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Published online 21 May 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/453432a
Polar bear numbers set to fall
Climate-change icon gains 'threatened' status from United States.
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This action is premature since the issue of global warming has not yet been established. Oliver K. Manuel, http://www.omatumr.com
If you think outside the box and decide that Polar Bears deserve saving from extinction, an obvious move is to translocate several bears each year to a place of plentiful feed and a natural habitat conducive to their long term survival: A place where there's lots of sea ice. Such a place exists, and from my armchair observations a translocation of Polar Bears would cause minimal ecological damage there. Although indeed such damage or diminution of species they might cause would need to be balanced by their threat of extinction within their home range. That place, with massive sea ice and great variety of seal species is obviously Antartica. Any thoughts? Sincerely, Dr Donald McMiken
Because of public familiarity, this majestic creature has come to symbolize more than its own status, and in that sense, the extinction threat, whether severe or not, reflects a larger public concern - that global warming portends dramatic changes in the natural world, including the extinction of thousands of unfamiliar or even anonymous plants and animals. In fact, it is as likely as not that polar bears will scrape through, but many other living things will disappear forever. Indeed, even though loss of habitat or food sources in polar regions may endanger polar creatures, it is probable that the dangers will be even greater in the tropics, if temperatures rise to levels never experienced by any of the resident species in that region.
It is really sad to see the global warming causing the creatures that represent the polar region dying and left in lurch. In this article, it is even clear that the hunting is also unabetted, as Stirling says —to protect denning areas, minimize offshore activities and human traffic, reduce hunting or ensure hunts “move over to bears that are going to die anyway�. Leagl battles would go on, but we need to work on this problem rather than worrying. The habitat has to be protected or we have to face the wrath of the envirnoment. Short summer in the polar regions make the polar bears become herbivorous, hence they are quite adapted to the region when the ice melts. So the possible reason for their decline could be culmination of human exploitation of animals, global warming, lack of seals, etc. The problem is definately not simple but complex & needs immediate attension to other fronts of danger to polar bears, the "Magestic Bears"