A new study sounds the alarm over the decline in the number of polar bears in Canada

A recent government study has shown that polar bears in northern Canada’s western Hudson Bay are disappearing rapidly in this region near the Arctic, which is experiencing one of the highest rates of warming in the world.

Researchers counted 194 bears from late August to early September 2021, as they flew over Churchill, a region on the edge of the Arctic in the Canadian province of Manitoba that has declared itself the “polar bear capital”. According to this census, researchers estimated there were 618 polar bears in the area.

The previous census, conducted in 2016, estimated the presence of 842 polar bears in this area.

The new study concludes, “Comparison with aerial survey estimates for 2011 and 2016 indicate that bear populations in western Hudson Bay may be in decline.”

The researchers noted that female polar bears and their cubs were particularly affected by the decline.

They stressed that they were unable to confirm the reasons for this decline with certainty. They presented possible factors, including the migration of these animals to neighboring areas or even hunting.

“The observed declines are consistent with long-term expectations about the effects of climate change on polar bear numbers,” they noted.

Bears depend on ice to feed on seals, move around and reproduce.

But the Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the world, according to the latest studies.

The sea ice sheet, home to the polar bear, is gradually retreating. Since the 1980s, ice has shrunk nearly 50 percent in the summer, according to the National Ice and Snow Data Center.

According to a report published by Nature Climate Change in 2020, this could be an indication of the near complete extinction of these highly symbolic animals, after numbering 1,200 in the 1980s.