Polar Bears in the North Pole

The loss of polar bear habitat up in the north pole is a tragedy. Each year the polar bears lose more and more of their native hunting habitat, and the average number of succesful cub rearings by polar bear mothers is dwindling. Many polar bears must make a long swim across the arctic each year in search of food, and the distance they must cover during their swimming is increasing each year. Many polar bears have been found dead near the Canadian shorelines in recent years or as floating corpses in the middle of the arctic ocean. Although many make it, many more do not. And it is not just the adult polar bears who must make this crossing. If a mother has cubs, they must also swim across the arctic sea with her the whole way. Although polar bears have great stamina and are natural swimmers, the continually melting ice is testing their physical limits. Most of the polar bear deaths that have resulted from these crossings are because of storms that occur over the ocean while the polar bears are crossing. Now, many polar bears are being forced to move into the warmer climates of the grizzly bear, and as grizzly bears and polar bears come into more frequent contact, the species is in danger of being lost from the wilderness altogether. It was once thought that polar bears and types of bear never interbred, but evidence uncovered by a polar bear that was shot by a hunter revealed a cross of the two. So the wiping out of the species simply through genetic dillution is a real possibility if the north pole continues to melt at it's current rate.