Heart-wrenching video shows polar bear starving to death in Baffin Islands

NH Bureau Tuesday, 12 December 2017 10:12:22 AM

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California : National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen captured a heart-wrenching video of a polar bear in its death throes. With the video, shared on social media, he wanted to bring the attention on the bleak future of polar bears that is diminishing with every passing day due to climate change.

Nicklen, a National Geographic photographer and the founder of conservation group SeaLegacy, was in Canada's Baffin Islands with other SeaLegacy members when he saw the bear scavenging for food, according to National Geographic.

Blame it on the climate change - a result of ever-increasing temperatures, rising sea levels and human-caused global warming - that polar bears are now dealing with deficiency of their nutritious food - seals.

View this post on Instagram
My entire @Sea_Legacy team was pushing through their tears and emotions while documenting this dying polar bear. It’s a soul-crushing scene that still haunts me, but I know we need to share both the beautiful and the heartbreaking if we are going to break down the walls of apathy. This is what starvation looks like. The muscles atrophy. No energy. It’s a slow, painful death. When scientists say polar bears will be extinct in the next 100 years, I think of the global population of 25,000 bears dying in this manner. There is no band aid solution. There was no saving this individual bear. People think that we can put platforms in the ocean or we can feed the odd starving bear. The simple truth is this—if the Earth continues to warm, we will lose bears and entire polar ecosystems. This large male bear was not old, and he certainly died within hours or days of this moment. But there are solutions. We must reduce our carbon footprint, eat the right food, stop cutting down our forests, and begin putting the Earth—our home—first. Please join us at @sea_legacy as we search for and implement solutions for the oceans and the animals that rely on them—including us humans. Thank you your support in keeping my @sea_legacy team in the field. With @CristinaMittermeier #turningthetide with @Sea_Legacy #bethechange #nature #naturelovers This video is exclusively managed by Caters News. To license or use in a commercial player please contact info@catersnews.com or call +44 121 616 1100 / +1 646 380 1615”
A post shared by Paul Nicklen (@paulnicklen) on Dec 5, 2017 at 8:52am PST

Nicklen's Instagram video has received over 1 million views in less than three days with many left in tears after watching the poor, helpless bear.

"It’s a soul-crushing scene that still haunts me, but I know we need to share both the beautiful and the heartbreaking if we are going to break down the walls of apathy," Nicklen wrote in his Instagram post. "This is what starvation looks like. The muscles atrophy. No energy. It’s a slow, painful death."

Increasing amounts of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere are largely to blame for Arctic warming, according to the report.

"Short of action that effectively addresses the primary cause of diminishing sea ice, it is unlikely that polar bears will be recovered," the report says.

As per report by the channel, the deficiency of seals in the area leaves the bears with no option but to venture into human settlements for the need of food.

The FWS report says addressing Arctic warming requires "global action" — something Nicklen called for in his social media post.

"This large male bear was not old, and he certainly died within hours or days of this moment," he wrote. "But there are solutions. We must reduce our carbon footprint, eat the right food, stop cutting down our forests, and begin putting the Earth — our home — first."