NewScientist’s Thom Hoffman notes (20 May 2017) that polar bears, endangered by climate change, aren’t going down without a fight:
POLAR bears may be ditching seafood in favour of scrambled eggs as the heat rises in the Arctic, melting sea ice. A changing coastline has made it harder for the predators to catch the seals they favour and is pushing them towards poaching goose eggs. …
The tracking devices show [the polar bears] wandering greater distances in search of alternative land-based food. The bears also spend a lot more time near bird nesting grounds, which suggests eggs have become a significant food source. This shift could devastate nesting bird populations (Journal of Animal Ecology, doi.org/b63h).
“It takes on average 30 seconds to locate a nest and 60 seconds to eat the eggs,” says Jouke Prop at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Previous research found that affected bird populations can slump by up to 90 per cent.
The silver lining of climate change – if you can call it that – is the opportunity to watch as species pushed by the change in climate try to adapt.
