Climate change is not a new topic. We can even feel the temperature increasing according to the hotter summer and warmer winter. I once came across the article and it has since then provoked my thoughts on a question: “Have we ever cared about polar bears?”
A frame-filling portrait of a male polar bear (Ursus maritimus) jumping in the pack ice. Svalbard, Norway. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_bear
I have read some articles and blogs regarding polar bears and their survival under global warming. Some claim it is not necessary to worry about polar bears. They successfully switched their major prey from bearded to ringed seals in the past due to abundance changes of the two species in Hudson Bay. Similarly, they should be able to switch their diet from marine foods to terrestrial foods once again.
In fact, research has shown that polar bears’ feeding on terrestrial foods are more common recently, because land-based foods are becoming the most available food source. For instance, polar bear predation on snow geese was first observed in 1900s. Their reliance on snow geese in Arctic regions has been largely increasing for the past century .
In my opinion, however, the idea that polar bears can survive under global warming by switching their major prey may be overly hypothetical, because food resources containing sufficient energy are not available on shore, making it impossible for polar bears to survive the increased time on land.
Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_bear
We can survive in a hot summer by turning on our air conditioners, but polar bears cannot. Some scientists project that by 2050s, the global polar bear population will shrink to one third of the current figure. Therefore, the conservation of polar bears and stopping global warming deserve more attention and timely responses from the society.
