Polar bears are in trouble

Critical polar bear habitat is at risk in our warming world.

threats to polar bears are increasing

Shrinking sea ice is a major threat to polar bears.

The world's largest land predators have one major nemesis: climate change. Shifts in global temperatures are having far-reaching impacts for these important Arctic mammals.

The more we know about the threats, the more we can do to help polar bears.

Polar bears have evolved to depend on fat-rich seals, whose blubber provides far more calories than the land mammals of the Arctic Tundra. Polar bears hunt seals where sea ice meets open water. As the sea ice retreats, polar bears are forced to spend more time on land, waiting for the ice to refreeze and unable to hunt their primary food source.
Adult polar bears are strong swimmers and can survive for days at sea — but only recently needed to start using this skill. As Karen Oakley, a supervising biologist at the USGS Alaska Science Center told Reuters, “These long distances of open water didn't use to exist in the southern Beaufort Sea. They didn't have to [swim these really long distances] because they weren't there.”
Some cubs can make the long swim, but cubs can't always match their mothers' swimming strengths. A study of polar bears from 2004 to 2009 found that 45% of the observed polar bear cubs died in long-distance swims.

WATCH: Polar bears in action

How a Canadian town is teaching polar bears to fear humans in order to save them

Churchill in northern Manitoba bills itself as the the polar bear capital of the world. But as climate change forces hungry polar bears inland in search of food, attacks on humans are increasing. The Guardian investigates how this small community is adopting new methods so they might continue to co-exist peacefully with the world's largest land predator.

Polar bear love: cute polar bear cubs lovin' up their mamma

A new mom and her cubs stretch their legs after a long winter cooped up inside their den. During this time, mothers don't dare leave their cubs alone and must rely on their body's fat stores to sustain them until spring. As climate change causes summer sea ice to break up earlier and refreeze later, polar bears are increasingly forced to survive longer winters without being able to hunt.