Polar Bear Cub Starves to Death in the Arctic

This is actually one of the most heartbreaking videos I have seen. It shows a mother polar bear with two of her cubs in Wapusk National Park in northern Manitoba. The mother is malnourished and two of her cubs are starving. This video shows the final moments in a polar bear cub's life as it dies of starvation.

The mother and cubs have been driven onto dry land due to melting sea ice, but there is little food for them there, so many of them are starving. The first cub died shortly after the video was shot. The second cub died two days later. Both probably died of starvation.

In the video, the temperature is below 0 degree F. The mother bear is malnourished, with little to no fat reserves, and she is having a hard time getting comfortable. Another bear, possibly a male, approached the mother and her cubs. He may be trying to pray on the cubs! The mother chases him off, but she doesn't have much energy to do so.

Afterward, one of the cubs, shaking and cold, begins to go into convulsions, possibly from hunger. He rests for about 10 minutes, then goes into a second set of convulsions. This set of shakes lasts longer than the first one. You are basically watching this poor bear die right in front of your eyes!

This video is actually sickening!

The Western Hudson Bay population of polar bears is being forced ashore each summer due to diminishing sea ice. They are now spending up to eight months on shore, where there is little food. During this time, they are normally utilizing sea ice to access their main food, seals. This polar bear population is expected to go extinct in 25-30 years if things continue as they are.

Polar bears are completely dependent upon large expanses of sea ice to hunt, feed and survive. They use the sea ice as a platform to capture seals and other prey.

Global warming is rapidly melting their ice and lengthening the ice-free season, forcing bears to spend ever-longer periods of time on land, where there is little for them to eat. The longer bears like the ones in this video are stranded on land, the more likely they are to starve.

Polar bears were listed as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2008 due to sea-ice declines and dwindling populations. The U.S. population is projected to go extinct by 2050 if climate change is not reined in soon; the entire species may disappear by the end of the century.

The polar bears of western Hudson Bay are on the front line of global warming impacts: their population declined by 22 percent between 1987 and 2004 and may be the first driven extinct by climate change.