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Even though some polar bears are hunting on nation more often in areas collide with by mood change , a diet of bird eggs and berries ca n’t sustain these vast animals , a new report find .
Only a handful ofpolar bearshave been spotted nosh on country - free-base foods to supplement their traditional , blubber - deep diet of seal and nautical mammals . But investigator have wondered whether the high - protein , high - carbohydrate foods gelid bears eat on ground — such as Rangifer tarandus and berry — could aid these symbols of the perils of clime change outlive , as sea - ice loss makes seals heavily to snatch .
A polar bear rests on sea ice in the Chukchi Sea between Alaska and Russia.
It call on out the calorie swop - off is n’t worth it , concord to the subject , a review of previous research on bear dieting publish today ( April 1 ) in the diary Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment . The cock-a-hoop bear on the planet , gelid bears spend so much energy research for berries or chasing down Greenland caribou that they reap little caloric advantage from these meals . [ In prototype : Polar Bears ' Shifting Diet ]
" A really declamatory bear has high energetic costs when they get up to scrounge , and these [ terrestrial ] resource are typically lower in calories or wide dispersed , " said Karyn Rode , lead study author and a U.S. Geological Survey enquiry wildlife life scientist in Anchorage , Alaska .
Polar bear get all the kilocalorie , vitamin and minerals they need from their traditional diet , which is the fattiest of any animal on Earth . But their penny-pinching geographic cousin , theArctic Ursus arctos horribilis , shin to witness enough intellectual nourishment .
Rode points out that Arctic grizzlies are the smallest of all Ursus horribilis . These are n’t the giant brown bears that gorge at Southeast Alaska salmon streams . Arctic Ursus arctos horribilis are just a quarter the size of polar bears , Rode said . " The first time I see to it an Arctic Ursus horribilis I was express joy , it was so small , " she told Live Science .
Polar bears typically drop 85 percentage of their time on Edwin Herbert Land , resting and fast . A Ursus arctos horribilis , on the other hand , forages all the time , Rode said .
Finally , even if a few polar bear do makebird eggs and other terrestrial foodsan important part of their dieting , the bears may gobble so many testicle that they might carry off the Arctic seabird universe . " Terrestrial foods ca n’t offer polar bear what they require at a universe grade , " Rode say .
Global warming has reduced the amount of Arctic ocean chicken feed near shore , specially in the late outpouring when polar bear Holman Hunt for seal pup before move onto res publica for the summer . diametric bears primarily hunt for seals on the ocean ice . Theshrinking sea iceis post the bears to shoring earlier in the season in some area of the Arctic , such as Hudson Bay , Canada , and their reaching overlap with hunting opportunities for geese , eggs and caribou .
However , polar bear population are stable in other gelid areas , such as the Chukchi Sea between Alaska and Russia , Rode enounce . And the availability of marine target could change as newfangled mintage move north to claim warming sea waters .
" If telluric alimentation ca n’t facilitate , there are other thing we involve to be thinking about , " Rode articulate .
