Polar bears are fast losing habitat as temperatures climb and Arctic sea ice disappears, a sign of the dramatic impacts global warming is having around the world.
The No. 1 threat to the world's estimated 22,000 polar bears -- 60 per cent of which live in Canada -- is climate change, a World Wildlife Fund study released yesterday says.
The report, called Polar Bears at Risk, found evidence that global warming is already affecting polar bears around Hudson Bay.
"They are physically suffering from climate change," said Julia Langer, WWF-Canada's director of international programs.
"The bears are getting skinnier," she said.
Ms. Langer added: "They are not getting enough time on the ice for them to build up their fat."
Hudson Bay polar bears hunt for seals on the ice from late October until the middle or end of June. After that the ice melts completely, forcing them to shore, where they fast on stored fat until the fall freeze-up, Ms. Langer said. With warmer temperatures the bears have less time to hunt on the ice, and therefore less time to build up their body fat.
Studies from the area show that for every week earlier that the ice breaks up, bears come ashore 10 kilograms lighter.
Among female bears, a lower body weight reduces lactation, which leads to higher mortality among their cubs.
"It is likely that populations of polar bears dividing their time between land and sea will be severely reduced and local extinctions may occur as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and sea ice melts," says the study, written by scientists with the WWF International Arctic Program in Oslo, Norway.
Arctic temperatures have risen 5 degrees over the past 100 years, the report says. That temperature change has caused the sea ice to shrink 6 per cent over the past 20 years.
This trend is expected to continue.
David Hocking, communications director for the David Suzuki Foundation, calls the study a wake-up call.
"This kind of thing shows us that we are facing serious climate changes," he said.
"These reports have to be linked to action."
Canadians need to take action by doing their part to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions, and Ottawa needs to stop stalling and ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to fight global warming, he said.
Although the study focuses on polar bears, the issue is much larger, says Pete Ewins, WWF-Canada's director of Arctic conservation.
"It really is symbolic of ecosystem instability and high rates of change of climate that nature can't adapt to," Mr. Ewins said.
Polar bears also face impacts from hunting, toxic pollutants and future oil development in the Arctic, the study says.
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