Polar bears in western Hudson Bay in northern Canada are rapidly disappearing, according to a recent government study.
The researchers counted 194 bears from the end of August to the beginning of September 2021, while flying over the region of Churchill, a Manitoba community at the gateway to the Arctic that calls itself the “polar bear capital”. From this census, they estimated that there were 618 polar bears in the area.
The previous census carried out in 2016 estimated that there were 842 polar bears in this region.
“Comparison with aerial survey estimates from 2011 and 2016 suggests that the abundance of the Western Hudson Bay population may be declining,” the study concludes.
The researchers point out that females and cubs have been particularly affected by this decline.
They indicate that they are unable to confirm with certainty the reasons for this drop. And cite in particular, as possible factors, the movement of the animal to neighboring regions or even hunting.
“The observed declines are consistent with long-held predictions regarding the demographic effects of climate change on polar bears,” they noted.
Bears depend on the ice to feed on seals, move around and reproduce.
But in the Arctic, global warming is up to four times faster than elsewhere in the world, according to the most recent studies.
Gradually the pack ice, habitat of the polar bear, disappears. Since the 1980s, sea ice has shrunk by almost 50% in summer, according to the US National Snow And Ice Data Center.
According to a report published in Nature Climate Change in 2020, this could mean the virtual extinction of this emblematic animal: there were 1,200 individuals in the 1980s.