It appears “polar bears are being forced to change their eating habits” thanks to global warming, alarmists at Euronews announced Sunday.
The article cites video footage of a single polar bear chasing a reindeer into the water and killing it in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, warning that the incident represents “another stark indication of climate change.”
“Retreating sea ice leaves bears stranded on land for longer periods,” the article declares, and thus, “with fewer seals and a steadily rising reindeer population in Svalbard” polar bears are obliged to change their diet in favor of reindeer.
The video, taken by a research team from a Polish scientific station, suggests “polar bears are increasingly preying on land-based animals to make up for their limited access to their normal diet,” it asserts.
Eating reindeer has become a matter of both “necessity and opportunity” for polar bears, but “it is largely being seen as yet further evidence of a changing climate,” the article laments.
The reindeer population in Svalbard has been rising steadily ever since 1925, when a hunting ban assured their protection from humans, meaning that now some 300 bears live alongside around 20,000 reindeer.
The University of Michigan notes the dietary flexibility of polar bears, asserting they will eat birds, mammals, fish, eggs, carrion, as they may become available.
A 1975 study of the eating habits of polar bears in the Southwest Hudson Bay found that bird remains “dominated the sample,” among which oldsquaw ducks were the most common.
The study noted that polar bears in Svalbard also “take adult seabirds, young, and eggs when the opportunity arises.”
Research similarly found in 2000 that polar bears are “opportunistic” and will prey on whatever presents itself.
Reporting specifically on “observations of polar bears preying and scavenging on Svalbard reindeer,” the study suggested, “behavioral plasticity in response to a novel prey item.”
The distribution of polar bears “overlaps with that of two large terrestrial mammals, reindeer, and muskox,” the paper found, noting that polar bears have been reported to feed on both reindeer and muskox in Greenland.
The paper documented numerous cases of polar bears in Svalbard feeding on reindeer, with reports going back to 1945, which might suggest to a discerning reader that a single video of a polar bear eating a reindeer in 2021 hardly constitutes evidence of climate change or anything else.
Read more at Breitbart
Bears, similar to other omnivores like pigs and humans, will eat almost anything. They are predators, scavengers and browsers. Attributing the actions of a bear behaving like a bear to anything other than their innate nature is not evidence of climate change but that of willful dishonesty.
Polar Bears are Predators and will take down what ever it wants Seals and Reindeer are Prey
Including humans.
You – among others – are so hellbent on denying anything to do with climate change and adverse effects from it that it becomes pathetic. Quite apart from the whole discussion of why it comes about and how much can be done about it, you do not let go of any opportunity to mock “alarmists” and play down the threat to species and ecosystems, which is indisputable.
There is ABSOLUTELY no doubt that polar bears in several Arctic regions already find themselves deprived of their paramount way of hunting – on frozen sea and ice flakes – and their primary prey, seals, and if the northern ice cap disappears completely, then what we see now is only “the tip of the ice berg”, pardon the bad choice of words in the context at hand. We can ALL hope that they will adapt, but there is a limit to the adaptation – without loss of the perfection of specific eco-systems and encroachment into other systems.
So stop being so damned pathetic by ignoring or downtuning facts that can be seen on abundant footage available to all. The debate must be balanced and no scientific facts should be suppressed, but your articles, in the gloating way they are written, are balm on the ignorant souls of those who claim that the ice caps are growing and glaciers are not receding. There are strong resemblances with those who support Trump and his “stolen election” / fake news agenda.
Another example of exactly that is your recent gloating article about the immediate positive signs in the Great Barrier Reef. There is no doubt – again aside from the issue of human liability etc – that most tropical reefs are in dire straits, and the Great Barrier Reef has mainly profited from lack of major storms wreaking havoc on it during the past year. Reefs will hopefully be able to adapt to some extent, but they are basically such a delicate balance that a temperature rise of 2-3 degrees would decimate them and the abundance of life they harbour.
Look up the research – try Dr Susan Crockford.
Science is not what the mainstream media dishes up – as apparent in your rant.
Polar bears are doing just fine since we stopped shooting them on sight.
Hunting permits to the tune of about 600 per year are being issued – for an “endangered species” – I doubt it.
Try being skeptical.
On the contrary, we post numerous articles showing the positive effects of a moderately warming planet. If you look at the actual data, it doesn’t support the wild-eyed claims you likely found at a green grifter’s website.
You talk about “balanced discussion ” Mr. C. Try reading some of the insane conclusions that the New York and Washington press come up with in there wild statements about climate. By the way, polar bears are predators and meat-eaters, and don’t worry about a “paramount” way of hunting. Remember, you could approach a polar bear and ask him what he thinks of your thoughts on the matter.
If they weren’t so absurd, it wouldn’t be easy to malign them. If they didn’t lie, it wouldn’t be so easy. Why do they need to lie, obfuscate and exaggerate, when, as you seem to say, the evidence is so clear?
The climate change movement is like a little kid making up one excuse after another to get candy. Applying the facts shows just how lame those excuses are. Polar bears descended from grizzly bears not long ago on the evolutionary scale. As such it is no surprised to find a polar bear hunting reindeer. As far as climate change threatening polar bears or the Great Barrier Reef, the last interglacial period was ten degrees warmer than it is now, and the reef and bears survived.
In some of those Nations they used Train Golden Eagles to bring down real’y big Game and yes Drones as well