Environment & Energy

Eugene

(61,900 posts) Sat Jun 13, 2015, 11:41 AM Jun 2015

Polar bears eat dolphins as Arctic warms

Source: Agence France-Presse

Polar bears eat dolphins as Arctic warms

AFP
Friday 12 June 2015 13.30 BST

Norwegian scientists have seen polar bears eating dolphins in the Arctic for the first time ever and blame global warming for the bears expanding their diet.

Polar bears feed mainly on seals but Jon Aars at the Norwegian Polar Institute has photographed dolphins being devoured by a bear and published his findings in the latest edition of Polar Research this month.

“It is likely that new species are appearing in the diet of polar bears due to climate change because new species are finding their way north,” he told AFP.

The first incident he documented was in April 2014 when his team came across a polar feeding on the carcasses of two white-beaked dolphins.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/12/polar-bears-eat-dolphins-as-arctic-warms

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Polar bears eat dolphins as Arctic warms (Original Post) Eugene Jun 2015 OP

Polar bears have been known to eat belugas and narwhals already ... eppur_se_muova Jun 2015 #1

eppur_se_muova

(36,269 posts)

1. Polar bears have been known to eat belugas and narwhals already ...

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Sat Jun 13, 2015, 12:19 PM

Jun 2015

when the animals become trapped by ice the bears can attack and kill them, something they can't do in open water.

http://polarbearscience.com/2013/02/19/belugas-as-food-for-hungry-polar-bears/

What's unusual here is that these dolphins have been found so far north and presumably became trapped in the ice as well.

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