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arctic bears are developing horrific wounds on their hand due to changing chicken feed conditions in the Arctic , a new study reports .
In the most knockout eccentric , researchers describe two bears with crippling , dinner home base - sizing ballock of ice stuck to their feet . Beneath the ice clump , the bears ' paw pads were covered in deep , bleeding cuts .
This photo shows the rear paws of a polar bear temporarily sedated for research in East Greenland in 2022. The bear has large chunks of ice frozen onto its feet, which the researchers removed.
" I ’d never seen that before , " study booster cable authorKristin Laidre , a marine ecologist and associate prof at the University of Washington , allege in astatement . " The two most - touch on bear could n’t extend — they could n’t even take the air very well . "
This is the first time scientists observe such injuries in polar bear , according to the study , published Oct. 22 in the journalEcology .
The enfeeble crank Ball likely form due to drippy snow sticking between bumps on the pad that provide the clench diametric bears need to walk on tricky surfaces . Baron Snow of Leicester amass on the pads and then freeze self-coloured , the researchers suggest , forming blocks of ice measuring 12 inches ( 30 centimetre ) across .
Three adult polar bears travel across sea ice in eastern Greenland. Environments in the Far North that would have stayed well below freezing now experience freeze-thaw cycles and wet snow due to a warming climate.
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" The chunks of Methedrine were n’t just caught up in the tomentum , " Laidre said . " They were sealed to the skin , and when you palpated the base it was apparent that the bears were in pain . "
research worker say more or less one in four polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ) from two populations in northern Greenland whose infantry they examined suffered from shabu - have-to doe with harm . sham bears were mostly adult males , which incline to journey longer distances and are much heavy than females or laddie .
Laidre and study co - authorStephen Atkinson , a wildlife life scientist and veterinarian , examined polar bears from populations in East Greenland and Kane Basin — a watercourse between Greenland and Canada ’s northernmost island , call Ellesmere Island — between 2012 and 2022 . They captured the animals as part of stock population assessment , tranquilize them before conducting everyday health handicap .
Thirty - one of 61 bears in the Kane Basin population had laceration , skin ulceration , hairsbreadth loss or sparkler buildup on their paw . Between 2012 and 2013 , 73 % of grownup males in this population were affected , accord to the work . In the East Greenland universe , between 2018 and 2022 , 15 of 124 polar bears displayed similar accidental injury .
The research worker proposed several explanations for the wounds and interview Indigenous hunters to identify potential drive . Ice buildup and lacerations may result fromrising temperature in the Arctic , with ardent spells leading to besotted snow and freeze - melt wheel that make brickle sparkler on which polar bear hack their feet , the scientists suggest .
Climate changeis leading to more frequent rain in the Arctic , turning snow into slush that becomes charge in polar bears ' paws , where it freeze , they wrote in the bailiwick . warm temperature also make the surface snow to melt and then refreeze into a severe crust , which heavy diametric bears let out when they trample over it , injuring themselves .
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Indigenous hunters in Kane Basin knew about the lesions on polar bears ' fundament and attributed them to increased movement during the mating and hunting time of year . But the hunters also recognise these injury as a recent phenomenon . They bring up that wet Charles Percy Snow conditions negatively bear upon sled cad , too . harmonise to the study , the hunters observe they now have to trim the hairs between their dogs ' tablet to prevent ice buildup and lameness .
John Whiteman , an adjunct professor of biological science at Old Dominion University in Virginia and chief enquiry scientist at the non - profit organizationPolar Bears International , say he has never see or pick up about these types of injuries before .
" This report is decidedly surprising , " Whiteman , who was not involved in the Modern study , told Live Science in an email . " If the conditions that advance water ice clump become a vernacular occurrence across a large area , more bears would be at risk for foot equipment casualty . "
