Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Fifteen years ago, the U.S. granted polar bears protective status under the Endangered Species Act. Yet the bears are now more imperiled than ever—by a warming world and associated sea ice loss. Read More
A projection of sea ice in the archipelago, supported by WWF, shows that much of the region is facing significant ice loss in the coming decades–with potentially serious consequences for polar bears. Global polar bear numbers are projected to decline by 30% by 2050.
Risks to the polar bear include climate change, pollution in the form of toxic contaminants, conflicts with shipping, oil and gas exploration and development, and human-bear interactions including harvesting for food and possible recreational polar-bear watching.
London, 27 February: 2023 marked 50 years of international cooperation to protect polar bears across the Arctic. Those efforts have been a conservation success story: from a population estimated at about 12,000 bears in the late 1960s, numbers have almost tripled, to just over 32,000 in 2023.
Ecoregions. Polar bears rely on the sea ice to access their seal prey, but sea ice is not uniform across the Arctic, rather there are four distinct sea ice habitats—or ecoregions—that have been recognized as differing in sea ice freeze-up, break-up, and drift patterns (Amstrup et al. 2008).
A global re-assessment of polar bears highlights loss of sea ice habitat due to climate warming as the single most important threat to the long-term survival of the species, according to the latest update of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ released today by IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature.
We’re dedicated to conserving polar bears and the sea ice they depend on. Through media, science, and advocacy, we work to inspire people to care about the Arctic, the threats to its future, and the connection between this remote region and our global climate.
Polar bears are facing numerous conservation challenges, including the melting of sea ice due to climate change, which reduces their habitat and food sources, as well as human activities such as hunting, oil and gas development, and industrial activities in the Arctic that increase the risk of exposure to pollutants and toxic substances.
Polar bears help us gain an understanding of what is happening throughout the Arctic. All recent indicators show that sea ice in the Arctic is melting at an alarming rate, a problem that needs to be addressed immediately if polar bears, and other species unique to the region, are to survive.
2. Conservation status Polar bears currently have a relatively large population size and their historical range has not diminished due to habitat loss since 1979. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in their 2015 Red List assessment, again listed the polar bears as ‘vul -