Polar bears in the Arctic Circle rely on sea ice to help them hunt for seals. But due to warming temperature, that sea ice is melting sooner in the spring and freezing later in the fall, forcing the bears (go) hungry for longer .
Nowadays, researchers have discovered a unique group of polar bears who've found a new way to survive in the (absent) of sea ice: By hunting from the ice that falls off glaciers. The findings(publish) in Science offer hope for a species that may be trending towards extinction by the end of the decade. The researchers urged caution against applying their findings other populations of polar bears, who are still (unavoidable) threatened by the planet's warming.
The bears (live) in southeast Greenland go through a long period without sea ice around250 days. But they've been able to continue hunting during that period by using falls off from glaciers into the water.
Although the southeast Greenland bears (adapt) to their surroundings over the past decades, rising temperatures may eventually cause their glacial ice to get smaller or even disappear. As Steve Armstrup, scientist with Polar Bears International , says, "While the southeast Greenland bears are able to hunt with glacial ice today, that will be almost impossible in the future we control the rise of global greenhouse gases. "
