Polar Bears in Greenland Might Have Found Place to Survive

2022-06-21

00:00 / 00:00
复读宝 RABC v8.0beta 复读机按钮使用说明
播放/暂停
停止
播放时:倒退3秒/复读时:回退AB段
播放时:快进3秒/复读时:前进AB段
拖动:改变速度/点击:恢复正常速度1.0
拖动改变复读暂停时间
点击:复读最近5秒/拖动:改变复读次数
设置A点
设置B点
取消复读并清除AB点
播放一行
停止播放
后退一行
前进一行
复读一行
复读多行
变速复读一行
变速复读多行
LRC
TXT
大字
小字
滚动
全页
1
  • As polar bears fight for survival because of disappearing Arctic sea ice, a new group of Greenland bears seems to have found an icy area that might permit a small population to "hang on."
  • 2
  • But the situation overall for the endangered polar bear species remains serious.
  • 3
  • Scientists say the animals are in danger of disappearing because of the effects of climate change.
  • 4
  • A team of scientists recently studied a group of a few hundred polar bears in Southeast Greenland.
  • 5
  • These bears are genetically different and geographically separate from others.
  • 6
  • What is unusual about these bears is that they survive even while having just 100 days a year when there is enough sea ice to hunt seals.
  • 7
  • In other places, polar bears need at least 180 days, usually more, of sea ice for them to effectively hunt.
  • 8
  • When there is no sea ice, bears often do not eat for months.
  • 9
  • Sea ice is frozen ocean water. With limited amounts of this ice, the Southeast Greenland polar bears use freshwater ice masses called icebergs.
  • 10
  • The icebergs - created from the shrinking Greenland ice sheet - serve as hunting grounds, scientists say.
  • 11
  • A study on the new finding recently appeared in the publication Science.
  • 12
  • The scientists, however, are not sure if the bears might be surviving because they are smaller and have fewer babies than other polar bear populations.
  • 13
  • Kristin Laidre was the lead writer of the study. Over nine years, Laidre followed, studied and tested the all-white bears - usually from a helicopter.
  • 14
  • "These polar bears are adapted to living in an environment that looks like the future," Laidre said.
  • 15
  • But Laidre added that Greenland is special.
  • 16
  • "Most bears in the Arctic don't have glacial ice," she said.
  • 17
  • Laidre explained, "We project large declines of polar bears across the Arctic and this study does not change that very important message."
  • 18
  • The population of polar bears is on the southeast part of Greenland, where there are no towns.
  • 19
  • For years scientists believed these bears were part of the same population that existed in Northeast Greenland.
  • 20
  • But they are not, Laidre said. Wind and other conditions around 64 degrees North make it next to impossible for bears to move north of that point, she added.
  • 21
  • While most bears travel 40 kilometers over four days, the Southeast Greenland bears go about 10 kilometers in the same amount of time, the study found.
  • 22
  • "They just stay in the same place for years and years," Laidre said.
  • 23
  • Beth Shapiro was the co-writer of the study.
  • 24
  • She said genetic testing has shown that the Southeast Greenland bears are different from other polar bear populations.
  • 25
  • In general, the Southeast Greenland bears are thinner than other Arctic bears, with females weighing about 185 kilograms.
  • 26
  • This compares to weights of about 199 to 255 kilograms for bears in other parts of the North American Arctic, Laidre said.
  • 27
  • The Southeast Greenland bears also often have fewer babies, she added.
  • 28
  • This could be because they are so isolated and do not get as many chances to reproduce.
  • 29
  • "They're not reproducing as much as other individuals... They're not as healthy as other individuals who are in a better habitat," Shapiro said.
  • 30
  • She used the term oasis - meaning a safe place that is surrounded by something unpleasant - to describe where the bears live.
  • 31
  • "So it's kind of an oasis maybe, but it's not a happy oasis," Shapiro said.
  • 32
  • "It's a I'm-struggling-to-get-by-but-just-making-it kind of oasis."
  • 33
  • I'm John Russell.