Polar bears are getting horrific injuries because of climate change, researchers say
Polar bears are developing horrific wounds on their paws due to changing ice conditions in the Arctic, a new study reports.
In the most severe cases, researchers describe two bears with crippling, dinner plate-size balls of ice stuck to their feet. Beneath the ice balls, the bears’ paw pads were covered in deep, bleeding cuts.
“I’d never seen that before,” study lead author Kristin Laidre, a marine ecologist and associate professor at the University of Washington, said in a statement. “The two most-affected bears couldn’t run — they couldn’t even walk very easily.”
This is the first time scientists observe such injuries in polar bears, according to the study, published Oct. 22 in the journal Ecology.
The debilitating ice balls likely formed due to slushy snow sticking between bumps on the pads that provide the grip polar bears need to walk on slippery surfaces. Snow accumulated on the pads and then froze solid, the researchers suggest, forming blocks of ice measuring 12 inches (30 centimeters) across.
“The chunks of ice weren’t just caught up in the hair,” Laidre said. “They were sealed to the skin, and when you palpated the feet it was apparent that the bears were in pain.”
Researchers say roughly one in four polar bears (Ursus maritimus) from two populations in northern Greenland whose feet they examined suffered from ice-related injuries. Affected bears were mostly adult males, which tend to travel longer distances and are much heavier than females or cubs. [Continue reading…]