Question: What will happen to the polar bears if the Arctic melts?

Octavia Brayley answered on 27 Nov 2023:

Polar bears are already being greatly affected by climate change. Polar bears rely heavily on the sea ice environment for traveling, hunting, mating, resting, and in some areas, maternal dens. In particular, they depend heavily on sea ice-dependent prey, such as ringed and bearded seals, and without the ice, they won’t survive. Polar bears rely on sea ice to hunt and store energy for the summer and autumn, when food can be scarce. Sea ice now melts earlier in the spring and forms later in the autumn in the bears’ southern range, like Hudson Bay and James Bay in Canada. As the bears spend longer periods without food, their health declines. For every week earlier the ice breaks up in Hudson Bay, bears come ashore roughly 10 kg (22 lbs) lighter and in poorer condition. Unhealthy bears can mean lower reproduction rates, higher cub mortality – and eventually, local extinction. The main causes of death for cubs are lack of food or lack of fat on nursing mothers. Polar bears are also being forced to stay more on land rather than on sea ice, meaning they come into contact with people more regularly and both people and bears are sometimes injured or killed. Additionally, polar bears have a long generation time and low reproductive rate may limit their ability to adapt to changes in the environment.

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