Polar Bear Mom Rescues Cub From Sea

By Brook Bolen, Ecorazzi

The necessity of environmental protection has arguably never been more apparent, but at least the sobering warning comes with a warm fuzzy.

During a recent scientific excursion to the Arctic, a video taken by the RRS James Clark Ross captured an adorably tender moment between a mother polar bear and one of her cubs.

In addition to studying the effects of surface ocean acidification on organisms such as bacteria, phytoplankton and zooplankton, on its the sojourn the crew studied “how the sea interacts with the atmosphere to influence global climate.”

Because they hunt on ice, climate change is particularly important to polar bears, whose populations were classified by the US Department of the Interior as “threatened” in 2008. Persistent melting ice has resulted in loss of polar bear habitats and is thought to be a contributing factor to reports of uncharacteristic cannibalism among polar bears.

Earlier this week, NASA released satellite imagery showing that 97% of Greenland’s top layer ice sheet had melted between June and July of this year, stunning members of the scientific community, including NASA cryosphere program manager Tom Wagner, who said, “We have abundant evidence that Greenland is losing ice, probably because of global warming, and it’s significantly contributing to sea level rise.”

Image credit: RRS James Clark Ross / YouTube

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Aud N.

7:33AM PDT on Apr 12, 2013

April 12
send a green star

Natasha S.

3:36PM PDT on Mar 14, 2013

So beautiful!!! Shame on you Canada for not protecting these magnificent animals and worse allowing them to be poached for their parts...I hope you change your mind very soon otherwise it may just be too late...

March 14
send a green star

Tanya W.

6:48AM PDT on Mar 11, 2013

What a good mummy bear - touching thanks for being on the job!!

March 11
send a green star

Lydia W.

8:16AM PST on Feb 6, 2013

So beautiful. A helping hand from a loving mother, thank you for sharing.

February 6
send a green star

Nimue P.

6:30PM PST on Jan 28, 2013

Lovely.

January 28
send a green star

Siets D.

2:57PM PDT on Oct 16, 2012

Such a sweet momma!

October 16
send a green star

Mary D.

5:08PM PDT on Aug 13, 2012

Lovely--thanks.

August 13
send a green star

Jane R.

7:17PM PDT on Aug 12, 2012

She did what the mother of any species would do, she protected her young. Nice video.

August 12
send a green star

Dave Y.

9:45PM PDT on Aug 8, 2012

Polar bears have exited as a separate species for around 700,000 YEARS so they have survived at least TWO interglacial periods when there was probably NO ice in the arctic ocean.

With no ice the seals would be forced to do what seals do in the southern ocean - they go to birthing beaches. Hundreds of thousands of them would all give birth over a couple of week and I'm guessing that the bears knew where those beaches were. The only way the seals survived was that the bears could only eat so many.

Polar bears are also marine mammals and can survive in the open ocean for many days as they move about looking for new hunting areas. One was recently tracked for 9 DAYS in the arctic ocean and was spotted a short time later WITH her cubs!!

Those of you who feel sorry for the bears are woefully ignorant of history. READ. Do your own research before you get suckered by false claims made by people who use selected data to produce conclusions that are ONLY presented to assure they get the next round of government research grants.