Hungry polar bears are turning to garbage dumps for food as their icy habitat disappears.
On Wednesday, a team of Canadian and American scientists warned that litter poses an emerging threat to already vulnerable polar bear populations, as the animals become more reliant on landfills near communities in the north. This is leading to deadly conflicts with people, said the report published in the journal Oryx.
“Bears and garbage are a bad association,” said study co-author Andrew Derocher, a biologist at the University of Alberta. “We know this all too well from the grizzly bear and black bear perspective, and now it’s an escalating problem with polar bears.”
Polar bears rely on sea ice to hunt seals. But with the Arctic warming four times faster than the rest of the world, sea ice is melting in early summer and freezing in late autumn. This forces bears to spend more time on land, away from their natural prey.
According to the report, to fatten the polar bears are now gathering around garbage dumps in Arctic and sub-Arctic places such as Belushya Guba, Russia, and piles of whale bones left over from Inuit hunts near Kaktovik, Alaska. (USA).
Such behavior is risky. Local wildlife managers may kill bears out of concern for public safety. And consuming garbage can make bears sick.
Packages are often frozen with leftover food, and polar bears end up ingesting plastic and other inedible materials, which can cause fatal blockages.
“Bears don’t know all the downsides that come from eating plastic and the diseases and toxins they are likely to be exposed to in a (landfill) environment,” said co-author Geoff York, senior director of conservation at advocacy group Polar Bears International. .
The situation, according to scientists, should get worse.
Human populations are increasing in the Arctic. Nunavut, Canada, home to thousands of polar bears, is projected to grow by nearly 40% by 2043.
Improving waste management remains a challenge for remote communities. The ground is often frozen solid, making it difficult to bury garbage. And shipping is expensive. Federal funds are needed to solve the problem, the scientists said.
“We’ve already had some human deaths in the eastern Canadian Arctic,” Derocher said. “It’s surprising how many places that never had polar bear problems are now having emerging problems.”
