Native solely to the Arctic, and the land’s largest carnivore, the polar bear has long been a favorite of children and scientists alike. But, give it a hundred years, and we may very well be seeing the end of the polar bear for good, if something isn’t done soon.

According to a report conducted by the US Geological Survey, released this past Friday, two-thirds of the world’s population of polar bears could simply melt away like their native ice by mid-century.

"There is a definite link between changes in the sea ice and the welfare of polar bears," said Steve Amstrup, who led the research team.

Their fate could be even more uncertain than we currently know, given the unreliability of computer models to perfectly predict the quickly disappearing ice that used to cover the Arctic Ocean, and subsequently provided the bears with a habitat to which they evolved.

At the moment, polar bears number somewhere close to 16,000, and reside throughout the Arctic in Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Already, areas such as the Northwest Passage have almost totally disappeared, and experts are predicting anywhere between a 40% to total drop-off of summer ice by 2050.

The reports executive summary concluded that by the mid 21st century, a full two-thirds of the bears population could be gone, with remainders living in Canadian Arctic islands and the west coast of Greenland.

The polar bear has recently also been the subject of a potential addition to the Endangered Species Act list, thanks to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. Unable to successfully hunt on land – being too acclimatized to hunting in the water and on ice – the polar bear would probably begin to suffer in its cub’s inability to survive past adolescence, and the females unable to successfully reproduce.

First making its way on to the ecological landscape some 40-50,000 years ago, the polar bear has adapted to the icy conditions of the northern icecaps. In that intervening period, earth has not suffered a warming to such an extent that its caps have depreciated as they are now. It is this unaccustomed warming that worries experts.

However, it is not just global warming that is threatening species of animals (though, one may claim that all problems find their basis with humans). The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and other conservation organizations are refocusing their attention on Congo’s Virunga National Park.

Amidst fierce clashes between Congolese military and local rebels, conservation organizations are worried that the local mountain gorillas are at risk. The ICCN (the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature) have noted that recent heavy shelling has been drifting dangerously close to gorilla habitats.

With an estimated 700 mountain gorillas remaining in the wild worldwide, and half of that population in Virunga, conservationists have reason to be worried: "The UN announces a truce between warring factions one day and the next we hear it’s been broken," said WWF’s Marc Languy, who is working in the national park. "All we want is return of peace for the security of its people and wildlife."

So whether it is the polar bear, or the mountain gorilla, a common thread runs between the future of both: humans. We are the root cause of the problems; we thus have to be the solution. For more information, head along to WWF.

US Geological Survey Report

ENN - Congo fighting threatens mountain gorillas

WWF (World Wildlife Fund)

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