The adorable looking furry polar bears found in the Arctic ice caps might not be able to survive on land based food sources alone, points out a new study. As global warming continues to affect oceans and cause melting and thinning of ice caps, the polar bears have found it increasingly difficult to get to their main food source, namely seals. Consequently, they have been seen to be looking for prey in areas hitherto dominated by grizzly bears.
Unable to find enough food to replace the seals which they like to feast upon, the polar bears will now have to compete with the grizzlies which are seasoned land predators. The findings of this new study are in sharp contrast to some previous findings which suggested that that they might instead be subsisting on berries, bird and some other land food sources.
The terrestrial sources of food which are richer in protein and vegetation are, however, lower in fat which these huge animals need in abundant quantities to be able to survive. Besides, they cannot digest plants properly making things doubly difficult for them.
Says Karne Rode, co-author of the new study, “Although some polar bears could eat terrestrial foods, there is no proof the behavior is widespread. In the regions where terrestrial feeding of polar bears has been documented, the body conditions of the polar bear and survival rates have declined.”
“The reports of terrestrial feeding by polar bears give necessary insights into the ecology of bears toward land,” Rode says. “In this paper, we have a tendency to try to place those observations into a broader context. targeted analysis can ease North American nation verifies whether or not terrestrial foods may contribute to polar bears, nutrition despite the physiological and organic process limitations and therefore the low accessibility of most terrestrial food resources. However, the proof to date suggests that redoubled consumption of terrestrial foods by polar bears is unlikely to offset declines in body condition and survival ensuing from ocean ice loss.”
However, all experts who have studied polar bears do not seem to agree with the findings of Rode and other authors at Washington State University and Polar Bear International. An eminent ecologist at City College of New York, Robert Rockwell, has watched polar bears for more than four decades. He says he has seen the animals move on from seals to eating goose eggs and caribou calves in the recent years.
