Canada polar bears disappearing fast

Polar bears are disappearing fast from the Western part of Hudson Bay, on the southern tip of the Canadian Arctic, according to a new government survey. The number of female bears and cubs in particular has seen a dramatic decline. Researchers have flown over the region -- which includes the town of Churchill, a tourist destination touted as the "polar bear capital of the world" -- every five years to count the number of bears and extrapolate population trends. During the last survey in late August and early September 2021, the results of which were released earlier this month, they spotted 194 bears and, based on that count, estimated a total population of 618 bears, down from 842 five years earlier. The bears' sea-ice habitat has been disappearing at an alarming rate, with the far north warming up to four times faster than the rest of the world. Since the 1980s, the ice pack in the bay has decreased by nearly 50 percent in summer, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center.