Shrinking Arctic Sea Ice and the Effect on Polar Bears

Arctic sea ice is shrinking and since the 1970s there has been an increase in the number of days each summer where the temperature is warm enough for the ice to melt. The earlier breakup of arctic sea ice limits the polar bear hunting season and forces them to come to shore earlier. It?s now known that if the ice melts earlier in the spring as little as a week, it has significant impact on polar bears. Its basis for survival is being threatened. Polar bears are being sent to land earlier without them having developed enough fat reserves to survive the ice free season. By the end of the summer the bears are very thin and their reproductive success is affected.