 |
| credit: Paul Souders/Guardian |
The trade in polar bear parts continues to thrive in part because the current US administration refuses to renew a resolution to ban the trade. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species will convene in Thailand next March, but the US Fish & Wildlife Service is still officially undecided on the subject despite expressed public support for a ban on trade. Polar bears face multiple threats to their continued existence, not the least of which is the warming of their Arctic habitat. Scientists predict that two-thirds of the current population will be gone by 2050; nevertheless countries like Canada, that still allows trophy hunting of the endangered bear, trade in their fur and other body parts. Recently, a pair of pelts sold for a record $16,000 at auction. Some Inuit communities have licenses to kill as many as thirty bears a year. Unless some relief is given to the bears by man, the polar bear is doomed to extinction in the wild. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence rapid melting of sea ice is putting the bears under extreme stress. Reports of
increased cannibalism have been registered, and this National Geographic video is but another example of environmental stress. A starving female with a dependent cub
challenges a full grow male for food, something that would not ordinarily take place in normal climatic conditions.
