IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Land Food Not Enough for Polar Bears Driven Off Ice by Warming: Study

Polar bears forced off sea ice because of global warming will not find enough food to replace their current diet of marine mammals, researchers say .
Get more newsLiveon
/ Source: The Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Polar bears forced off sea ice because of global warming will not find enough food to replace their current diet of fat-laden marine mammals such as seals, researchers say in a paper. The conclusion contradicts studies indicating they could be embracing bird eggs, berries and other land food sources. Few bears are using land food and what they find can't replace lipid-rich ringed or bearded seals, said Karyn Rode, a U.S. Geological Survey research wildlife biologist and lead author of the review paper published Wednesday in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. "Warming-induced loss of sea ice remains the primary threat faced by polar bears," the paper concludes. Not everyone agrees with the conclusions reached by Rode and the other authors at Washington State University and Polar Bear International. Robert Rockwell, a population biologist and ecologist at City College of New York, who is also affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History, has conducted research at western Hudson Bay for 47 years. He has watched polar bears change their behavior to gorge on goose eggs and caribou calves, he said Tuesday. "I find it hard to believe they're going to get nothing out of it," he said.

Polar bears are marine mammals that spend most of their lives on sea ice. They use the frozen ocean to hunt, often catching ringed seals by collapsing their snow lairs as female seals nurse pups. The world's 19 polar bear populations are divided into four regions. In three, entire populations historically remained on sea ice year-round. The fourth has seasonal sea ice and includes Hudson Bay, where polar bears have always spent time on land. The Bush administration in 2008 listed polar bears as threatened because of an alarming loss of summer sea ice and climate models indicating major declines in polar bear distribution and abundance.

Image: Polar bear
In this June 15, 2014 photo, a polar bear dries off after taking a swim in the Chukchi Sea in Alaska. A paper published Wednesday, April 1, 2015 says polar bears forced onto land because of melting ice are unlikely to find enough food to replace their diet of seals.Brian Battaile / AP

Land food such as berries can be abundant for polar bears but of low quality, Rode said. Eggs from ground nests are higher quality but limited. Polar bears feeding on berries lose significant weight, Rode said. "There is evidence that some bears are using terrestrial sources in a place such as Hudson Bay, but there's been no evidence that it's contributing a significant amount to their energy requirements," Rode said.

"This paper establishes in no uncertain terms that polar bears are very unlikely to be able to make a living on land, and that if we don't save the sea ice, polar bears will indeed be gone," said another author, Steven Amstrup, chief scientist at Polar Bear International and a retired USGS polar bear researcher, in an email statement.

IN-DEPTH

SOCIAL