Polar bears forced off ice won't be able to survive on land food, scientists say

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last updated 1 April 2015

A new research paper from scientists at Washington State University and Polar Bear International suggests that polar bears won't be able to live on land food after ice caps melt. The researchers believe that land food sources aren't sufficient enough to match polar bears' diet of "fat-laden marine mammals," including seals, The Associated Press reports.

Karyn Rode, lead author of the paper and a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, told AP that the bears can't replace the nutrients and fat content they gain from eating ringed seals. She added that while polar bears can feed on eggs and berries, bears that adapt to a berry diet tend to lose weight and may not get enough energy from their food. Polar bears can't adapt easily to the diets of land bears, the study authors noted, because they are much larger.

The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, and the paper is based on recent research into polar bears' land feeding habits. "This paper establishes in no uncertain terms that polar bears are very unlikely to be able to make a living on land, and that if we don't save the sea ice, polar bears will indeed be gone," Steven Amstrup, one of the study's authors, told AP.