ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Some polar bears in the Arctic are shedding pounds during the time they should be beefing up, a new study shows. It’s the climate change diet and scientists say it’s not good.
They blame global warming for the dwindling ice cover on the Arctic Ocean that bears need for hunting seals each spring.
For their research, the scientists spied on the polar bears by equipping nine female white giants with tracking collars that had video cameras and the bear equivalent of a Fitbit during three recent springs. The bears also were weighed.
What the scientists found is that five of the bears lost weight and four of them lost 2.9 to 5.5 pounds per day. The average polar bear studied weighed about 386 pounds. One bear lost 51 pounds in just nine days.
“You’re talking a pretty amazing amount of mass to lose,” said U.S. Geological Survey wildlife biologist Anthony Pagano, lead author of a new study in Thursday’s journal Science .
Researchers studied the bears for 10 days in April, when they are supposed to begin putting on weight so they can later have cubs, feed the cubs and survive through the harsh winter.
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