Polar bears, the North Pole's biggest predators, have become the symbol of climate change. In this part of the world, the temperature remains several degrees below zero, specifically, from -43 to -26 degrees Celsius approximately. Thus, these magnificent animals have been able to hunt the seals, which are their main food, without too much trouble, but with global warming your situation is changing a lot.
According to a study published in the »Journal of Animal Ecology», they are being forced to eat the eggs of ducks, geese and seagulls to be able to survive.
Charmain Hamilton, a scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute, explained that before global warming began to show itself at the North Pole, land ice remained in the coastal areas along the glacier front until late summer. Thus, seals could rest near their respirators and bears could hunt them.
However, in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago located in the Arctic Ocean, the temperature has risen three times faster than in other areas of planet Earth, so the ice becomes much more fragile and dangerous, especially for polar bears.
»As the retreat of sea ice has made it difficult for them to hunt ringed seals, polar bears now spend less time in the vicinity of tidal glaciers, travel greater distances per day and spend more time hanging around alternative food sources, such as breeding colonies of ducks and geeseHamilton said.
90% of the diet of these mammals depends on other animals. Due to the thaw, they have more and more difficulties to get their basic food. If this continues, the food chain could change so much that it could even extinguish them, as the number of birds is very small compared to the population of polar bears.
You can read the study here.