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Global Warming Could Provoke More Polar Bear Attacks

Polar bears are carnivores that mainly live on seals.
by Staff Writers
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Apr 23, 2007
Polar bears could start attacking humans more frequently due to global warming, a Russian scientist said Friday. Polar bears are carnivores that mainly live on seals, but can also feed on birds, shellfish, rodents and walruses - anything they can catch and kill. They are more likely to hunt humans than other bears and attacks could, for instance, happen at hunting camps or weather stations.

"Sea ice [the area covered by ice in the Arctic] is decreasing, and this is the polar bear's main habitat... In a search for food, the bears could end up at coastal areas and approach villages on the sea shore," Oleg Anisimov, a professor at the State Hydrology Institute under Russia's hydrometeorology service, told a news conference.

"This presents a considerable threat for people," he said.

Anisimov said that according to different estimates, ice thickness in the Arctic has reduced by 10-40% in the last 30 years.

Scientists and climatologists have been concerned that the decrease in sea ice caused by global warming could result in the extinction of the polar bear.

Source: RIA Novosti

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1 In 3 Chance Of Record Low Sea Ice In 2007
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University of Colorado at Boulder researchers are forecasting a one in three chance that the 2007 minimum extent of sea ice across the Arctic region will set an all-time record low.







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