Starving Polar Bears Threating Arctic Researchers

A team of researchers is currently surrounded by a pack of starving polar bears in a dramatic illustration of how global warming is threatening the food supplies and lifestyles of a number of species.

CNN reports that the three scientists, which are two meteorologists and an engineer, are stranded at a weather station on Vaygach Island in the Arctic Sea. The team is unarmed and has already tried to scare away the animals by using flare guns, but the bears are so hungry that they were not scared by the guns. The team is affiliated with the World Wide Fund for Nature in Russia.

Members of the team have told the fund that the bears sleep near the weather station, and in recent days the bears have been seen attacking and fighting with each other.

In addition to threatening the researchers' lives, the bears have thwarted their work, as it is now impossible for the team to make its twice daily trips to the sea to record water temperatures in the Arctic Sea.

The fund has asked the Russian government to assist the team and help bring them to safety by scaring away the bears.

Polar bears, which can swim more than 60 miles in a single go, have been found to be drowning in recent years as the amount of ice in their habitat falls because of global warming. Polar bears have also been found emaciated and starved to death because they are unable to find food, which has fled the region as the climate changes.

Citing the U.S. Geological Survey, CNN says that 66 percent of the polar bear population will perish by 2050.