Polar bears are experiencing unprecedented welfare stress as Arctic sea ice decline reduces hunting access and increases nutritional stress, starvation, and conflict with humans.
Polar bears are experiencing a growing welfare crisis driven by habitat loss from climate change. Extended fasting periods stress adults but are particularly damaging for pregnant females attempting to provision cubs, and for cubs learning to hunt on ice that is increasingly absent or unstable. Emaciated bears visible in human settlements illustrate the individual welfare costs of population-level habitat loss. Unlike conservation threats to many species, polar bear welfare deterioration cannot be addressed through direct intervention — it requires systemic reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions driving Arctic warming.