'We Stood There Crying': Crew Films Starving Polar Bear

Conservation group says it illustrates threat to the bears as ice retreats from Arctic
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 9, 2017 8:03 AM CST
Wrenching Video Shows Starving Polar Bear
An image of the polar bear from the video.   (Instagram)

The video is tough to watch: A crew from the conservation group Sea Legacy came across a starving polar bear in Canada's Baffin Islands that clearly didn't have long to live. "We stood there crying—filming with tears rolling down our cheeks," photographer Paul Nicklen tells National Geographic. As Live Science notes, it's impossible to say conclusively what is behind the death of any individual bear, but Nicklen says the answer is obvious in this case: climate change. Melting sea ice has made it difficult for the bears to gain access to a staple of their diet, seals. In the video, shot in late summer, the rail-thin bear is seen rummaging through a trash can. "When scientists say bears are going extinct, I want people to realize what it looks like," says Nicklen. "This is what a starving bear looks like."

In its coverage of the video, the Guardian cites a 2015 study from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature citing rising temperatures as the No. 1 threat facing the global population of 26,000 polar bears. The study documents an increasing number of ice-free days in Arctic regions and suggests that the bear population could drop 30% by 2050 and eventually reach a tipping point after which extinction is inevitable. So why didn't Nicklen and the crew help this particular bear? It would have been a futile effort that would only have prolonged the bear's agony, he says. Plus, feeding bears is illegal in Canada. In any event, it's "not like I walk around with a tranquilizer gun or 400 pounds of seal meat." (More polar bears stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X