Russian scientists have recorded an increase in cases of cannibalism among polar bears. According to Ilya Mordvintseva, senior researcher at the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the largest predators in the Arctic have eaten each other before, but not in such quantity.
“There can be two reasons: during some seasons there is insufficient nutrition, and large males attack females with cubs, or maybe there weren’t so many people in the Arctic to record so many cases of cannibalism before,” the scientist believes. “Now the signals about the tragic incidents come not only from scientists, but also from the growing contingent of employees of oil and gas companies, the Ministry of Defense.”
According to the researchers, these predators lack food due to the reduction of ice cover in the Arctic - by 40% over the past quarter century. Polar bears use sea ice to hunt seals swimming in the water, but due to lack of ice they are forced to go ashore, where they cannot hunt as they used to. Starving, animals pounce on each other - large males attack females and cubs because they are an easy target, and mothers eat their offspring.
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