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[00:00.04]A new report suggests Canada's Western Hudson Bay
[00:05.52]polar bear population has dropped 27 percent
[00:11.40]during the past five years.
[00:13.96]Every autumn, bears living along the western edge of the Hudson Bay
[00:20.68]pass through the sub-Arctic town of Churchill, Manitoba.
[00:26.64]The yearly movement has helped make the area's bears
[00:31.96]one of the most studied groups in the world.
[00:35.96]Bear-watching adds about $5.3 million
[00:41.00]to the local economy each year.
[00:44.28]But a report recently issued by the government
[00:49.00]in Canada's northern territory of Nunavut
[00:53.12]found that just 618 polar bears remained in the area in 2021.
[01:02.20]This represented a 50 percent drop
[01:06.40]in the population from the 1980s.
[01:10.20]Polar bears depend on frozen salt water,
[01:15.20]called sea ice, to help them hunt seals for food.
[01:20.76]But the Arctic is now warming about four times faster
[01:26.68]than the rest of the world.
[01:29.00]Around Hudson Bay, seasonal sea ice is melting earlier
[01:35.08]in the spring, and forming later in the fall.
[01:39.60]This is forcing bears to go longer periods without food.
[01:47.28]John Whiteman is chief research scientist
[01:52.08]at the nonprofit conservation group Polar Bears International.
[01:58.12]Speaking to Reuters news agency,
[02:01.80]he called the population drop "totally shocking."
[02:07.08]Whiteman said scientists fear
[02:10.80]that if continued sea ice loss cannot be stopped,
[02:15.64]it will one day lead to a total loss
[02:19.40]of the area's polar bear population.
[02:23.16]Scientists warned that a direct link between the population drop
[02:29.88]and sea ice loss in Hudson Bay is not fully clear.
[02:35.84]This is because four of the past five years
[02:40.80]have seen reasonably good ice conditions.
[02:45.36]Experts say climate-caused changes
[02:49.96]affecting the local sea population
[02:53.16]might also be driving polar bear numbers down.
[02:58.32]Scientists are also concerned because the rate of
[03:03.36]population decline has sped up in recent years.
[03:08.96]Between 2011 and 2016, for example,
[03:14.36]the polar bear population dropped just 11 percent.
[03:19.92]There are 19 populations of polar bears
[03:24.56]spread out among Russia, Alaska,
[03:28.40]Norway, Greenland and Canada.
[03:32.52]But Western Hudson Bay
[03:35.48]is one of the southernmost populations.
[03:39.00]Scientists predict the bears there are likely
[03:43.80]to become among the first to disappear.
[03:48.28]A 2021 study in the journal Nature Climate Change
[03:54.12]found most of the world's polar bear populations
[03:59.08]are in danger of collapsing by 2100
[04:03.92]if worldwide carbon emissions are not heavily reduced.
[04:09.52]Researchers said the number of deaths in young bears
[04:14.84]and female bears in Western Hudson Bay is worrisome.
[04:21.44]"Those are the types of bears we've always predicted
[04:25.84]would be affected by changes in the environment,"
[04:29.88]said Stephen Atkinson.
[04:32.56]He was a lead writer of the government report
[04:36.92]and has studied polar bear populations for more than 30 years.
[04:43.28]Young bears need energy to grow
[04:47.16]and cannot survive long periods without enough food.
[04:52.24]Female bears struggle because they use up a lot of energy
[04:57.88]caring for young bears.
[05:00.84]Atkinson said the ability of polar bears
[05:05.24]in the Western Hudson Bay to reproduce will decrease,
[05:11.12]"because you simply have fewer young bears
[05:14.96]that survive and become adults."
[05:18.72]I'm Bryan Lynn.
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Words in This Story
conservation – n. an organized effort that aims to protect animals, plants and natural resources
emission – n. the act of producing or sending out something (such as energy or gas) from a source
type – n. a person or thing that is part of a group of people or things that have similar qualities
decline – n. a decrease |
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