Polar bears face an existential welfare crisis as sea ice loss from climate change reduces their ability to hunt, causing nutritional stress, increased bear-human conflict, and reproductive failure.
Climate change threatens polar bear welfare on multiple timescales. In the immediate term, longer ice-free seasons mean longer fasting periods that reduce body condition, immune function, and reproductive success. Female bears with insufficient fat reserves produce fewer cubs and have reduced milk production. Nutritionally stressed bears increasingly approach human settlements in search of food, leading to management interventions including aversive conditioning or translocation that are stressful in themselves. Long-term, the fundamental habitat loss from continued warming represents an existential threat to polar bear welfare and survival that can only be addressed by reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.