Polar Bears Starving to Death in Warming Arctic, Study

A new study has revealed that polar bears are unable to cope with the food loss experienced during Artic summers.

Due to the increased melting of ice, scientists believe the bears simply end up starving.

Earlier, experts believed that polar bears got into a low energy state known as 'walking hibernation' when there is a lack of food.

However during this study, scientists observed the activities of two dozen bears in Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska and came to the conclusion the bears were actually starving in the warm weather.

The bears were attached with satellite collars and were also surgically implanted with logging devices which kept track of their physiological data.

Polar bears hunt seals which is their main source of diet. With the melting of ice caps, the seals are harder to hunt.

"Their metabolism is very much like a typical food limited mammal rather than a hibernating bear," said John Whiteman from the University of Wyoming, the paper's lead author.

"This paper gives us the first solid understanding of polar bear metabolism in summer, especially out on the sea ice over deep water far from shore, where bears have never been sampled before," Whiteman added.

The recent findings further highlight the threats to the future of the species.