RESORTING TO CANNIBALISM

When it comes to global warming and its impact on various animals around the world, perhaps no other animal has had a more publicized plight than the polar bear. For those who haven’t been aware of the polar bears’ dire situation, the vast arctic ice sheets that serve as the hunting grounds for these animals have been melting increasingly early every spring. This forces polar bears to retreat inland before they have replenished their reserves on seal fat. Those who become desperate have been seen swimming for miles at a time looking for stable ice. More and more polar bears are dying from either drowning or being stranded in areas where food is scarce.

In what can only be seen as another desperate attempt to combat an ever growing problem, recent studies conducted by Canadian and American scientists have shown that polar bears are now resorting to cannibalism. In one graphic example cited by the study, a mother polar who had just given birth to cubs had been dragged away from her den by a male stalker and killed seemingly for no other reason than as prey. Polar bears have been known to kill each other for territory and breeding purposes but never for food. "During 24 years of research on polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea region of northern Alaska and 34 years in northwestern Canada, we have not seen other incidents of polar bears stalking, killing, and eating other polar bears," the scientists said.

Cannibalistic behavior exhibited by polar bears was first documented during the winter of 2004. While the number of these accounts is small, scientists caution that it may be a sign of things to come. "We anticipate we're going to continue to see these things and if the ice retreats farther and farther out we're likely to see an increased stress in the polar bear population," lead researcher Steven Armstrup of the US Geological Survey said. It also should be noted that the actual number of these situations is likely to be higher than the number of documented accounts based on the sheer fact that the region is so large it is impossible to observe every case.

The issue of Global Warming is a subject that has become inescapable these days. Everywhere I look there seems to be a new article published or television program aired describing how global warming is negatively impacting a particular thing (for lack of a better word), whether it be a certain species, ecosystem, country, economy, the planet, etc. The exposure is so great that it has almost become numbing to me in a sense. As a result, I cannot help but develop a certain pessimistic outlook on the whole topic. It certainly appears that the future for the polar bears is bleak at best. "This is not a Coca-Cola commercial," says Deborah Williams of Alaska Conservation Solutions. "This represents the brutal downside of global warming." For anyone who still has their doubts and wants more tangible evidence that global warming is real, just take a look at what is going on to the polar bears.

Kevin Gray