A hungry female bear strayed into a Russian town. Polar predators are jeopardised by climate change
Inhabitants of Norilsk in the north of Siberia witnessed one of the consequences of global warming. In her search for food, a hungry and exhausted female polar bear strayed hundreds of kilometres from her natural habitat in the Arctic.
According to local nature conservationists, she is the first polar bear to have appeared in Norilsk in more than 40 years. However, certain remote but habited areas in Russia have proclaimed an emergency due to the possible arrival of hungry polar bears in cities in the search for something to eat.
Polar bears are an example of a species that is directly jeopardised by climate change. In the Arctic, the habitat of polar bears, the increasing perennial temperatures result in the thawing of ice. According to some estimations, this area could actually lose all ice as early as 2050.
Therefore, the climate crisis forces polar bears to migrate inland. They are also a species that could adapt to the new climate. Despite that, they are still animals that depend on sea ice and its environment, which is the reason why they are very vulnerable due to global warming.
“We have been witnessing this more often in recent years. Exhausted and hungry polar bears are becoming one of the saddest symbols of the increase in climate change. And 2050 is dangerously close to them,” said Dalibor Dostal, director of European Wildlife conservation organization.
Photo: Wikimedia / Gary Bembridge
