New Diseases in Polar Bears Discovered as Climate Continues to Warm

/ Post by Erica Wills of Polar Bears International

As if polar bears didn’t have enough to worry about with their sea ice melting and their ability to hunt being compromised! Professor Diana Weber at New College of Florida and a large group of international researchers have found that several new pathogens are gaining access to the once frozen landscape – pathogens that the polar bears are not well-equipped to fight.

The typically cold climate has kept many diseases from expanding further north, which has both protected the polar bear from being exposed to such pathogens and simultaneously prevented them from building an immune system able to handle an onslaught of new diseases. “The key is to decrease the loss of the ice,” said Weber, “as this will help keep pathogens from moving into the Arctic.”