Habitat of the Polar Bears - Essay Example

Pollution Contents Contents 2 2 Habitat of the Polar Bears 3 Population of Polar Bears 4 Extinction or Scare Mongering 6 Other Instances on the “News” of Extinction 7 References 9 Habitat of the Polar Bears The Polar Bears are adapted to dwell in areas like Sea Islands, ice, continental coastlines and water. This mammal species is stated to float by the side of Arctic with the help of huge portions of floating or suspended ice for their usual activities like seal hunting, searching for mates and preparing themselves for the harsh season of winter. The Polar Bears have a preference for habitation on the sea ice along with polynyas and leads that are usually adjacent to continental islands as well as coastlines. Leads are actually canals or breaks of water all the way through ice and are found to stay free of ice resulting to only few minutes or even for more than a few months. This condition of remaining free of ice is highly dependent on the water currents and states of the weather. The Polar Bears usually favor such areas which enable them to hunt for seals in these spots of leads and makes use of the sea ice to be their podium (Sea World, “Distribution and Habitat”). In the similarly context, polynyas are water areas which are bounded by ice all around the year because of tidal currents, winds and upwelling. These areas are considered to be significant as they serve as major food supplying and breeding regions for wintering marine mammals such as the Polar Bears. Few of the Polar Bears were learnt to chase the lower border of the floating sea ice throughout the year and makes widespread relocations according to the retreats and proceeds made by the ice (Sea World, “Distribution and Habitat”). Population of Polar Bears The population of the Polar Bears has been found to be declining at an alarming pace because of their disappearing habitat owing to global warming. The various reasons accounting for the alterations in the climate has resulted in speedy loss of ice in the Arctic sea. The ice in the Arctic sea was found to turn down by 7.7 percent every decade along with a turn down in the sea ice in the perennial sea region by 9.8 percent every decade. To add more to this problem, in few of the areas, a contraction of the ice in the Arctic sea was found to be 32 percent from the periods of 1960 and 1970 to 1990. This huge decline in the ice areas have resulted in jeopardizing their habitat of the Polar Bears which is posing to be a severe threat to their population (World Wildlife Fund, “Polar Bear: This icon of the North Is Losing Ground As Global Warming Melts its Sea Ice Habitat”). Moreover, the ice is examined to melt quite before time in a year and is taking more time to develop owing to the alterations in the climate. This change in the usual pattern has resulted in lessening the time period accessible by the Polar Bears for the purpose of hunting on the areas of ice along with stocking up of enough reserves of fat for the other seasons like autumn and summer. The fast melting of the ice and the increase in the time for ice to develop is making the Polar Bears suffer in terms of their health conditions as they are forced to survive without food for quite an extended period. Thus, disappearing of habitat owing to global warming is becoming the most significant reason for affecting the existence of the Polar Bears in future (World Wildlife Fund, “Polar Bear: This icon of the North Is Losing Ground As Global Warming Melts its Sea Ice Habitat”). Extinction or Scare Mongering Scientific information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) revealed that since the previous three decades, over a million square miles of ice in the sea has vanished. In few of the other areas, the remaining sea ice has been found to be melting prior to three weeks than the stipulated time which is forcing the Polar Bears to stay without food for a longer span of time. Global warming has been identified to be the major reason which is making the sea ice fades away. It has been forecasted by the scientists of the U.S. Center for Atmospheric Research that the continuation of the present pace of global warming could turn the Arctic region an area without ice in the season of summer by the year 2040. This would pose a great danger to the population of the Polar Bears and might lead them towards extinction by the last phase of the century (Natural Resources Defense Council, “Polar Bears on the Thin Ice”). The alterations in the climate have been already bringing down the population of the Polar Bears and have been predicted to move to 30 percent in the coming 45 years. The declining rate has made the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to officially declare Polar Bears to be the “vulnerable species” and stated the Polar Bears to be at the threshold of extinction. The consequences of the global warming are posing great difficulties for the Polar Bears to den as well as travel. A significant decrease in the sea ice also has been found to adversely affect the quantity of available food and preys of the Polar Bears. Therefore, it is evident from the available information that Polar Bears are on the verge of extinction and it is not any kind of scare mongering (Natural Resources Defense Council, “Polar Bears on the Thin Ice”). Other Instances on the “News” of Extinction There have been reports by numerous organizations and scientists demonstrating the threat of existence of the Polar Bears. The alterations in the global climate owing to global warming have been a major concern as this has been strongly threatening and erasing their habitat. It was found that these alterations in the climate are resulting in the dearth of availability of the preys’ of the Polar Bears on which they heavily depend for food. The decline in the sea ice compels the Polar Bears to travel long distances by swimming for the hunt of food resulting in events of drowning at the time of storms. Polar Bears are also forced to spend a longer period of time without food due to the climate alterations which is gravely affecting their health conditions leading to deaths. The decrease in the sea ice also compels the Polar Bears to spend extended time periods on land which is raising the number of contacts with the humans leading to greater than before rates of mortality (Natural Resources Defense Council, “Polar Bears on the Thin Ice”; World Wildlife Fund, “Polar Bear: This icon of the North Is Losing Ground As Global Warming Melts its Sea Ice Habitat”) The World Conservation Union’s Polar Bear Specialist Group which is recognized to be the finest and excellent global scientific body and which works towards the management as well as protection of the Polar Bears declared the population of this species to be decreasing. The IUCN has described Polar Bears to be a species which is facing an increased danger of extinction in the future. World Wildlife Fund already works in the Arctic countries for the reason of conservation of this particular species and their habitat since long. Therefore, the declarations made by IUCN and the increasing global concerns on the numerous scientific facts clearly expose the fact that Polar Bears are towards extinction (Natural Resources Defense Council, “Polar Bears on the Thin Ice”; World Wildlife Fund, “Polar Bear: This icon of the North Is Losing Ground As Global Warming Melts its Sea Ice Habitat”) References Natural Resources Defense Council. “Polar Bears on the Thin Ice”. December 17, 2011. Climate Facts, 2007. Sea World. “Distribution and Habitat”. December 17, 2011. Habitat, 2011. World Wildlife Fund. “Polar Bear: This icon of the North Is Losing Ground As Global Warming Melts its Sea Ice Habitat”. December 17, 2011. What are the problems Polar Bears face? Read More