Another disturbing effect of climate change — polar bears are eating their cubs.
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00:00Yes, they are talented swimmers, but they cannot swim 400 kilometers to go explore and
00:17find mates or even to find food. When a population reaches carrying capacity, you will find that
00:36there will be some cannibalism, but you're also looking at another process of cannibalism,
00:43which we call infanticide. It's a strategy that the species uses for male reproductive success.
00:51So you will find that without sea ice, there's a limited number of mates. So the competition is
00:58fierce. As a male, you would want to pass your genes. If a female loses her cubs and immediately
01:04becomes receptive to actually conceive and produce another litter, then that, of course, males would
01:11hunt and then kill offspring to ensure that the female would reproduce and, of course, pass on their genes.
01:29It's relatively a small population, so there is some order of genetic relatedness.
01:33So on average, what you're seeing is that individuals that are closer together are mating,
01:39and that could unmask some of the genetic, some of the
01:43recessive traits in the populations, which are detrimental.
01:56We had found there was that there was between a 3 to 10 percent
01:59loss in genetic diversity as time progressed, because sea ice is that connection, is that bridge
02:05that connects different habitats or different areas. Without that, you will find that the
02:13population of the gene pool becomes so small in the different areas that some areas where you
02:18would typically find bears, you would never find them again. If you do not have that reservoir to
02:24ensure that individuals are different enough, if there's an outbreak of a disease, you might not
02:29have individuals that would be resistant to it. The capability of a species to evolve and to
02:34withstand whatever nature throws at it, without it, it's basically doomed for extinction.
02:47Areas that were once connected are gradually now becoming isolated. If the trend is not basically
02:54halted, then what you will see is that you will lose a substantial amount of populations in the
02:59region.
03:20As the population is recovering, then, oh my God, then climate change was being reported.
03:26Now, it's literally climate that they are facing. That's a major threat to polar bears now,
03:32is climate, the warming temperatures. We are really destroying a habitat of a species here.
03:38As time goes on, and with our work as well, with the predictions that we had made,
03:43I really do hope that we never get to see those come into fruition.