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Global Warming Could Provoke More Polar Bear Attacks
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 Email This Article
Related Links 
Boulder CO (SPX) Apr 20, 2007University 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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