Dolphins in the polar north now have a new predator: polar bears. Though the study was only just published, April 2014 was the first time an incidence of a polar bear eating a dolphin has ever been witnessed and recorded. The reason this is saddening yet not at all startling is because the reality climate change has made food so scare for these majestic creatures, that they are forced to cannibalize their own.
Northern Norway a Polar-Bear-Eat-Dolphin World?
Svalbard, Norway the Norwegian High Arctic is an area where wild polar bears roam. One of the few places left. A place where researchers also roam, researchers discovered an adult male polar bear feasting on a couple of white-beaked dolphins. Over time, six other polar bears scavenged on the two dolphin carcasses. The polar bear was noted to look very malnourished and bony.
Why are polar bears eating the dolphins?
A main contributor to this change in food chain is climate change. Climate change really has begun to limit the range of food choices polar bears actually have. Their food choices have been narrowed down so much that they might not be able to survive if they were any pickier. In this way and many others, climate change has long-term effects on the interaction of species in its purveying effects on the ecosystem.
Another way climate change is causing this polar-bear-eat-dolphin world is in the way dolphins have begun traveling this far up north in the early spring. Normally, dolphins only travel to the polar Arctic in the summer when the waters are warmer.
Beware of The Polar Bear
Researchers suggest dolphins met their fate due to the a strong northerly wind that may have trapped the in the polar ice days before the incident. The polar bears would have been able to take their aim after the dolphins were forced to surface for air at the only opening in the ice. Polar bears are incredibly strong hunters due to their sense of smell, able to penetrate great depths of ice, at least half a mile downward. Their noses are highly advanced–a lot more so than a bloodhound’s.
Yet another reason dolphin eating findings are unsettling though in no way surprising is that polar bears are masters of their surroundings and circumstances due to their amazing adaptability. They are without any natural enemies (climate change is not a natural enemy), and take what they can get. Polar bears survive by being opportunistic predators. The same way they hunt for seals — their typical source of food — is the same way they’ve preyed on dolphins. Namely, by hovering around the areas of thin ice so that when their potential victims come up to breathe, they might be fed.
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Norway: The New Wave of Polar Bears Might Eat Dolphins
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