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- One of the many signs of global warming is the change in animal population and habitation. Something similar is being witnessed with the polar bear population of Alaska that is rapidly dwindling.
- It is reported that between 2001 to 2010, there was a 40 per cent drop in Alaska’s polar bear population. This drop is being credited to polar bears’ migration to Russia from Alaska due to rising temperatures in Alaska.
- In the last 50 years, there was a 4.8-degree Celsius rise in Alaska’s annual average temperature.
- This rise has resulted in the loss of sea ice that directly affects the bears by redistricting their hunting ground. The migration has resulted in a booming increase in polar bear numbers in Russia’s Wrangel Island.
About Polar Bear
- The largest bear in the world and the Arctic’s top predator, polar bears are a powerful symbol of the strength and endurance of the Arctic. The polar bear’s Latin name, Ursus maritimus, means “sea bear”.
- It’s an apt name for this majestic species, which spends much of its life in, around, or on the ocean–predominantly on the sea ice. In the United States, Alaska is home to two polar bear subpopulations.
Is it first migration?
- This is not the first time polar bears were seen migrating to colder places. In 2019, around 60 polar bears were spotted in one of Russia’s remotest regions of Ryrkaypiy. Polar bears rely on sea ice for hunting seals, their primary food source.
- But the spread of ice has been on the decline as climate change accelerates the rise in temperatures at the poles, keeping them on land where it’s harder to catch seals.
- While the bears can fast for months, their survival depends on how much energy they’ve managed to reserve through eating ahead of time, the energy they expend during the fast and how long a fasting period lasts.
- In at least two regional groups of polar bears, prolonged fasting periods have already been shown to negatively affect their body condition, reproduction rates and size of their populations.
- This trend is expected to be seen across groups of polar bears in the Arctic as ice loss continues.
- Polar bears have long been the poster child of the consequences of climate change.
- There are an estimated 22,000 to 31,000 polar bears in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund, although precise numbers are hard to determine due to their remote habitat. The species is listed as vulnerable.
- The survival and the protection of the polar bear habitat are urgent issues for WWF.
- In October 2019, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Polar Bear Specialist Group released a new assessment of polar bear populations showing that the number of polar bear subpopulations experience recent declines has increased to four, with eight populations still being data-deficient.
Why Should India Be Worried About The Migration Of Polar Bears?
- The staggering levels of global warming and climate change have begun to take their toll over the immediate climate of almost all of the world.
- It is no longer limited to the Arctic and the Antarctic ice caps melting, as sea levels have risen to the absolute zenith.
- In 2021 itself, numerous regions around the world were hit with severe floods across Europe and Asia, which has been attributed to climate change.
- This has, inadvertently, resulted in scores upon scores of people being left helpless through widespread displacement, alongside a terrible number of casualties.
- Furthermore, cities near seas and islands have already been flagged in danger owing to the same, alerting them of being submerged in successive years.
- India has three metropolitan cities near the sea, namely, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, the latter of which has already faced a harrowing storm in its adjoining regions in Tamil Nadu.
- It all comes down to how the government shields these cities and in effect the states that will be immediately harmed by such devastating scenarios of climate change.
- Coupled with that, it must be noted that the polar bears that now inhabit Russia are essentially nomadic and have amazing adaptability capabilities.
Question:
When did Alaska become a state of USA?
- 3 January 1959
- 11 May 1936
- 12 July 1935
- 16 December 1900
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