A recent government study in Canada showed that polar bears are rapidly disappearing from the western part of Hudson Bay at the southern edge of the Canadian Arctic.
The study - according to the British newspaper The Guardian - indicated a significant decline in the number of female bears and cubs in particular.
Researchers fly over the area, which includes the town of Churchill, a tourist destination described as the "polar bear capital of the world," every five years to count the number of bears.
During the latest survey in late August and early September 2021, the researchers observed 194 bears, and based on this number, they estimated the total number of polar bears to be 618, down from 842 five years earlier.
The study stated that the comparison with aerial survey estimates from 2011 and 2016 suggests that the number of bears in western Hudson Bay "may be declining significantly."
The researchers said: "The observed declines are consistent with previous expectations regarding the demographic impacts of climate change on polar bears."
The sea ice habitat of the bears is disappearing at an alarming rate, with temperatures in the far north of the planet rising four times faster than the rest of the world. Sea ice has become thinner, breaks up earlier in the spring, and forms later in the fall. The bears rely on the ice to hunt for seals, which they feed on, and to move and reproduce.