Creature Feature: Polar Bears Swarm Whale Carcass

Just one of the many adverse consequences of extreme global warming is the disruption of natural food cycles.  Because the arctic sea ice is shrinking fast, polar bears are loosing access to their primary prey, ring seals. This fact contributes to the unusual spectacle of two hundred polar bears, normally solitary unless mating, swarming a single whale carcass to feed. Russian tourists off the northeastern coast at Wrangle Island saw two hundred bears rush down a slope to feed on a beached bowhead whale. There is little food on land for polar bears and competition for food will become intense.  This development worries human inhabitants, who fear the white bear will turn to foraging around their settlements in desperation for food.  An estimated third or more bears will starve in the coming decades. US Person apologizes for the computerized voice-over narration.