Polar bears face escalating welfare threats as sea ice loss reduces access to their primary prey.
Polar bear welfare under climate change involves chronic deterioration as the sea ice habitat essential for hunting disappears earlier each year. Bears spending longer on land without access to seal prey experience progressive body condition decline. Pregnant females need to accumulate sufficient fat reserves to sustain themselves and nurse cubs through denning — reduced hunting time means reduced body condition going into denning and lower cub survival. Stress hormone analyses of polar bears show elevated cortisol correlating with reduced ice availability. Each decade of warming brings bears closer to a threshold beyond which adequate hunting time is simply not achievable in the most affected regions.