Polar bears are starving to death as melting sea ice forces them onto land [Video]

Polar bears are at a growing risk of starving to death as warming Arctic oceans cause sea ice vital for hunting to break up earlier and for longer during warmer months, according to new research that paints a grim picture of the iconic animal’s future.

The Arctic bears rely on sea ice as a platform to hunt for seals – their primary food source – while they are birthing and weaning their pups, between late spring and early summer.

During sea ice-free periods, they return to land where they attempt to minimise their energy expenditure and subsist off vegetation and berries.

But warming oceans mean that sea ice-free period is stretching out for longer.

In Canada’s western Hudson Bay in Manitoba, the ice-free period has grown by three weeks since 1979, forcing the bears onto …