MOSCOW: Cases of polar bears killing and eating each other are on the rise in the Arctic, as melting ice and human activity erode their habitat, a Russian scientist said Wednesday (Thursday in Manila). “We state that cannibalism in polar bears is increasing,” said Mordvintsev, a senior researcher at Moscow’s Severtsov Institute of Problems of Ecology and Evolution. Russian researchers have recorded growing numbers of polar bears moving away from their traditional hunting grounds as ice melts due to global warming. Over the last quarter-century, Arctic ice levels by the end of summer have fallen by 40 percent, said Sokolov. He predicted that polar bears would eventually no longer hunt on sea ice and be confined to shore areas and high-latitude archipelagos.

Source: Manila Times February 27, 2020 16:25 UTC