Nature - Hudson Bay Census Shows Youngest, Oldest Polar Bears Died First In Early Melt Years

A census of polar bears in Canada’s Hudson Bay has lent some hard numbers to the long-held fear that retreating sea ice is causing some bears to starve or drown.

Biologists have predicted that polar bears will struggle to survive as summer comes sooner to the Arctic. Less time spent on icy hunting platforms means the bears are slimming down before winter sets in. And there were anecdotal reports in 2005 of more bears found swimming far out at sea; a few were found floating dead, presumably drowned. But so far no evidence has directly linked the trend of melting sea ice associated with climate change to bear deaths.

Now, looking at 20 years of data from bears captured along the coast of Hudson Bay, a team of scientists from the United States and Canada has found that fewer of the youngest and oldest bears survived in years when the ice broke early. “Survivorship has dropped in the cubs, subadults and very old animals and is directly related to the date of break-up,” says Ian Stirling, a biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Edmonton, Alberta, and an author on the report.

Because Hudson Bay is near the southern edge of polar bear habitat, what happens there may foreshadow the fate of more northern populations, the authors say.

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http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071123/full/news.2007.282.html

...weakest most defenseless members always perish first. MSM brought it to us live in the wake of Katrina -- much to the disapproval of the ruling class -- we weren't really supposed to get an up close and personal look at that.

MSM actually did their job for something like 3 days in a row, I couldn't fuckin believe it.

If the arctic is going to have less ice in the future, polar bears are going to be forced into making behavioral changes. Right now, their main diet is seals that they catch coming up to breathe but if sea ice is greatly diminished they are going to have to adapt by changing to another diet. They may have to move off the floating sea ice and back onto land to hunt caribou or fish in the rivers like their cousins the Alaskan grizzlies. That much of a behavioral change may be too much and if not enough can adapt, there won't be a viable population anymore. :cry: :cry:

I think that we will live to see polar bears extinct outside of zoos.