Tracking bears
2002-05-17 12:22
Paris - Internet surfers can now track polar bears from the comfort of their homes, thanks to a website that follows the movement and welfare of two tagged bears in the Arctic wilderness.
Louise and Gro have been attached with radio collars which
constantly beam their position by satellite to scientists with the environmental group WWF and the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI).
The project wants to understand more about how polar bears will
cope with global warming.
"The Arctic is one of the regions on Earth where climate change
will be seen early and where the impacts are dramatic," WWF says in a new study, "Vanishing Kingdom: the Melting Realm of the Polar Bear."
It says air temperatures in the Arctic have on average increased
by about five degrees Centigrade (nine degrees Farenheit) over the past century.
Over the past 30 years, the summer minimum thickness of Arctic
sea-ice has decreased by 40 percent, it adds.
The bears stock up on fat during the summer by going out onto
the Arctic sea-ice to hunt seals.
But gradually rising temperatures are causing the ice to melt
sooner than before, thus shortening the hunting season - with a
dramatic impact on the bears.
"A two-week increase in the ice-free season results in an
eight-percent weight loss for polar bears. This lower body weight
reduces female bears' ability to lactate, leading to greater
mortality among cubs," the study explains. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA