American scientists from the University of Washington have found out that the changing climate in the Arctic injures the paws of polar bears.
For 10 years, from 2012 to 2022, a team of researchers studied two populations of polar bears living above 70° north latitude in Canada and Greenland.
In the Kane Basin population, 31 out of 61 bears had paws with deep lacerations, ulcers and cuts. In the second group from East Greenland, 15 out of 124 animals had similar injuries.
The authors put forward possible reasons. The first is associated with frequent rains, which causes sleet to stick to the paws and freeze. A similar scenario is possible in the case of thinning sea ice in bear habitats.
Another theory is that during warmer periods, surface snow melts and then freezes again, forming a hard crust. Heavy bears can break through this ice crust, injuring their paws on its sharp edges, nia14.ru reports.
Alex Shishlo, Editor in Chief of the European Bureau, Rough&Polished
