Polar Bear with her Nine Month Old Baby

Photograph by @paulnicklen // Propping herself into position, a mother polar bear assesses her surroundings before nursing her nine-month-old cubs. At this stage of the journey, this mother has gone without a substantial meal in over seven months. The previous winter, when all of the other bears were out on the frozen sea ice feeding on seals, she entered a den to give birth to cubs who were just one pound at the time. She must burn up her energy, fat, and muscle to survive that duration without a meal and to produce rich milk to keep her cubs alive. The problem with climate change is that the sea ice is melting earlier each spring and freezing later each fall. These bears have to wait longer and longer each year for a meal. Some scientists have predicted that we could see the extinction of polar bears within one hundred years from now due to human-induced climate change.

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