A video of a starving polar bear on the Baffin Islands in Canada, filmed by photographer Paul Nicklen and the conservation group Sea Legacy, has garnered a significant response from viewers.
The footage shows the emaciated bear wandering through a desolate area without ice. However, some experts have suggested that the video might not be entirely accurate.
Nicklen first discovered the polar bear in August while navigating his boat around a bend. Initially, he mistook the animal for a white blanket draped over a rock.
But, upon closer inspection, he realized that the bear was alive but struggling to stand. Nicklen captured an image of the bear and posted it on Instagram, generating a substantial response.
Later, Nicklen returned with his conservation team and proper filming equipment to capture the reality of the starving polar bear and to show people what it looks like in real life.
The accompanying video depicts the bear rummaging through a garbage container, symbolizing the impact of climate change on the animal’s access to its primary source of food, seals.
As the planet warms, the polar bear’s primary hunting platform, the ocean ice, is melting earlier, and this reduces the amount of time they have to hunt and accumulate fat reserves before moving to land.
The failure to do so results in polar bears becoming thin and unhealthy at the end of the long ice-free summers.
According to wildlife officials, the polar bear population currently stands at around 26,000 globally, and biologists predict that this number will decrease by over 30% by 2050 as the ice cover continues to decrease.
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