In Canada’s Hudson Bay, in the middle of summer, the last bits of ice are like confetti on blue water. A bear basks in the sun in front of the waves, far from the sea ice and its prey, the seals.

“They might find a beluga whale carcass or a reckless seal, but usually they fast and lose about two pounds a day.”

His white fur is of little use to camouflage himself. Everywhere the shoreline is almost flat, with rocks, tall grass, purple-flowered willows and thin trees struggling against the wind to grow.

The bears of the region are living a critical period.

Every year, from the end of June, when the ice disappears, are forced to live on this coast and soon. An increasingly longer and more dangerous fast for them.

Once on dry land, “bears often have very few options for food,” explains Geoff York, a biologist with Polar Bear International (PBI).

The impressive male lying in the sun has the remains of spines. Nothing in sight that would take away the hunger of this 3.5 meter and 600 kilo animal.

“In some places you can find a carcass of a beluga whale or a reckless seal near the coast, but most of the time they are fasting and losing about a kilo a day,” says the scientist.

In the Arctic, global warming is three times faster than in other parts of the worldor even four times, according to the most recent studies.

Little by little, the pack ice, that is, the floating ice caps that make up the habitat of the polar bear, is disappearing

According to a report published in Nature Climate Change in 2020, this could almost lead to the extinction of this animal: From 1,200 polar bears in the 1980s in western Hudson Bay, it has now risen to about 800.

JM