High tech collars were placed on nine female polar bears for eight to twelve days. The trackers served as recording video, with a metabolic tracer that tracked the bears energy use. The trackers revealed that most animals were unable to catch prey in order to meet their energy needs. Climate change seems to be having a huge effect on the Arctic Sea Ice. That is forcing the polar bears to move greater distances to hunt for their prey. An author from Journal Science states that it is now necessary for a polar bear or any animal in general to travel far distance to catch their prey and it should not be like that. Also, it does explain the factors in their body conditions and survival. Anthony Pagano a researcher from Santa Cruz and his colleagues set out to track the polar bears in the spring of 2014,2015,and 2016.As they worked on the tracking process they measured metabolic rates of each bear by using urine and blood samples. The Arctic Ice is currently decreasing at a 14% per decade and it is reducing the polar bears access to seals. In which the polar bears might be preying on juvenile seals,but with the new technology they have they are able to determine their activity patterns and energy use.
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