Due to centuries of hunting practices and the destabilization\u00a0of arctic habitats, there have been growing concerns about\u00a0the future survival of polar bears. While hunting has long been an issue, global warming has done a number on polar bears\u2019 habitats recently. In fact, the World Wide Fund for Nature (or WWF) estimates that there are only 22,000 to 31,000\u00a0polar bears left in the world.<\/p>\n
Since the 1960s, world leaders from the various habitats that polar bears call home\u2014like Canada, the United States, Denmark, Norway, and Russia\u2014have been making a conscious effort to protect the critically endangered and vulnerable polar bear populations. In 1973, they established a treaty called the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears, which strictly regulates commercial hunting.<\/p>\n
But even with those practices in place, scientists are still worried about polar bear populations, particularly in Canada. According to the WWF, 60 to 80 percent of the world\u2019s polar bears reside there and it\u2019s the only country where the population of polar bears is actively declining.<\/p>\n
That said, conservationists\u2019 efforts have been largely successful.\u00a0In 2017, WWF reported that \u201cmost of the world\u2019s 19 populations [of polar bears] have returned to\u00a0healthy numbers.\u201d In fact, polar bears remain one of only a few large carnivores still found in their original habitats in roughly the same numbers.<\/p>\n
But global warming still puts polar bears in a dangerous situation. According to a study published in the\u00a0Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment<\/em>\u00a0in October 2018, very little of the ice in Northeast Canada and Northern Greenland will remain by 2040. \u201cIf the rate of sea ice loss and warming continues unmitigated, what is going to happen to polar bear habitat will exceed anything documented over the last million years,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0the study\u2019s lead author\u00a0Kristin Laidre,<\/strong>\u00a0a marine biologist.<\/p>\n Though it\u2019s hard to predict,\u00a0scientists\u00a0believe that approximately a third of the polar bear population will be eradicated by 2050.<\/p>\n Source<\/em><\/strong>:<\/em><\/strong> Best Life<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Due to centuries of hunting practices and the destabilization\u00a0of arctic habitats, there have been growing concerns about\u00a0the future survival of…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":""},"categories":[191],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n