Polar bears are among the most visible victims of Arctic climate change, with sea ice loss reducing their ability to hunt seals, causing nutritional stress, behavioral changes, and population decline with significant welfare implications.
Polar bear starvation is not an abstract conservation statistic — it is a welfare crisis affecting individual bears over weeks or months of progressive physical deterioration. Bears that exhaust their fat reserves during extended ice-free periods experience the same physiological suffering as any mammal in starvation: muscle wasting, organ failure, and the distress of an animal unable to meet its fundamental nutritional needs. Cubs separated from mothers who cannot sustain lactation face hypothermia and starvation simultaneously. Climate mitigation is the only long-term solution, but interim measures including human-bear conflict reduction and public education prevent additional welfare costs from encounter-related killing.