Polar bears are now eating dolphins lured north by warming water. Scientists for the first time observed the bears feasting on white-beaked dolphins in Svalbard in the Norwegian Arctic. They theorize the dolphins, coaxed northward by warmer waters, were trapped under the ice and killed by the bears when coming up for air through a small hole, they wrote in a new study. “This is the first record of this species as polar bear prey,” the authors led by the Norwegian Polar Institute’s Jon Aars said in the paper published this month in the Polar Research journal. “The warming of the Arctic is significantly changing the ecosystem and relations between species.” Climate change is rendering increasing areas of the Arctic ice-free during summer months. While the dolphins often visit Svalbard in warmer months, they haven’t been reported that far north in early spring. The researchers observed seven more dolphin carcasses near the area in the following months. One of the bears was so skinny his ribs were visible through the fur, they said. After the bear had eaten one dolphin, it covered up another with snow to save for later. As the Arctic warms amid changing climate and ice sheets thin, dolphins could become a more regular meal. For the bears, that’s good news as access to their more usual food supply, seals, may further decline because of the milder weather. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ears-now-eating-dolphins-as-world-waters-warm
Nice, now I can go polar bear hunting, and dolphin fishing, and maybe even club a few baby seals while im at it, all in one trip.
Bought a Hummer H3 a couple of days ago for local ski trips. That alone probably killed a few polar bears so I'm indirectly helping the whales! (erm the dolphins). Some lady in a Prius flipped me off at the grocery store already. ROFLMAO
all I know is in in my lifetime the animals we use to see and catch in my local woods have moved north they are still there, but you have to go north to unfamiliar woods to find them once you get to the North Pole there's not really any where to go north is there?
We are renting a home in the Pacific Northwest for the summer with the intent of buying a home here. Our rental house is up in the hills in the woods and some ants seem to think it is their house. After having the exterminators out a couple of times with literally no effect I finally asked them if they knew that these ants are Tawny Brazilian Crazy Ants and they seemed stunned. They collected a few and called me back to confirm their ID. They had to order some special bait and said they had not seen these ants before in Oregon. So yeah, things are moving north. But they will come back down south when the completely inevitable ice-age returns as it has done repeatedly in the past. This is a case where past performance is a good indication of future returns lol.
The coming ice age has been postponed for the foreseeable future due to increased greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. Their forcing effect is far greater than the slight orbital induced reduction of solar gain. In fact, without the heat gain amplifying of CO2 , orbital changes would have little effect on temps.