Svalbard Bear Photographer On Yesterday's Find: "It Looked Basically Like A Rug"

[hatrack]

The bear is thought to have been heading north in a desperate search for sea ice that would allow it to hunt for seals. Scientists believe the Arctic could be essentially free of sea ice in September by 2054.

EDIT

“From his lying position in death the bear appears to simply have starved and died where he dropped,” Stirling said. “He had no external suggestion of any remaining fat, having been reduced to little more than skin and bone.” The bear was examined by Norwegian scientists in April about 150 miles south and seemed to be healthy at that time.

“Most of the fjords and inter-island channels in Svalbard did not freeze normally last winter and so many potential areas known to that bear for hunting seals in spring do not appear to have been as productive as in a normal winter,” said Stirling, of conservation group Polar Bears International. “As a result the bear likely went looking for food in another area but appears to have been unsuccessful.”

EDIT

Ashley Cooper, the photographer who took the picture, said the sight of the dead polar bear was “desperately sad.” “There was just no fat on it. It was just completely shrunken and shriveled, a very, very skinny specimen of a polar bear,” he said in a telephone interview. “It looked basically like a rug because there was just no weight on it at all.”

Cooper said scavengers had not eaten parts of the body and there were no signs of decomposition, which happens slowly in the low temperatures of the Arctic. He said he saw five live polar bears during a 12-day trip to Svalbard in July. Three looked “quite thin and not in great condition” and the only one that looked healthy was hunting on sea ice barely strong enough to support its weight about 550 miles from the North Pole.

EDIT

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/07/19909343-a-victim-of-climate-change-polar-bear-found-starved-to-death-looked-like-a-rug?lite

[Politicalboi]

1. This is just a tragedy

And I'm sure there are lots and lots more. The innocent pay the price first. We on the other hand don't seem to mind unless it hits us personally. Humans are still the greediest animal on this planet.

[pscot]

2. We'll pay for this

[hatrack]

3. First we eat the world, then we eat each other . . .

. . . and then, eventually, we will eat ourselves.

[emmadoggy]

4. Dammit! This breaks my heart.