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Latest polar bear news
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23 Oct 2009
Alaska critical habitat for polar bears declared
WWF applauds the announcement of the proposed designation of key areas of polar bear habitat across Alaska by the US Department of the Interior. The requirement for the identification of 'critical habitat' was triggered by the listing of polar bears as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act in 2008.
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The popular image is of polar bears living in a pure, frozen wilderness. That is proving to be increasingly wrong on all counts: the Arctic is warming, more people are travelling around the Arctic, and in recent years, all that snow and ice has proven to be less pure than previously thought. In fact, the Arctic food chain contains some high levels of toxic chemicals.
Scroll down or click here to watch animation: 'How toxic chemicals reach the Arctic'.Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) include a wide range of poisonous substances such as heat resistant chemicals like PCBs and brominated flame retardants, industrial by-products such as dioxins and furans; and pesticides like DDT, dieldrin and lindane.
Due to the direction of prevailing winds and ocean currents, these substances are concentrated in parts of the Arctic.
Most POPs are officially banned, but they are still sometimes used, and because of inadequate screening systems, new chemicals are showing up in the Arctic. The effects of some of these chemicals are still being studied.
Long-range POPs currently represent the most serious pollution-related threat to polar bears. Bears with high levels of some POPs have low levels of vitamin A, thyroid hormones, and some antibodies.
These are important for a wide range of biological functions, such as growth, development, reproduction, behavior, and the ability to fight off diseases.
Newborn cubs are especially vulnerable to these pollutants. In some areas, the mother bears’ milk contains particularly high concentrations of these chemicals. The milk can actually poison the cubs, leading to lower survival rates.
Pseudohermaphroditism, a long word meaning that females have partially-developed male sexual organs, has been observed in 1.5 per cent of the polar bears sampled on Svalbard in recent years.
Scientists believe this could be the result of long-range pollutants.