Sea ice loss pushes polar bears to cannibalism

When photojournalist Jenny Ross approached an adult polar bear in the waters of Olgastretet, located in the arctic Svalbard archipelago, she came upon the sight not many witness in their lifetime.

As her boat came closer, she recognized the male feeding on the body of a one to two year-old polar bear cub.

The Svalbard archipelago is traditionally a year-round, ice-covered region. However, in latest months the sea ice has disappeared dramatically. Polar bears who depend on the icy platforms to look for seals, are feeling the effects of a shrinking hunting ground and habitat. This puts the population under pressure. Fewer cubs are born and from those, there is an increased risk of them not reaching adulthood.

‘Trapped ashore and food-deprived’ the arctic bears are resorting to “intraspecific predation”, which means they would prey within their own species. This phenomenon is known to happen occasionally, however it has never been properly documented until recent years when it became more frequent, Ross explained.

“As soon as the adult male became aware that a boat was approaching him, he basically stood to attention. He straddled the young bear’s body, asserting control over it and conveying ‘this is my food’,” Ross told the BBC. She then continued to describe how the bear displayed dominance over his kill by dragging it away from one float to another over a considerable distance to continue his meal.

A 2006 study on polar bear predation in the Beaufort Sea (another region in the Arctics) stated that “nutritional stresses related to the longer ice-free seasons that have occurred in the Beaufort Sea in recent years may have led to the cannibalism incidents […] observed in 2004”.

The rapid disappearance of Arctic sea ice in the Olgastretet during the summer season force the bears in seeking alternative food sources. Rummaging through human food waste and preying on large nesting birds are other ways of finding food, however these are insufficient to support the large land carnivores. Research has shown that the polar bear’s overall body mass has dropped. This means that they have less body fat to survive the winter.

In the face of starvation, it is not a long stretch to conclude that predating other bears is the only choice left for their survival.

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This release was published on openPR.