ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Polar bears forced off sea ice because of global warming will not find enough food to replace their current diet of fat-laden marine mammals such as seals, researchers say in a paper, a conclusion that contradicts studies indicating they could be embracing bird eggs, berries and other land food sources.
Few bears are using land food and what they find can’t replace lipid-rich ringed or bearded seals, said Karyn Rode, a U.S. Geological Survey research wildlife biologist and lead author of the review paper published Wednesday in the journal, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
The paper reviews current polar bear research. It’s aimed at recent research documenting bears feeding on land and suggestions that terrestrial foods are becoming more important for them, which could give them hope for survival as summer sea ice recedes and chances to kill seals diminish.
But not everyone agrees with the conclusions reached by Rode and the other authors at Washington State University and Polar Bear International.
Robert Rockwell, a population biologist and ecologist at City College of New York, who is also affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History, has conducted research at western Hudson Bay for 47 years. He has watched polar bears change their behavior to gorge on goose eggs and caribou calves, he said Tuesday.