Wildlife photographer Kerstin Langenberger shared
this heartbreaking image of a starving polar bear which shows the drastic
impact climate change is having on its natural habitat.
Below is the status that she posted on her Facebook page in August 2015
“For tourists and wildlife photographers, the
main reason to come to Svalbard is to see polar bears. And yes, usually we find
them: beautiful bears, photogenic bears, playful or even at a kill. At first
glance, everything is as it has always been in one of the most easily
accessible polar bear populations of the world, strongly protected and doing
good, so some scientists say.
But are they really doing good, the bears up
here? I am a critically minded person, and I observe. I see the summers being
so pleasant (and warm) as never before. I see the glaciers calving, retreating
dozens to hundreds of metres every year. I see the pack ice disappearing in
record speed. Yes, I have seen bears in good shape – but I have also seen dead
and starving polar bears. Bears walking on the shores, looking for food, bears
trying to hunt reindeer, eating bird’s eggs, moss and seaweed. And I realized
that the fat bears are nearly exclusively males which stay on the pack ice all
year long. The females, on the other hand, which den on land to give birth to
their young, are often slim. With the pack ice retreating further and further
north every year, they tend to be stuck on land where there’s not much food. In
the first year, they lose their first cub. In the second year, they lose their
second (and last) cub. Only once I have seen a mother with a nearly independent
cub. Only few times I have seen beautifully fat mothers with beautifully fat
young. Many times I have seen horribly thin bears, and those were exclusively
females – like this one here. A mere skeleton, hurt on her front leg, possibly
by a desperate attempt to hunt a walrus while she was stuck on land.
Experts claim the Svalbard population is
stable, even rising. Well, here comes my question: how can a population be
stable if it consists of less and less females and cubs? How can a population
be doing good if most bear will score a body index of 2-3 out of 5? Only once I
have seen a bear getting a big fat „5“, but several times I have seen dead
bears and bears like this one: a mere „1“ on the scale, doomed to death. I do
not have scientific data to proof my observations, but I have eyes to see – and
a brain to draw conclusions. Climate change is happening big deal here in the
Arctic. And it is our decision to trying to change this. So: let’s do something
about the biggest threat of our time. Maybe we cannot save this bear here. But
every little action we do to change our ways is a step in the right direction.
We just have to get started and keep on going!”
You can also watch Kerstin’s Ted Talk in
which she shares the magic of the Arctic and what can be done about climate
change-
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