Polar bears are threatened by human food waste.

 Polar bears are threatened by human food waste. Three years ago, images of packs of animals chowing down on trash at an open garbage dump caused a polar bear invasion of a small Russian settlement to make headlines across the globe.

Polar bears are threatened by human food waste.

On Wednesday, researchers and environmentalists issued a dire warning, noting that this occurrence was only one of many that demonstrate the danger that food waste causes to threatened species. Polar bears are acutely threatened by climate change, with the Arctic region warming about three times faster than the global average, meaning there is less sea ice that the animals rely on to hunt for food.

According to Geoff York, Senior Director of Conservation at Polar Bears International, we've been seeing this slow and steady increase in negative human-polar bear interactions, spurred mostly by loss of sea ice bringing more bears onshore for longer periods of time and in more places.

Researchers examined how abandoned food, particularly at rubbish dumps, is luring polar bears toward human communities and putting them in danger in the new report. The brown and black bear populations in Europe and North America have taught us that dumps pose a serious threat to bear populations. Bears have a serious problem with human food ,York, a co-author of the paper published in the environmental journal Oryx, said.

The paper compiles a variety of case studies from previous years and urges Arctic communities to be more aware of the risks and improve their waste management. These include sporadic occurrences in which one or two bears approach settlements or camps, occasionally being shot after mauling locals, and considerably bigger gatherings.

As many as 90 polar bears travel up to 160 kilometres (a hundred miles) each autumn to the protected beach dumping site in Kaktovik, Alaska, where the Inupiat population customarily hunts bowhead whales.

The authors cited the dramatic events that occurred in the Russian hamlet of Belushya Guba in 2019 as an extreme example of what might occur when sites are left unattended. More than 50 bears were driven to an open dump during a terrible ice year.

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