Polar bears are increasingly affected by climate-driven sea ice loss. The welfare consequences for individual bears - nutritional stress, longer fasting periods and increased human conflict - are becoming severe.
The welfare consequences of sea ice loss for individual polar bears are profound and escalating. Extended fasting periods cause progressive nutritional stress - bears in poor body condition entering winter denning have lower cub survival and greater mortality risk. The physical demands of longer swims between ice fragments cause exhaustion, and documented drowning events have increased. Human-wildlife conflict as food-stressed bears enter settlements results in lethal control of individual bears - a welfare and conservation loss. Declining body condition across populations means that more bears are spending their lives in a state of chronic nutritional stress without the acute events that trigger conservation response. The welfare of individual polar bears is a direct measure of the pace of climate change in the Arctic.